``Where
the Bishop is, there let the multitude of believers be;
even as where Jesus is, there is the Catholic Church'' Ignatius of
Antioch, 1st c. A.D
The Chair of St. Peter
If you to to 11
Via di Santa Prisca on the quiet Aventine Hill in Rome, you'll find the
little church for which the street was named. The church of Santa
Prisca, now a titular church for Cardinal-priests, is built on the old
site
of a temple to Mithras, thus showing the victory of Christianity when
the Gospel came to be taught in once pagan Rome. But this church as a
symbol for the victory of Christianity goes even deeper: it is the very
site that was once the Holy See itself, the place where St. Peter, as
the first Pope, carried out his ministry.
All of this raises the question: "Who was St. Prisca?" The quick answer
is "she was a 13-year old Roman virgin martyr." But the story is a bit
complicated.
St. Prisca's story is often conflated with those of SS Priscilla and
Aquila, married Jewish tent-makers who first lived in Rome. They left
there, and then met St. Paul in Corinth --
Acts 18:2
And finding a certain Jew, named Aquila, born in Pontus,
lately come from Italy, with Priscilla his wife, (because that Claudius
had commanded all Jews to depart from Rome,) he came to them.
-- followed him to Ephesus --
Acts 18:18-19
But Paul, when he had stayed yet many days, taking his leave
of the brethren, sailed thence into Syria (and with him Priscilla and
Aquila), having shorn his head in Cenchrae: for he had a vow. And
he came to Ephesus, and left them there.
And then went back to Rome, where St. Paul greeted them by letter:
Romans 16:3-5
Salute Prisca and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, (who
have for my life laid down their own necks: to whom not I only give
thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles,) and the
church which is in their house.
They were later driven out of Rome by the persecutions.
"Prisca" and "Priscilla" being the same name in the way "Robert" and
"Bobby" are, it's likely that the young martyr Prisca was related in
some way to the older Priscilla and her husband, and that the Roman
"church which is in their house" that St. Paul referred to is the site
of today's Church of St. Prisca.
In any case, St. Peter, the first Pope, baptized the young Prisca at
what was the little home church found now at 11 Via di Santa Prisca.
Not long after, Prisca was martyred for refusing to worship Apollo.
According to legend, first she was thrown to the lions, but they did
not attack her; then they tried to burn her at the stake, but failed.
Eventually though, she was taken to the Decimo milliario -- the tenth
milestone -- on the Via Ostiense and beheaded; her remains were
interred in the Catacombs of Priscilla, and her feast day is January
18. The older Priscilla and her husband Aquila are remembered on July 8.
St. Peter himself was, of course, martyred in A.D. 64 by being
crucified upside-down on Vatican Hill. He was buried there as well.
When Christians were liberated from the catacombs and home churches by
the tolerance of
Constantine through his Edict of Milan in A.D. 313 (which in no way
"made Christianity the state religion," as the ill-educated love to
think for some reason1), Pope St.
Damasus I (366-383) -- the Pope who presided over the Council of Rome
which determined the canon of Sacred Scripture, and who commissioned
St. Jerome to translate that Scripture into Latin -- moved the Holy See
from that little home church to the place where St. Peter was buried.
His bones were wrapped in purple cloth and laid at a site which now
sits under St. Peter's Basilica. 2nd century graffiti marks the place;
it read simply: "Peter is here." You can read more about this in "The
Tomb of St. Peter"
by Margherita Guarducci (pdf).
Saint Prisca's feast day of January 18 is also the date of one of the
two yearly celebration of St. Peter's Chair, a chair which originally
sat in her
little home-church in Rome and is the symbol of his office.
The second celebration focused on St. Peter's ministry is on February
22, and it more specifically honors the Chair of
St. Peter in Antioch, where he stayed for about seven years before he
went on to Rome. This second date, too, is the date traditionally held
to be that on which Christ renamed Simon to "Cephas," meaning "Rock"
and translated into Latin as "Petrus":
Matthew 16:13-19
And Jesus came into the quarters of Caesarea Philippi: and he
asked his disciples, saying: Whom do men say that the Son of man is?
But they said: Some John the Baptist, and other some Elias, and others
Jeremias, or one of the prophets. Jesus saith to them: But whom do you
say that I am?
Simon Peter answered and said: Thou art Christ, the Son of
the living God.
And Jesus answering, said to him: Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jona: because flesh and blood hath not revealed it to thee, but my
Father who is in heaven. And I say to thee: That thou art Peter;
and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. And I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom
of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound
also in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, it shall be
loosed also in heaven.
