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.

Clovis I

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

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