Chair of Peter
- 22 February
- 18 January (Ambrosian Rite)
Article
The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter in general about the formation of the Church when Christ said, “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church.” It has been celebrated at Rome, Italy from the early days of the Christian era on 18 January, in commemoration of the day when Saint Peter held his first service in Rome. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, commemorating his foundation of the See of Antioch, has also been long celebrated at Rome, on 22 February. At each place a chair (cathedra) was venerated which the Apostle had used while presiding at Mass. One of the chairs is referred to about 600 by an Abbot Johannes who had been commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to collect in oil from the lamps which burned at the graves of the Roman martyrs. One of these phials, preserved in the cathedral treasury of Monza, Italy, had a label reading, “oleo de sede ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus” (oils from the chair where Saint Peter first sat). The Mass for both feast days is the same; the Collect is as follows:
“Oh, God, who, together with the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, didst bestow on blessed Peter Thy Apostle the pontificate of binding and loosing, grant that by the aid of his intercession we may be released from the yoke of our sins.”
The image is a portable chair preserved at the Vatican and believed to be a chair used by Saint Peter, the extant testimony referring to it dating from the 2nd century.
Readings
He who deserts the chair of Peter, upon whom the Church was founded, does he trust himself to be in the Church? – Saint Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage and Martyr, De Catholicae Ecclesiae Unitate, 251
MLA Citation
- “Chair of Peter“. CatholicSaints.Info. 19 February 2023. Web. 25 April 2024. <>