St.Paul in Cyprus

Reference to :

Acts 13:5 (English-NASB)

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While they were ministering to the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, Set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.

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Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away.

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So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia and from there they sailed to Cyprus.

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When they reached Salamis, they began to proclaim the word of God in ^*the synagogues of the Jews; and they also had John as their helper.

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When they had gone through the whole island as far as Paphos, they found a magician, a Jewish false prophet whose name was Bar-Jesus,

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who was with the proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a man of intelligence. This man summoned Barnabas and Saul and sought to hear the word of God.

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But Elymas the magician (for so his name is translated) was opposing them, seeking to turn the proconsul away from the faith.

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But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, fixed his gaze on him,

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and said, You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?

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Now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon you, and you will be blind and not see the sun for a time. And immediately a mist and a darkness fell upon him, and he went about seeking those who would lead him by the hand.

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Then the proconsul believed when he saw what had happened, being amazed at the teaching of the Lord.

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Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; but John left them and returned to Jerusalem.

 

Paphos site yields evidence of St Paul

30-8-99 Taken from the Cyprus Mail online edition

EXCAVATIONS in Paphos have yielded important finds including new information on the visit to the island by St Paul, the Apostle.

The government has confirmed reports that the Italian archaeological mission uncovered a fragment of a marble inscription which supports the scriptures on the Apostle's links to Cyprus.

Site director Filippo Giudice, Professor of Classical Archaeology at the University of Catania in Sicily, said that the site at Toumballos was one of the most important monuments of Hellenistic and Roman Paphos.

He said the inscription they found confirmed that Paul had preached in the area of the Christian basilica which the site later became.

Giudice said that the basilica was established by St Hilarion from Palestine who, after a stay in Sicily, came to Paphos to preach and may even have carved the inscription himself.

Tradition says that it was St Hilarion who drove demons from the basilica which was previously been a pagan temple and sanctuary to Apollo sanctuary, Giudice said.

Paphos mayor Phidias Sarringas hailed the find as very important. "Archaeologists from all over the world will be interested in the find, because it changes current beliefs on the path of Christianity and the presence of the Apostle Paul in Paphos," he said.

Similar inscriptions had been found at the Vatican in Rome, he added.

Archaeologists had previously thought that the site was a Roman military camp, and they were surprised when their findings indicated that St Paul had also preached Christianity there.

The archaeologists have been working at the site for eleven years and this year they also uncovered an ancient 72-metre length of road and two chambers which have been partly explored.

Previous finds at Toumballos include a staircase, a circular chamber and a long corridor on to which three chambers open.