The Apostle Peter, formerly called Simon, was the son of the fisherman Jonah from Bethsaida in Galilee and the brother of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called, who brought him to Christ. Saint Peter was married and had a house in Capernaum. Called by Christ the Savior while fishing on the Sea of Galilee, he always showed special devotion and decisiveness, for which he was granted special closeness to the Lord together with the Apostles James and John the Theologian.
Strong and fiery in spirit, he naturally occupied an influential place among the apostles of Christ. He was the first to decisively confess the Lord Jesus Christ as the Christ, that is, the Messiah, and for this he was named the Rock (Peter). Upon this rock of Peter’s faith the Lord promised to build His Church, against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.
His threefold denial of the Lord on the eve of His crucifixion the Apostle Peter washed away with bitter tears of repentance, after which, following His resurrection, the Lord restored him to apostolic dignity, threefold — corresponding to the number of denials — entrusting him to feed His lambs and sheep. According to tradition, every morning at the crowing of the rooster the Apostle Peter remembered his cowardly denial of Christ and began to weep bitterly.
The Apostle Peter was the first to contribute to the spread and establishment of Christ’s Church after the descent of the Holy Spirit, delivering a powerful speech before the people on the day of Pentecost and bringing 3,000 souls to Christ. Some time later, after healing a man lame from birth, he converted another 5,000 Jews to the faith through his second preaching. The spiritual power emanating from the Apostle Peter was so great that even his shadow, falling upon the sick lying in the streets, healed them (Acts 5:15). The Book of Acts, from chapter 1 to chapter 12, tells of his apostolic activity.
Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great, in the year 42 AD raised persecution against Christians. He put to death the Apostle James the son of Zebedee and imprisoned the Apostle Peter. The Christians, foreseeing the execution of the Apostle Peter, prayed fervently for him. At night a miracle occurred: an Angel of the Lord descended into the prison to Peter, the chains fell from him, and he walked out of the prison unhindered and unnoticed by anyone. After this miraculous deliverance the Book of Acts mentions him only once more — at the account of the Apostolic Council.
Other information about him is preserved only in church tradition. It is known that he preached the Gospel along the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, in Antioch (where he ordained the Apostle Evodius). The Apostle Peter preached in Asia Minor to Jews and proselytes (Gentiles converted to Judaism), then in Egypt, where he ordained Mark as the first bishop of the Alexandrian Church. From there he went to Greece (Achaia) and preached in Corinth, then preached in Rome, Spain, Carthage, and Britain. According to tradition, the Apostle Mark wrote his Gospel for the Roman Christians from the words of the Apostle Peter. Among the sacred books of the New Testament are two Catholic (General) Epistles of the Apostle Peter. The First Catholic Epistle of the Apostle Peter is addressed to “the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” — provinces of Asia Minor. The reason for writing it was the Apostle Peter’s desire to strengthen his brethren amid the disturbances arising in these communities and the persecutions they suffered from the enemies of the Cross of Christ. Among the Christians there also appeared internal enemies in the form of false teachers. Taking advantage of the absence of the Apostle Paul, they began to distort his teaching on Christian freedom and to patronize every kind of moral licentiousness.
The Second Catholic Epistle is addressed to the same Asia Minor Christians. In this second epistle the Apostle Peter with particular force warns the faithful against corrupt false teachers. These false teachings are similar to those which the Apostle Paul denounces in the epistles to Timothy and Titus, as well as the Apostle Jude in his Catholic Epistle. The false teachings of the heretics threatened both the faith and the morality of Christians. At that time Gnostic heresies, which absorbed elements of Judaism, Christianity, and various pagan teachings, began to spread rapidly. This epistle was written shortly before the martyr’s death of the Apostle Peter: “I know that the time of my departure is at hand, as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me” (2 Peter 1:14).
Toward the end of his life the Apostle Peter returned to Rome, where he accepted a martyr’s death in 67 AD by crucifixion upside down. This event is artistically described by Henryk Sienkiewicz in the book “Quo Vadis.”