In 1960, Pope John XXIII combined the January 18 and February 22
feasts,
keeping the latter date as the single feast that
celebrates the Chair of Peter and, more generally, the papacy as the
source of potential unity of mankind. But even with this change, a
custom remains that is associated with the feast on January
18: praying throughout the octave of January 18 -- that is,
for eight days starting on January 18 and ending on January 25 -- for
the lost sheep, the schismatic, Anglicans, other Protestants,
lapsed Catholics, and Jews, and so that the entire world hears and
accepts the Gospel and enters into the unity of the Catholic Church.
See The Chair of Unity Octave
(January 18).
The Relic and
Reliquary
Talk of "the Chair of Peter" refers not only to the office of the
papacy, but to a literal chair on which St. Peter sat, from which he
ruled, and which is
symbolic of that office (note that the term "Holy See" comes from the
Latin Sancta Sedes, which
means "Holy Chair"). The literal chair of St. Peter is kept at St.
Peter's Basilica, inside a 17th century bronze and marble reliquary
made by the great
Bernini, at the Altar of the Chair of Peter at the end of the central
nave of the basilica, behind Bernini's baldacchino at the papal altar.
The chair itself is described by the Catholic Encyclopedia like this:
The seat is
about one foot ten inches above the ground, and two feet eleven and
seven-eighths inches wide; the sides are two feet one and one-half
inches deep; the height of the back up to the tympanum is three feet
five and one-third inches; the entire height of the chair is four feet
seven and one-eighth inches. According to the examination then made by
Padre Garucci and Giovanni Battista de Rossi, the oldest portion...is a
perfectly plain oaken arm-chair with four legs connected by cross-bars.
The wood is much worm-eaten, and pieces have been cut from various
spots at different times, evidently for relics. To the right and left
of the seat four strong iron rings, intended for carrying-poles, are
set into the legs. At a later date, perhaps in the ninth century, this
famous chair was strengthened by the addition of pieces of acacia wood.
The latter wood has inlaid in it a rich ornamentation of ivory. For the
adornment of the front of the seat eighteen small panels of ivory have
been used, on which the labours of Hercules, also fabulous animals,
have been engraved; in like manner it was common at this period to
ornament the covers of books and reliquaries with ivory panels or
carved stones representing mythological scenes. The back is divided by
small columns and arches into four fields and finishes at the top in a
tympanum which has for ornamentation a large round opening between two
smaller ones. The tympanum is surrounded on all sides by strips of
ivory engraved in arabesques. At the centre of the horizontal strip a
picture of an emperor ... is carved in the ivory; it is held to be a
portrait of Charles the Bald. The arabesque of acanthus leaves filled
with fantastic representations of animals, and the rough execution of
the work, would make the period of this emperor (884) a probable date.
What still remains of the old cathedra scarcely permits an opinion as
to the original form. In any case it was a heavy chair made of plain,
straight pieces of wood, so that it cannot be considered a sella curulis of Pudens, as
earlier tradition held it to be. If the four rings on the two sides
belong to the original chair (Ennodius of Pavia about the sixth century
used the term sedes gestatoria
as an expression universally understood in reference to this chair),
then it was probably an ordinary carrying-chair, such as was commonly
used in ancient Rome.
The Chair
of St. Peter (click to enlarge)
This chair is kept stored inside Bernini's Baroque chair-shaped
reliquary, held aloft by statues of SS. Ambrose,
Augustine,
Athanasius, and John Chrysostom, underneath an
alabaster window depicting the Holy Ghost as a
dove.
On either side of the alabaster window
are the words "O Shepherd of the Church, you feed all Christ's lambs
and sheep" in Latin and in Greek.
The chair was brought out for public veneration on February 22 each
year during much of the Middle Ages, but it is very rare nowadays to
see the chair itself.
Customs
First, a prayer for the day, for ourselves, from today's Collect:
O God, Who by
delivering to Thy blessed Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of
heaven, didst confer upon him the pontifical power of binding and of
loosing, grant that, by the help of his intercession, we may be freed
from the bonds of sin.
And two more prayers, these for the present Pope. The first:
V. Let us pray
for N, our Pope.
R. May the Lord preserve him, and give him life, and make him
blessed upon the earth, and deliver him not up to the will of his
enemies.
