Truly it is worthy and just, right and profitable to salvation to praise Thee, o God, who art wondrous in thy Saints, and in them hast greatly been glorified. Though them adorning the sacred body of Thine only-begotten Son, by them Thou didst lay the foundations of Thy Church, which Thou didst found among the Patriarchs, prepare in the Prophets, and establish in the Apostles. From their number the blessed Peter, who was the first because of the confession of Thine only-begotten Son, and called to the office of an Apostle by the mouth of the Lord our God Himself, Thy very word, and his name being changed, was established as the foundation of Thy house, even him didst Thou make the protector and guardian of the gates of heaven, having granted to him the divine right, that what he should establish upon the earth, should be kept also in heaven. In his honor and glory today we keep this feast unto Thy majesty, and offer the sacrifice of thanks and praise, through Christ our Lord… (An ancient preface for the feast of St Peter’s Chair.)
St Peter, by the Sienese painter Simone Martini (1284 ca. - 1344), 1326.
VD: Te laudare mirabilem Deum in sanctis tuis, in quibus glorificatus es vehementer. Per ipsos Unigeniti tui sacrum corpus exornans, et in ipsis Ecclesiae tuae fundamenta constituisti, quam in Patriarchis fundasti, in Prophetis preparasti, in Apostolis condidisti. Ex quibus beatum Petrum, ob confessionem Unigeniti Filii tui principem, per os ipsius Domini Dei nostri Verbi tui vocatum in apostolatum, et immutato nomine, confirmatum in fundamentum domus tuae, caelestium claustrorum praesulem custodemque fecisti, divino ei jure concesso, ut quae statuisset in terris, servarentur in caelis. Cujus honore vel gloria hodie majestati tuae haec festa persolvimus, et gratiarum ac laudis hostiam immolamus. Per Christum...
The Church keeps a solemn feast of the chair of Saint Peter, to wit, when he is said to have been raised up to the honor of the chair (or ‘a throne’) at Antioch. And some people say that this raising up was done by Theophilus, the prince of Antioch, whose deceased son Peter raised up after 14 years. (This would be the same Theophilus to whom St Luke addresses his Gospel and the Acts.) And he converted the people of the city, for which reason they built a church there, and set a high throne up in the midst of it, so that Peter could be heard and seen by all, and he sat upon it for seven years. Therefore the Church keeps a solemn feast in regard to this honor, because then did its prelates begin to have the first place and be honored, and the words of the Psalmist (106, 32) were fulfilled, “Let them exalt him in the church.”
In the following video, the Gradual of the feast of St Peter’s Chair is sung as part of the common Mass of Holy Popes, beginning at 19:50. The recording was made on the feast of Pope St Clement I in 2019.
Graduale, Ps. 106 Exaltent eum in Ecclesia plebis, et in cáthedra seniórum laudent eum. V. Confiteantur Dómino misericordiae ejus, et mirabilia eius filiis hóminum. (Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people, and praise him upon the seat of the elders. V. Let the mercies of the Lord give Him thanks, and His wondrous deeds confess Him to the children of men.)
And note that he is exalted in three ways, and therefore a threefold feast is celebrated. First, he is exalted in the Church militant, presiding over it and ruling over it laudably, in faith and morals… Secondly, in the Church of those who work malice *, namely by scattering it, and converting it to the Faith; and to this belongs his second feast, that which is called the feast of the chains. Third, he is exalted in the Church triumphant, namely by happily entering into it, and to this belongs his third feast, that of his passion.
*This refers to an expression which occurs three times in the Psalms, “the council” (21, 17), “church” (‘ecclesia’, 25, 5), or “assembly (63, 3) of those who work malice (malignantium)”, here taken to mean those who need conversion.
He also has a threefold feast for five other reasons. First, because he was privileged above all others, and therefore he is honored above others in authority, since he was the Prince of the Apostles and received the keys of the kingdom of heaven. He was also more fervent in the love of Christ, and more effective in might, since at his shadow the sick were healed.
St Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow, 1424-25, fresco by the Florentine painter Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone (1401-28), commonly known as Masaccio; in the Brancacci chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence. (Public domainimage from Wikimedia Commons.)
Second, because of his office, since he had the office of authority over the whole Church, which is spread out unto the three parts of the world, namely, Asia, Africa and Europe, and therefore the Church keeps a solemn feast for him three times in the year.
Third, because of the good which he does, since he who has the power of binding and loosing delivers us from three kinds of sin, namely, of thought, word, and deed, and because we sin (in three ways), against God, against neighbor, and against ourselves.
This benefit can also be the threefold good which the sinner obtains in the Church by the power of the keys: the demonstration of his release from guilt, the commutation of the punishment of purgatory into a punishment in this world, and the relaxation in part of temporal punishment.