Word of Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo
On this present day the Holy Church piously commemorates the sufferings of the holy, glorious, and all-praised apostles Peter and Paul.
Saint Peter, the most zealous follower of Jesus Christ, for his lofty confession of His Divinity: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” was deemed worthy by the Savior to hear in reply: “Blessed art thou, Simon… I say unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church” (Matthew 16:16-18). Upon this rock — upon what thou hast said: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God,” upon this confession of thine — I will build My Church. For “thou art Peter”: from “rock” comes Peter, and not from Peter the “rock,” just as from Christ comes Christian, and not from Christian comes Christ. Do you wish to know from what “rock” the Apostle Peter was so named? — Listen to the Apostle Paul: “I would not have you ignorant, brethren,” says the apostle of Christ, “that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and all did eat the same spiritual meat; and all drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians 10:1-4). Here is the “Rock” from which Peter was named!
Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the last days of His earthly life, during His ministry to the human race, chose from among His disciples twelve apostles for the preaching of the Word of God. Among them the Apostle Peter, for his fiery zeal, was deemed worthy to occupy the first place (Matthew 10:2) and to be, as it were, the representative of the entire Church. Therefore it was said to him, above all others, after his confession: “And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19). For these “keys” and the right “to bind and loose” were not given to one man, but to the One Universal Church. And that the Church indeed received this right, and not one individual person exclusively, pay attention to another passage of Scripture where the Lord says the same thing to all His apostles: “Receive ye the Holy Spirit,” and immediately after: “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (John 20:22-23); or: “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). Thus the Church binds, the Church looses; the Church, founded upon the Cornerstone — Christ Himself (Ephesians 2:20), binds and looses. Let both the bound and the loosed fear: the loosed, lest they fall back into the same; the bound, lest they remain forever in that state. For “with the cords of his sins,” says the Wise One, “each one is held fast” (Proverbs 5:22); and apart from the Holy Church, nowhere can forgiveness be obtained.
And after His Resurrection the Lord entrusts to the Apostle Peter the feeding of His spiritual flock not because among the disciples only Peter was granted the right to feed Christ’s flock, but Christ turns mainly to Peter because Peter was first among the apostles and, as it were, the representative of the Church; moreover, by turning in this case to Peter alone, as to the chief apostle, Christ thereby confirms the unity of the Church. “Simon, son of Jonah,” the Lord said to Peter, “lovest thou Me?” And the apostle answered: “Yea, Lord: Thou knowest that I love Thee”; and a second time he was asked the same, and a second time he answered the same; but when asked a third time, seeing that he was not believed, he was grieved. But how could He who knew his heart not believe him? And therefore after this Peter answered: “Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee.” And Jesus said to him all three times: “Feed My sheep” (John 21:15-17). Besides this, the threefold call of the Savior to Peter and Peter’s threefold confession before his Lord had yet another special, beneficial purpose for the apostle. He to whom were given “the keys of the Kingdom” and the right “to bind and loose” had himself threefold bound himself by fear and cowardice (Matthew 26:69-75), and the Lord threefold looses him by His call and by his own confession of fervent love. And to feed Christ’s rational flock is assigned to all the apostles and their successors. “Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock,” the Apostle Paul cries to the church presbyters, “over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood” (Acts 20:28); and the Apostle Peter to the elders: “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away” (1 Peter 5:2-4).
It is remarkable that Christ, saying to Peter: “Feed My sheep,” did not say: “Feed your own sheep,” but feed, good servant, the sheep of the Lord. “Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Corinthians 1:13)? “Feed My sheep.” For “ravening wolves, grievous wolves, false teachers and hirelings, not sparing the flock” (Matthew 7:15, Acts 20:29; 2 Peter 2:1; John 10:12), plundering another’s flock and making spoil as though it were their own possession, think that they feed their own flock. Not so the good shepherds, the shepherds of the Lord. “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11), entrusted to him by the Chief Shepherd Himself (1 Peter 5:4). And the Apostle Peter, faithful to his calling, laid down his soul for Christ’s rational flock, sealing his apostleship with a martyr’s death, now glorified throughout the whole world.
