St. Paul wrote this epistle at Corinth, when he was preparing to go to
Jerusalem with the charitable contributions collected in Achaia and
Macedonia for the relief of the Christians in Judea; which was about
twenty-four years after Our Lord's Ascension. It was written in Greek;
but at the same time translated into Latin, for the benefit of those
who did not understand that language. And though it is not the first of
his Epistles in the order of time, yet it is first placed on account of
sublimity of the matter contained in it, of the preeminence of the
place to which it was sent, and in veneration of the Church.