The fourth reason is because of what we owe him, since he has fed us and feeds us in three ways, by word, example, and temporal help.
The fifth is because of his personal example, so that no one may despair, even if he shall have denied Christ three times, as he did, as long as he wishes to confess God along with him, in heart, mouth, and deed. (William Durandus, Rat. Div. Off. 7, 8, 1-3)
When there were two feasts of St Peter’s Chair, that of Rome celebrated today, and that of Antioch on February 22, the following sermon of Pope St Leo the Great was read at Matins of the former in the Breviary of St Pius V.
When the twelve Apostles, having received through the Holy Spirit the power to speak every tongue, undertook to teach the Gospel to the world, and divided the regions of the earth amongst themselves, the most blessed Peter, chief of the apostolic order, was chosen for the capital city of the Roman Empire, so that the light of truth, which was revealed for the salvation of the nations, might be shed the more powerfully through the whole body from the world from its own head. From what nation were there no men at that time in that city? Or what did the nations not know, once Rome had learned it? Here were the opinions of philosophy to be trod down, here the vanities of earthly wisdom to be abolished, here the worship of demons to be suppressed, here the impiety of every sacrilege to be destroyed, where everything that had been established by vain error over the whole world was kept, gathered most diligently by superstition.
St Peter Walks Upon the Water (Matthew 14, 22-33, the Gospel of the Octave of Ss Peter and Paul.) The original mosaic was made by Giotto on a wall of the courtyard of the old St Peter’s Basilica in 1298, opposite the church’s façade. Only a few fragments were saved from the destruction of the old basilica; this copy is an oil painting made in 1628 from drawings of the original. In 1675, a new mosaic on the same design was mounted in the portico of the new basilica, facing the main door, as a reminder to pilgrims as they leave the church to pray for the Holy Father. (Public domainimage from Wikimedia.)
To this city, then, most blessed Apostle Peter, thou didst not shrink to come, and since thy comrade in glory, the Apostle Paul, was still occupied in the founding of other churches, thou didst enter that forest of roaring beasts, that most deep and stormy ocean, more firmly than when thou did upon the sea. Already hadst thou taught them that had believed from among the circumcision, thou hadst founded the Church of Antioch, where first arose the noble name of Christian; by thy preaching thou hadst filled with the law of the Gospel Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; and with no doubt of the advancement of thy work, nor uncertain of the span of thy life, thou didst bring the trophy of the cross of Christ into the fortresses of Rome, where the honor of their authority and the glory of thy passion went before thee by the providence of God.
When there were two feasts of St Peter’s Chair, that of Rome celebrated today, and that of Antioch on February 22, the following sermon of Pope St Leo the Great was read at Matins of the former in the Breviary of St Pius V.
When the twelve Apostles, having received through the Holy Spirit the power to speak every tongue, undertook to teach the Gospel to the world, and divided the regions of the earth amongst themselves, the most blessed Peter, chief of the apostolic order, was chosen for the capital city of the Roman Empire, so that the light of truth, which was revealed for the salvation of the nations, might be shed the more powerfully through the whole body from the world from its own head. From what nation were there no men at that time in that city? Or what did the nations not know, once Rome had learned it? Here were the opinions of philosophy to be trod down, here the vanities of earthly wisdom to be abolished, here the worship of demons to be suppressed, here the impiety of every sacrilege to be destroyed, where everything that had been established by vain error over the whole world was kept, gathered most diligently by superstition.
St Peter Walks Upon the Water (Matthew 14, 22-33, the Gospel of the Octave of Ss Peter and Paul.) The original mosaic was made by Giotto on a wall of the courtyard of the old St Peter’s Basilica in 1298, opposite the church’s façade. Only a few fragments were saved from the destruction of the old basilica; this copy is an oil painting made in 1628 from drawings of the original. In 1675, a new mosaic on the same design was mounted in the portico of the new basilica, facing the main door, as a reminder to pilgrims as they leave the church to pray for the Holy Father. (Public domainimage from Wikimedia.)
To this city, then, most blessed Apostle Peter, thou didst not shrink to come, and since thy comrade in glory, the Apostle Paul, was still occupied in the founding of other churches, thou didst enter that forest of roaring beasts, that most deep and stormy ocean, more firmly than when thou did upon the sea. Already hadst thou taught them that had believed from among the circumcision, thou hadst founded the Church of Antioch, where first arose the noble name of Christian; by thy preaching thou hadst filled with the law of the Gospel Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia; and with no doubt of the advancement of thy work, nor uncertain of the span of thy life, thou didst bring the trophy of the cross of Christ into the fortresses of Rome, where the honor of their authority and the glory of thy passion went before thee by the providence of God.
A Solemn Traditional Latin Mass will be celebrated for the feast of St Peter’s Chair, Thursday February 22nd, starting at 7:00 p.m., at Our Lady of Peace Church in Fords, New Jersey. The church is located at 620 Amboy Avenue.