And the Apostle Paul, formerly Saul, became from a ravenous wolf a meek lamb; formerly he was an enemy of the Church, then he appears as an apostle; formerly a persecutor of her, then a preacher. Having received from the high priests authority to bring all Christians in chains to execution, he was already on the way, “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1), thirsting for blood, but — “He that sitteth in the heavens laughed at him” (Psalm 2:4). When he, “persecuting and oppressing” in this way “the Church of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9; Acts 8:3), was approaching Damascus, then the Lord called to him from heaven: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” — I am here, I am there, I am everywhere: here is My head; there is My body. Let us not marvel at this; we ourselves are members of the Body of Christ. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me; it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (Acts 9:4-5). And Saul, “trembling and astonished,” cried out: “Who art Thou, Lord?” — “I am Jesus,” the Lord answered him, “whom thou persecutest.” And Saul is suddenly changed: “What wilt Thou have me to do?” he exclaims. And there came a voice to him: “Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do” (Acts 9:5-6). Here the Lord sends Ananias: “Arise, and go to the street… to a man called Saul,” and baptize him, “for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:11,15,18). This vessel must be filled with My grace. “Then Ananias answered: Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy name” (Acts 9:13-14). But the Lord insistently commands Ananias: “Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me: for I will shew him how great things he must suffer for My name’s sake” (Acts 9:15-16).
And truly the Lord showed the Apostle Paul what he must suffer for His name’s sake. He instructed him in labors; He did not forsake him in chains, bonds, prisons, shipwrecks; He Himself suffered with him in his sufferings, He Himself guided him to this day. On one day we commemorate the sufferings of both these apostles, for although they suffered on different days, yet in spirit and in the closeness of their sufferings they form one. Peter went before, Paul soon followed after — formerly called Saul, and then Paul, who changed pride into humility in his own person, as his very name, that is, “small, little, lesser,” shows. What then became of the Apostle Paul? Ask him — he himself answers: “I am,” he says, “the least of the apostles… but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Corinthians 15:9-10). Therefore, brethren, celebrating today the memory of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, remembering their honorable sufferings, let us love their true faith, their holy life, let us love their innocence, their sufferings, and the purity of their confession. Loving in them these high qualities and imitating their great exploits, “that we may be like unto them” (2 Thessalonians 5:9), we too shall attain that eternal blessedness prepared for all the saints. The path of our life was formerly harder, more thorny, more difficult, but “with so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us” (Hebrews 12:1), who have passed along it, it has now become easier, smoother, and more passable for us. First the “Author and Finisher of our faith” Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, passed along it (Hebrews 12:2); after Him followed His fearless apostles; then martyrs, youths, wives, virgins, and a great host of witnesses. Who was it that acted in them and helped them on this path? — He who said: “Without Me ye can do nothing” (John 15:5).
Veneration of the Honorable Chains of the Holy Apostle Peter
Around the year 42, the Apostle Peter was imprisoned by order of Herod Agrippa for preaching about Christ the Savior. In prison he was bound with two iron chains. At night, on the eve of his trial, an Angel of the Lord descended into the prison to Peter, the chains fell from him, and he miraculously left the prison, unnoticed by anyone (Acts 12:1-11). The Christians, hearing of the miracle, took the chains and kept them as a precious treasure. Those afflicted with various illnesses, coming to them with faith, received healing. The chains of the holy Apostle Peter were kept in Jerusalem until Patriarch Juvenal, who presented them to Eudocia, wife of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, and she in 437 and 439 transferred them from Jerusalem to Constantinople. One chain Eudocia sent to Rome to her daughter Eudoxia, who built a church in the name of the Apostle Peter and placed the chain in it. In Rome there were also other chains in which the apostle was held before his death under Emperor Nero.
On January 16 the chains of the Apostle Peter are brought out for veneration by the people.