Born in the city of Corinth, Saint Paul resolved even in his youth to withdraw to a monastery and be tonsured a monk. For many years he laboured in the monastery, becoming a true ascetic of piety.
Once the evil one, angered against the saint, moved a certain woman to slander him. She came to the monastery with a baby in her arms and claimed that the child’s father was the monk Paul. The venerable man received this accusation with meekness: as though the newborn child were indeed his own son, he welcomed the infant and spoke not a word in his defence. The brethren reviled the elder in many ways for breaking his vow of chastity, but the venerable one answered: “Brethren, let us ask the babe himself who his father is.”
The infant stretched out his hand and pointed to a blacksmith, saying: “This is my father, not Paul the monk.” This wonder pierced the hearts of all. The monks fell on their knees before the elder and begged his forgiveness.
After this, the Lord granted Saint Paul of Corinth the gift of healing infirmities, and for this reason he was called a physician. The venerable man reposed in the Lord in great old age, labouring in works of healing even to the end of his life.
