The traditional Roman Martyrology records this day as the heavenly birthday of St. Paul I the Confessor, Bishop of Constantinople, who suffered persecution and, according to tradition, martyrdom at the hands of the Arians. (In the reformed Martyrology, his feast has been reassigned to Nov. 6.) The traditional Breviary has this to say:
Constantinópoli natális sancti Pauli, eiúsdem civitátis Epíscopi, qui sæpe ab Ariánis ob fidem cathólicam pulsus, et a sancto Iúlio Primo, Románo Pontífice, restitútus est; ac demum, ab Ariáno Imperatóre Constántio relegátus ad Cucúsum, Cappadóciæ oppídulum, ibídem, Arianórum insídiis crudéliter strangulátus, ad cæléstia regna migrávit. Ipsíus autem corpus, Theodósio Imperatóre, Constantinópolim summo honóre, translátum fuit.
"At Constantinople, the birthday of St. Paul, bishop of that city. For the Catholic faith, he was often driven out of his see by the Arians, but restored to it by the Roman Pontiff, St. Julius I. Finally the Arian emperor Constantius banished him to Cucusum, a small town of Cappadocia. There, by the intrigue of the Arians, he was barbarously strangled, and thus departed for the heavenly kingdom. His body was taken to Constantinople with the greatest honour during the reign of Emperor Theodosius."
Only the sixth Bishop of Constantinople, St. Paul was elected as the successor of St. Alexander in A.D. 337. However, Emperor Constantius II, an Arian heretic, convened a fraudulent synod of Arian bishops, who drove out St. Paul and brought in Eusebius of Nicomedia. After the death of Eusebius in 341, St. Paul was restored to his see, but the Arian party chose the tyrannical heretic Macedonius (founder of the Macedonian heresy, which denies the divinity of the Holy Spirit) as successor of Eusebius. Violence erupted in Constantinople as the Arians and Macedonians imposed their will and the Christians defended themselves, but the military forces of Constantius intervened and St. Paul again was driven into exile. Accompanied by St. Athanasius the Great, St. Marcellus of Ancyra, and St. Asclepas of Gaza, St. Paul went to Rome and appealed to the Pope for help. At the order of Pope St. Julius, all four bishops were to be restored to their sees, but only St. Paul and St. Athanasius were successfully reinstalled. Before long, however, the Arian tyrant Constantius again interfered in the Church's liberty, ordering the arrest of St. Paul and the return of Macedonius. St. Paul was taken first to his hometown of Thessalonica and forbidden ever to return to Constantinople. Later he was deported to Mesopotamia, finally ending his days about A.D. 350 in Cucusum in Armenia, where it is rumored he was murdered by the Arians.
"Hear our prayers, we beseech You, O Lord, which we offer on the feast of Blessed Paul, Your Confessor and Bishop, and by his interceding merits, who was found worthy to serve You well, absolve us from all our sins." --- From the Common of a Confessor-Bishop