On the two feast days of St Peter, the feast of his chair on February 22nd, and the principal feast on June 29th, special decorations are put up in the Vatican Basilica. (This was formerly done also on the feast of St Peter’s Chains on August 1st, and on January 18th, back when there were two feasts of Peter’s Chair.) The bronze statue of the Apostle attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio (1240 - 1310 ca.), made in all likelihood for the Jubilee of 1300, is dressed in pontifical robes similar to those formerly worn by the Pope. Here is the statue as it normally appears; the feet are famously worn down by the constant kissing and touching of the faithful.
And here it is “dressed” for the feast day today.
The altar is decorated with two bronze statues of Saints Peter and Paul, donated to the Vatican Basilica by the family of Pope Urban VIII Barberini in 1692.
The enormous sculpture of St Peter’s Chair by Bernini at the back of the Basilica is covered with candles. Here we see the Chair as it normally appears, in an older photograph that also shows the former altar of the Cathedra beneath the sculpture.
The Cathedra as it appears on the feasts of St Peter’s. (Decorating it in this fashion must have been a rather messy business before the modern electric lights which we see here.)
Two other views, the second of which also shows the modern altar, which in the reign of Pope Benedict replaced an earlier (and comically ugly) free-standing altar installed in this same part of the Basilica.
The feast of St Peter’s Chair is not only the commemoration of his ministry as chief of the Apostles, but also the feast of a relic long reputed to be his actual throne. Although it never attained to the popularity of the Veil of St Veronica, the Vatican Basilica’s relic par excellence in the High Middle Ages, it was regularly seen and venerated by the faithful, being first explicitly named “the Chair of St Peter” in 1237. Before the long period of the Popes’ residence in Avignon, (during which many medieval customs of the Papal liturgy disappeared,) the Pope was enthroned on the relic for part of his coronation ceremony, and used it as his liturgical throne in the Basilica on the feast of February 22. Its veneration continued through the Renaissance and the Counter-Reformation periods, but since 1666, it has been kept within Bernini’s Cathedra Petri at the back of the Vatican Basilica, and very rarely brought out. The very magnificence of the sculpture, and its presence as the visual culmination of the church, has overwhelmed its purpose as a reliquary; all the more so since the relic itself cannot be seen within it, and has so rarely been removed from it for viewing. It was last exposed in 1867, at the behest of Blessed Pope Pius IX, during the celebrations of the eighteenth centennial of the martyrdoms of Ss Peter and Paul. A copy (pictured below) is displayed in the treasury of St Peter’s, but with little to indicate the prominence which the original formerly held.
This is not the place to explain in detail the much-discussed question of the authenticity of the throne itself; suffice it to say that as it exists today, it now known to be largely a work of the ninth century, given to the Pope by the Emperor Charles the Bald in 875. On the other hand, the ivory panels on the front of the chair are much older, although it is impossible to say how much older; they may have been removed from another chair which was earlier regarded as a throne of St Peter. It may be supposed that if these panels were incorporated into the Carolingian chair from a much older object, there was a very good reason for doing so. In any case, whether or not any part of it was once used by St Peter, it may be venerated as are other relics of uncertain authenticity, such as those of Christ’s Crib at St. Mary Major, as a kind of icon in three dimensions. (Pictured below, the original chair in an image made during the exposition in 1867.)
Readers living in or near New York City are reminded that the Basilica of Saint Patrick’s Old Cathedral (263 Mulberry Street, Manhattan) will celebrate its bicentennial with votive Vespers (Extraordinary Form) for the Feast of St. Peter’s Chair on Sunday, February 22nd, at 4:00 pm. The music dates from approximately 200 years before the basilica was founded; composers include Viadana, Anerio, and other great innovators who enriched the western Church with artistic output fitting the reforms of the Council of Trent. The schola will be supported by continuo played on organ and theorbo, making for a unique and gorgeous sound. Father Peter Stravinskas, Ph.D., S.T.D., will be the celebrant. More details are provided HERE.
Under the normal rules for the translation of a feast, St. Peter's Chair would be moved from yesterday to today, since Ash Wednesday can never be impeded by any feast. This year, however, it was anticipated in the Vatican Basilica to Sunday the 19th, the day after the Consistory. Pope Benedict XVI concelebrated the Mass of St. Peter's Chair in the Basilica, with the 22 Cardinals created the previous day. During his homily, he offered this beautiful reflection on one of the artistic masterpieces of the church, the great bronze Throne of St. Peter by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The full text of the Holy Father's discourse may be read here on the Vatican website; a video of the ceremony and a photo gallery are also available.
Bernini's Chair decorated with candles for the feast of St. Peter's Chair last year.
