1st century AD) was a Roman centurion who is considered by some Christians to be the first Gentile to convert to the faith, as related in Acts of the Apostles (see Ethiopian eunuch for the competing tradition).

Cornelius receives a vision in which an angel of God tells him that his prayers have been heard; he understands that he has been chosen for a higher alternative.

[7] When Cornelius' men arrive, Simon Peter understands that through this vision the Lord had commanded him to preach the Word of God to the Gentiles.

Later with the arrival of the Romans (already Hellenized), there were no problems of religious tolerance (except in the case of the Zealots), since thanks to the interpretatio graeca exported by the Macedonians, it was possible to identify Caelus (Roman god) or Uranus (his Greek equivalent) and Yahweh as the Supreme God, allowing conversion cases like Cornelius.

[9][10][11] Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?Cornelius is considered to be one of the first gentile converts to Christianity.

The reception of Cornelius sparked a debate among the leaders of the new community of followers of Jesus, culminating in the decision to allow Gentiles to become Christians without conforming to Jewish requirements for circumcision, as recounted in Acts 15.

[15] When Governors Island in New York City was a military installation, the Episcopal Church maintained a stone chapel there dedicated to him.