How They Came to Believe

Conversion Stories

Accounts of notable conversions to Christianity, assembled from public-domain sources — the figures' own words where they survive, and the earliest records where they do not, quoted at length and attributed.

Marius Victorinus

Rome's most famous teacher of rhetoric, baptized an old man; his story helped move Augustine.

Roman Rhetorician · c. A.D. 355

Patristic 13 to about A.D. 750

Paul the Apostle

A Pharisee who persecuted the first Christians; struck down on the road to Damascus (Acts 9).

Pharisee & Persecutor · c. A.D. 34

Cornelius the Centurion

A Roman centurion at Caesarea; the first Gentile household baptized into the Church (Acts 10).

Roman Centurion · c. A.D. 40

Justin Martyr

A philosopher who tried the schools; converted after meeting an old man by the sea.

Philosopher · c. A.D. 130

Tatian the Assyrian

A Greek-trained scholar from Assyria who put his faith in the "barbaric writings."

Wandering Scholar · c. A.D. 150

Cyprian of Carthage

A famous teacher of rhetoric at Carthage, baptized in middle age; his letter to Donatus is the source.

Orator & Bishop · c. A.D. 246

Constantine the Great

Roman emperor who reported a vision before the battle of 312; baptized on his deathbed in 337.

Roman Emperor · A.D. 312

Moses the Black

An Ethiopian robber-chief who became a desert monk and died a martyr.

Robber → Monk · 4th century

Marius Victorinus

Rome's most famous teacher of rhetoric, baptized an old man; his story helped move Augustine.

Roman Rhetorician · c. A.D. 355

Augustine of Hippo

A professor of rhetoric at Milan, baptized at Easter 387 after reading a verse of Paul in a garden.

Rhetorician · A.D. 386

Mary of Egypt

Turned back from the church door, she lived 47 years in the desert.

Desert Penitent · 5th century

Saint Patrick

Enslaved in Ireland at sixteen; returned as a missionary bishop. His Confession is the source.

Slave & Missionary Bishop · c. 5th century

Clovis I

A pagan Frankish king who vowed to Christ in battle; baptized at Rheims. Gregory of Tours is the source.

King of the Franks · c. A.D. 496

Edwin of Northumbria

A Northumbrian king who put the new faith to his council; baptized at York in 627. Bede is the source.

Anglo-Saxon King · A.D. 627

Medieval 1 to about 1100

Vladimir the Great

A pagan prince of Kiev who sent envoys to weigh the faiths; the Primary Chronicle is the source.

Grand Prince of Kiev · A.D. 988

Scholastic 2 to about 1500

Norbert of Xanten

A worldly nobleman thrown from his horse by lightning, who founded an order.

Premonstratensian Founder · c. 1115

Francis of Assisi

A cloth merchant's son of Assisi who renounced his inheritance before the bishop. Celano is the source.

Merchant's Son · c. 1206

Reformation 3 to about 1650

Ignatius of Loyola

Wounded at Pamplona in 1521; converted while reading a Life of Christ and lives of the saints.

Soldier · 1521

Camillus de Lellis

A soldier and gambler, ruined at cards, who founded a nursing order.

Soldier & Gambler · 1575

John Ogilvie

A Scottish Calvinist who converted at Louvain and was martyred at Glasgow Cross.

Scottish Jesuit Martyr · 1596

Post-Reformation 11 to about 1900

John Bunyan

A Bedford tinker; his Grace Abounding records a sentence that "fell upon my soul" in a field.

Tinker & Preacher · c. 1653

Blaise Pascal

On the night of 23 November 1654 he wrote the "Memorial," and carried it sewn into his coat until his death.

Mathematician & Philosopher · A.D. 1654

Kateri Tekakwitha

A Mohawk woman baptized at Easter 1676, the first Native American saint.

Mohawk–Algonquin · 1676

Elizabeth Ann Seton

A New York widow, drawn to the faith in Italy; received into the Catholic Church in 1805.

Widow & Convert · 1805

Alphonse Ratisbonne

A Jewish banker's son who entered a Roman church in January 1842 and left a believer; his own account.

Jewish Banker's Son · 1842

Isaac Hecker

A Brook Farm Transcendentalist whose diary turned toward Rome.

Transcendentalist · 1844

Orestes Brownson

A New England writer who passed through several creeds before entering the Catholic Church in 1844.

American Intellectual · 1844

Frederick William Faber

An Oxford hymn-writer who followed Newman into the Catholic Church.

Oxford Movement · 1845

John Henry Newman

Leader of the Oxford Movement; received into the Catholic Church in 1845. His Apologia is the source.

Oxford Theologian · 1845

Aubrey de Vere

An Irish poet, friend of Wordsworth and Newman, received at Avignon in 1851.

Irish Poet · 1851

Henry Edward Manning

Archdeacon of Chichester who left the Church of England after the Gorham Judgment.

Oxford Movement · 1851

Modern 4 to 1953, where the public-domain record ends

Robert Hugh Benson

Son of an Archbishop of Canterbury; received into the Catholic Church in 1903.

Anglican Clergyman · 1903

Sadhu Sundar Singh

A Sikh who had burned a Gospel; his own account describes a vision of Christ before dawn in 1904.

Sikh Seeker · 1904

Ronald Knox

Anglican chaplain of Trinity College, Oxford; received into the Catholic Church in 1917.

Anglican Chaplain & Wit · 1917

G. K. Chesterton

English journalist and novelist, received into the Catholic Church in 1922 after years defending the faith in print.

Journalist & Author · 1922