Pauline Year

Saul of Tarsus (the Apostle Paul, c. 5–67 AD) with a horse, the city of Damascus in the background; the state name 'CITTÀ DEL VATICANO', the inscription 'Anno Sancto Paulo Dicato', the year 2008, the name of designer Guido Veroi, the initials of engraver Luciana de Simoni, and the mint mark 'R'.

Paul of Tarsus ranks among the most formative figures in early Christian history. A former Pharisee and persecutor of the early Christian community, he experienced, according to church tradition, a conversion on the road to Damascus that fundamentally changed his life. In the following decades, he traveled widely across the Mediterranean world, founded communities in Asia Minor, Greece, and Rome, and wrote letters that remain core texts of the New Testament to this day. His theological reflections on faith, grace, and law significantly shaped Christian thought for centuries — from Augustine to Luther to present-day biblical scholarship.

The city of Damascus, one of the oldest continuously inhabited settlements in the world, played a dual role in Paul's life: it was there that he originally intended to arrest Christians, there that his conversion took place instead, and there that he spent his first formative years after his conversion. In the 1st century AD, Damascus was a major trading center of the Roman province of Syria, linked into important caravan routes between Arabia and the Mediterranean. Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed a Pauline Year from 28 June 2008 to 29 June 2009, commemorating the apostle's 2000th birthday. The Vatican issued a 2-euro commemorative coin in this connection in 2008, dedicated to the Anno Sancto Paolo Dicato — the Holy Year dedicated to the Apostle Paul.