Christian Pilgrimage in Anatolia: Tarsus and Beyond

The land that maps today call Turkiye was, in the first Christian centuries, the very heartland of the faith. Long before the Gospel reached the western Mediterranean in strength, it was carried through the cities and mountain passes of Anatolia — the great peninsula the ancients knew as Asia Minor. To walk here as a pilgrim is to trace the actual roads of the Apostles, to stand in cities named in the Acts of the Apostles and the Book of Revelation, and to come, at last, to Tarsus: the birthplace of the Apostle Paul.

This article offers a wider view of that landscape — the Seven Churches, the great sanctuary of Ephesus, and the singular place that Tarsus holds within it all.

Anatolia: the cradle of the early Church

The first Christians did not think of Anatolia as a distant frontier. It was a network of prosperous Roman provinces — Cilicia, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia and Pontus — bound together by fine roads and busy ports. It was to communities here that the Apostle Paul addressed several of his letters, among them Galatians and, in the wider tradition, the churches of Asia. It was here, in Antioch on the Orontes, that the disciples were first called Christians (Acts 11:26).

Because the faith took root so early and so deeply, the region is dense with places of memory. Councils that shaped the Creed were held on Anatolian soil — Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon and Constantinople all lie within this land. For the pilgrim, this means that Anatolia is not a single shrine but a whole geography of witness, stretching from the Aegean coast to the Cilician plain.

The Seven Churches of Revelation

Among the most beloved pilgrim itineraries in Anatolia is the route of the Seven Churches. In the opening chapters of the Book of Revelation, the risen Christ addresses seven congregations in the Roman province of Asia (Revelation 1–3): Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamon, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.

Each letter carries its own note of praise, warning or encouragement, and each city can still be visited today:

• Ephesus — commended for its labour and endurance, yet called back to its "first love."
• Smyrna (modern Izmir) — the church of the poor who were rich, promised the crown of life.
• Pergamon — dwelling "where Satan's throne is," a city of imperial cult and learning.
• Thyatira — a working town of trades and guilds.
• Sardis — urged to wake from spiritual sleep.
• Philadelphia — the faithful church set before an "open door."
• Laodicea — famously warned against being "lukewarm."

To read these seven letters while standing among the ruins of the very cities they name is a profound experience. The stones become a sermon; the geography becomes Scripture made visible.

Ephesus: sanctuary of Apostles and the Mother of God

If one city gathers the devotion of Anatolian pilgrimage, it is Ephesus. Here the Apostle Paul laboured for a considerable time during his missionary work, and the riot of the silversmiths recorded in Acts 19 unfolded in its great theatre — a theatre still standing today.

Ephesus is also woven into the memory of the Apostle John and, in ancient and enduring tradition, of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The House of the Virgin Mary near Ephesus remains a place of prayer honoured by Christians of many traditions and revered by Muslims as well. It was at Ephesus, too, that the Council of 431 affirmed Mary as *Theotokos*, the God-bearer — a definition dear to Catholic and Orthodox faithful alike.

For pilgrims exploring the Aegean, Ephesus stands as the natural spiritual anchor: a city of Paul, of John, and of the Mother of the Lord.

Cappadocia, Antioch and the wider witness

Beyond the Aegean, the inland and southern regions of Anatolia hold treasures of their own. Cappadocia, with its rock-cut churches and underground cities, preserves the memory of the great fourth-century theologians — Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus — whose thought still shapes Christian doctrine.

Further south lies Antioch (modern Antakya), one of the greatest cities of the Roman Empire and the base from which Paul and Barnabas set out on their journeys. Antioch's role in the birth of the Church is difficult to overstate; you can read more in our companion piece on Antioch and the early Church.

These sites, together with the coastlands of Cilicia, form a continuous thread of witness that leads, finally, to Tarsus.

Tarsus: the birthplace of the Apostle Paul

Amid this vast landscape, Tarsus holds a place that belongs to it alone. Every other Anatolian city can claim that Paul preached there, wrote to it, or passed through it. Tarsus can say something no other city can: Paul was born here.

The Apostle himself names the city with evident pride. Arrested in Jerusalem, he tells the Roman commander, "I am a Jew of Tarsus in Cilicia, a citizen of no mean city" (Acts 21:39). Before the crowd he explains that he was "born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel" (Acts 22:3). He was, uniquely among the Apostles, a Roman citizen by birth — a status that would shape his mission and ultimately carry him to Rome.

It was not in Tarsus but on the road to Damascus that the risen Christ met Saul the persecutor and made him Paul the Apostle (Acts 9). Yet Tarsus remained his home and refuge; it was to Tarsus that he withdrew in the quiet years before Barnabas sought him out to share the work at Antioch (see Acts 9:30; Galatians 1:21). The city thus stands as the human cradle of the Apostle to the Gentiles — the place where the man who would carry the Gospel across the Roman world first drew breath.

To understand why this matters so deeply, our reflections on who the Apostle Paul was and on where Tarsus is and why it is honoured offer a fuller picture. Pilgrims to the city today visit Saint Paul's Church and the ancient well associated with his family home, walking beneath Cleopatra's Gate through which the Roman road once ran.

Planning a pilgrimage across Anatolia

A pilgrimage through Anatolia rewards patience. The distances are real, and each region — Aegean, Cappadocian, Cilician — carries its own character. Many pilgrims combine the Seven Churches and Ephesus in the west with a journey south and east to Tarsus and Antioch, following in reverse the very roads the Apostle travelled outward. The southern coast around Mersin and ancient Cilicia repays unhurried attention; you may wish to read our guide to Mersin and Cilicia's Christian heritage before you go.

However one shapes the route, the destination that gives the whole journey its focus is the city where it all began for Paul.

Coming home to Tarsus in 2027

In June 2027, Tarsus and neighbouring Mersin will host the inaugural St Paul Global Week, gathered around the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul on 29 June. It is a moment to bring the wider pilgrimage of Anatolia to rest in Paul's own city — to pray, to reflect, and to honour the Apostle in the place of his birth. The Feast Day programme will be broadcast live for those who cannot travel, so that the whole family of the Church may share in it. You are warmly invited to explore the programme, to learn more about the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, and, for those who guide communities in prayer, to consider the Hosted Delegation Leaders programme.