PAULINE YEAR
28 June 2008 to 29 June 2009
©SOCIETY OF ST PAUL, India-Nigeria Province
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The Pauline Year will run from June 29, 2008, to June 29, 2009, according to information published in a Vatican Radio calendar. No details were immediately available about possible events during the year.
St. Paul was born in Tarsus, in what is now Turkey, at the start of the Christian era, about 10 A.D., according to church historians. After his conversion on the road to Damascus, he became one of the church's foremost evangelizers, first among Jews, then among Gentiles.
St. Paul's letters are a primary source of information about the life of the early church and have strongly influenced church thinking through the centuries.
In his first official visit outside the Vatican in April 2005, Pope Benedict went to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to pray at the tomb of the apostle and pay homage to his legacy of spreading the Gospel.
"The church is, by its nature, missionary; its primary task is evangelization," the pope said on that occasion.
"At the beginning of the third millennium, the church feels with renewed strength that Christ's missionary mandate is more pressing than ever," he said.
The Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, which welcomes between 2,500 and 4,000 pilgrims a day, will open its jubilee door and will host a special liturgy each Tuesday and Thursday afternoon.
Pilgrims will be able to pass through the Pauline Door, pray at St. Paul's tomb and at the chains of St. Paul, go to confession, participate in Mass and vespers in order to receive a plenary indulgence.
The left nave of the basilica will be reserved for exhibits, including depictions of St. Paul's voyages, excavations, letters, the building's history, and commemorative stamps and medals made for the jubilee year.
Two concerts will be performed for the event. Handel's "Messiah" will be performed and directed by Lorin Maazel for the opening of the Pauline Year.
For Easter Sunday, 2009, Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 2, "The Resurrection," will be preformed and directed by Zubin Mehta.
For pilgrims visiting Rome, there will be a Pauline "pilgrimage" within the city to places connected with St. Paul's life, including the Basilica of St. Paul's Outside the Walls, the Church of St. Paul of the Rule, where he was said to have lived and the Basilica of the Three Fountains, where tradition says he was beheaded.
In his first official visit outside the Vatican in April 2005, Pope Benedict went to the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls to pray at the tomb of the apostle and pay homage to his legacy of spreading the Gospel.
"The church is, by its nature, missionary; its primary task is evangelization," the pope said on that occasion.
"At the beginning of the third millennium, the church feels with renewed strength that Christ's missionary mandate is more pressing than ever," he said.
