Journey to Spain

Journey to Tarragona from Rome

Among the writings of the early Christians, Pope Clement I said that Paul was "Herald (of the Gospel of Christ) in the West", and that "he had gone to the extremity of the west". John Chrysostom indicated that Paul preached in Spain: "For after he had been in Rome, he returned to Spain, but whether he came thence again into these parts, we know not". Cyril of Jerusalem said that Paul, "fully preached the Gospel, and instructed even imperial Rome, and carried the earnestness of his preaching as far as Spain, undergoing conflicts innumerable, and performing Signs and wonders". The Muratorian fragment mentions "the departure of Paul from the city [of Rome] [5a] (39) when he journeyed to Spain.

Today in Tarragona, Spain, there are beliefs that St Paul has visited the city and there is a chapel of St Paul as part of the “Route of the earliest Christians”. The Seminary building (19th century) is located at the highest point of the city’s acropolis. One of its cloisters houses a chapel built in the 13th century, which formed part of the hospital of the canons of the See. According to pious tradition, Saint Paul preached from the rock on which the chapel was built. An exhibition inside the centre offers a summary of the history and archaeology of early Christianity in Tarraco.

Chappel of St Paul

Route of the Earliest Christians of Tarraco