Saul of Tarsus had been holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen and was 'breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord' when he asked for letters from the high priest to arrest Christians in Damascus and bring them back in chains to Jerusalem. Near Damascus a light from heaven flashed about him; he fell to the ground, blinded, and heard a voice: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' He answered: 'Who are you, Lord?' The voice replied: 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.'
Saul was led blind into Damascus, where for three days he neither ate nor drank. A disciple named Ananias was sent by the Lord in a vision; he came, laid his hands on Saul, and 'something like scales fell from his eyes' (Acts 9:18). He was baptised. He took the name Paul and became the great apostle of the Gentiles, his thirteen surviving letters making up nearly a third of the New Testament. The episode is recounted three times in Acts (chapters 9, 22, and 26) — the only event recounted in triplicate.