Dear brothers and sisters, this Gospel episode that has been proclaimed to us (Matthew 16, 13-19) finds a further and more eloquent explanation in one of the most famous artistic treasures of this Vatican Basilica: the altar of the Chair. After passing through the magnificent central nave, and continuing past the transepts, the pilgrim arrives in the apse and sees before him an enormous bronze throne that seems to hover in mid-air, but in reality is supported by the four statues of great Fathers of the Church from East and West. And above the throne, surrounded by triumphant angels suspended in the air, the glory of the Holy Spirit shines through the oval window. What does this sculptural composition say to us, this product of Bernini’s genius? It represents a vision of the essence of the Church and the place within the Church of the Petrine Magisterium.
The window of the apse opens the Church towards the outside, towards the whole of creation, while the image of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove shows God as the source of light. But there is also another aspect to point out: the Church herself is like a window, the place where God draws near to us, where he comes towards our world. The Church does not exist for her own sake, she is not the point of arrival, but she has to point upwards, beyond herself, to the realms above. The Church is truly herself to the extent that she allows the Other, with a capital “O”, to shine through her – the One from whom she comes and to whom she leads. The Church is the place where God “reaches” us and where we “set off” towards him: she has the task of opening up, beyond itself, a world which tends to become enclosed within itself, the task of bringing to the world the light that comes from above, without which it would be uninhabitable.
The great bronze throne encloses a wooden chair from the ninth century, which was long thought to be Saint Peter’s own chair and was placed above this monumental altar because of its great symbolic value. It expresses the permanent presence of the Apostle in the Magisterium of his successors. Saint Peter’s chair, we could say, is the throne of truth which takes its origin from Christ’s commission after the confession at Caesarea Philippi. The magisterial chair also reminds us of the words spoken to Peter by the Lord during the Last Supper: “I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren” (Luke 22:32).
The chair of Peter evokes another memory: the famous expression from Saint Ignatius of Antioch’s letter to the Romans, where he says of the Church of Rome that she “presides in charity” (Salutation, PG 5, 801). In truth, presiding in faith is inseparably linked to presiding in love. Faith without love would no longer be an authentic Christian faith. But the words of Saint Ignatius have another much more concrete implication: the word “charity”, in fact, was also used by the early Church to indicate the Eucharist. The Eucharist is the Sacramentum caritatis Christi, through which Christ continues to draw us all to himself, as he did when raised up on the Cross (cf. John 12:32). Therefore, to “preside in charity” is to draw men and women into a eucharistic embrace – the embrace of Christ – which surpasses every barrier and every division, creating communion from all manner of differences. The Petrine ministry is therefore a primacy of love in the eucharistic sense, that is to say solicitude for the universal communion of the Church in Christ. And the Eucharist is the shape and the measure of this communion, a guarantee that it will remain faithful to the criterion of the tradition of the faith.
The great Chair is supported by the Fathers of the Church. The two Eastern masters, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Athanasius, together with the Latins, Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, represent the whole of the tradition, and hence the richness of expression of the true faith of the holy and one Church. This aspect of the altar teaches us that love rests upon faith. Love collapses if man no longer trusts in God and disobeys him. Everything in the Church rests upon faith: the sacraments, the liturgy, evangelization, charity. Likewise the law and the Church’s authority rest upon faith. The Church is not self-regulating, she does not determine her own structure but receives it from the word of God, to which she listens in faith as she seeks to understand it and to live it. Within the ecclesial community, the Fathers of the Church fulfil the function of guaranteeing fidelity to sacred Scripture. They ensure that the Church receives reliable and solid exegesis, capable of forming with the Chair of Peter a stable and consistent whole. The sacred Scriptures, authoritatively interpreted by the Magisterium in the light of the Fathers, shed light upon the Church’s journey through time, providing her with a stable foundation amid the vicissitudes of history.
After considering the various elements of the altar of the Chair, let us take a look at it in its entirety. We see that it is characterized by a twofold movement: ascending and descending. This is the reciprocity between faith and love. The Chair is placed in a prominent position in this place, because this is where Saint Peter’s tomb is located, but this too tends towards the love of God. Indeed, faith is oriented towards love. A selfish faith would be an unreal faith. Whoever believes in Jesus Christ and enters into the dynamic of love that finds its source in the Eucharist, discovers true joy and becomes capable in turn of living according to the logic this gift. True faith is illumined by love and leads towards love, leads on high, just as the altar of the Chair points upwards towards the luminous window, the glory of the Holy Spirit, which constitutes the true focus for the pilgrim’s gaze as he crosses the threshold of the Vatican Basilica. That window is given great prominence by the triumphant angels and the great golden rays, with a sense of overflowing fullness that expresses the richness of communion with God. God is not isolation, but glorious and joyful love, spreading outwards and radiant with light.
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