The Church Fathers · c. 380–400
The Apocalypse of Paul
Visio Pauli
Anonymous
What it is
An account of what Paul saw when he was caught up to the third heaven and said he could not tell. An angel takes him to watch souls met at death by their own deeds, then through the city of Christ and out to the punishments — each fitted to its sin, and clergy among the worst off. At the end the damned are granted a day's respite every Sunday, because Paul and Michael ask for it.
Why it lasted
Condemned by Augustine and copied for a thousand years regardless, in more languages than almost any other apocryphon. It invented the guided tour of hell as a literary form, and Dante names Paul's journey in the second canto of the Inferno.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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