What is a fact about St. Paul?

Answer 1

Care must be taken in seeking to establish facts about Saint Paul, since the only sources we have are his own epistles, Acts of the Apostles, written many decades after his death, and some unsubstantiated Church traditions about his execution.

In his epistles, Paul tells us that he persecuted Christians but was himself converted to Christianity and then committed his life to spreading the gospel. He does not mention that his conversion was accompanied by a bright light or that he then went to Damascus where his sight was retored, and in fact these passages in Acts strongly contradict Paul's own account. It seems more likely that Paul's conversion was far less miraculous than stated in Acts. Once we go beyond these broad facts, using either analysis of Paul's own epistles or analysis of Acts, we can not be entirely sure of exactly what the facts about Paul really are.