Saul the Persecutor

Today's first reading is the first of the three accounts of Paul's conversion that we find in the Acts of the Apostles, and it is the most developed version. But the part that struck me on reading it for my meditation was that Saul's purpose was "to arrest anyone he could find, man or woman, living according to the Way."
With criteria like that, you kind of wonder how well he would do. People's ordinary lives had to be transformed by the Gospel! It would have made them stick out, even in a generally religious society. (Does anyone besides me remember that slogan from the '70's, "If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?")