Pray one Our Father and one
Hail Mary
O God, Shepherd and Ruler of all Thy faithful people, look
mercifully upon Thy servant N, whom Thou hast chosen as shepherd to
preside over Thy Church. Grant him, we beseech Thee, that by his word
and example, he may edify those over whom he hath charge, so that
together with the flock committed to him, may he attain everlasting
life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
And the second, attributed to Pope Leo XIII:
O Lord, we are
the millions of believers, humbly kneeling at Thy feet and begging Thee
to preserve, defend and save the Sovereign Pontiff for many years. He
is the Father of the great fellowship of souls and our Father as well.
On this day, as on every other day, he is praying for us also, and is
offering unto Thee with holy fervor the sacred Victim of love and peace.
Wherefore, O Lord, turn Thyself toward us with eyes of pity;
for we are now, as it were, forgetful of ourselves, and are praying
above all for him. Do Thou unite our prayers with his and receive them
into the bosom of Thine infinite mercy, as a sweet savor of active and
fruitful charity, whereby the children are united in the Church to
their Father. All that he asks of Thee this day, we too ask it of Thee
in unison with him.
Whether he weeps or rejoices, whether he hopes or offers
himself as a victim of charity for his people, we desire to be united
with him; nay more, we desire that the cry of our hearts should be made
one with his. Of Thy great mercy grant, O Lord, that not one of us may
be far from his mind and his heart in the hour that he prays and offers
unto Thee the Sacrifice of Thy blessed Son. At the moment when our
venerable High Priest, holding in His hands the very Body of Jesus
Christ, shall say to the people over the Chalice of benediction these
words: “The peace of the Lord be with you always,” grant, O Lord, that
Thy sweet peace may come down upon our hearts and upon all the nations
with new and manifest power. Amen.
As to music for the day, the Pontifical Anthem -- the national anthem
of Vatican City -- is just the thing. It was composed in 1869 by
Charles Gounod in honor of the golden jubilee of Pope Pius IX's
priestly ordination.
Chorus:
O felix Roma, O Roma nobilis:
Sedes es Petri, qui Romae effudit sanguinem,
Petri cui claves datae sunt regni caelorum.
Pontifex, Tu successor es Petri;
Pontifex, Tu magister es tuos confirmans fratres;
Pontifex, Tu qui Servus servorum Dei,
hominumque piscator, pastor es gregis,
ligans caelum et terram.
Pontifex, Tu Christi es Vicarius super terram,
rupes inter fluctus, Tu es pharus in tenebris;
Tu pacis es vindex, Tu es unitatis custos,
vigil libertatis defensor; in Te potestas.
Vox acuta,
vox altera ab acuta:
Tu Pontifex, firma es petra, et super petram
hanc aedificata est Ecclesia Dei.
Vox media,
vox gravis:
Pontifex, Tu Christi es Vicarius super terram,
rupes inter fluctus, Tu es pharus in tenebris;
Tu pacis es vindex, Tu es unitatis custos,
vigil libertatis defensor; in Te potestas.
Chorus
O felix Roma, O Roma nobilis.
Chorus:
O happy Rome, O noble Rome
You are the seat of Peter, who shed his blood in Rome,
Peter, to whom the keys of the kingdom of heaven were given.
Pontiff, You are the successor of Peter;
Pontiff, You are the teacher, you confirm your brethren;
Pontiff, You who are the Servant of the servants of God,
and fisher of men, are the shepherd of the flock,
linking heaven and earth.
Pontiff, You are the vicar of Christ on earth,
a rock amidst the waves, You are a beacon in the darkness;
You are the defender of peace, You are the guardian of unity,
watchful defender of liberty; in You is the authority.
Sopranos,
altos:
Pontiff, you are the unshakable rock, and on this rock
was built the Church of God.
Tenors,
basses:
Pontiff, You are the vicar of Christ on earth,
a rock amidst the waves, You are a beacon in the darkness;
You are the defender of peace, You are the guardian of unity,
watchful defender of liberty; in You is the authority.
Chorus
O happy Rome, O noble Rome.
One important thing you can do today is make sure your children
understand the importance of the papacy as an aspect of the teaching
authority of
the Church -- the Sacred Magisterium -- which is one of the three
foundations of
the Church, the other two being Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
An old analogy for this concept of "the three pillars of the Church"
is that of a three-legged stool, with one leg representing Scripture,
the second Tradition, and the third the Magisterium. You can drive this
lesson home by getting three popsicle sticks and labeling one
"Scripture," the second "Tradition," and the last one "Magisterium."
Then cut a circle about 5 inches around out of a piece of heavy
cardboard, label it "The
Holy Faith," and cut a gash large enough for a popsicle stick to go
through
in the middle, and then make gashes around the edges where numbers
would be on the face of a clock. Then ask your children to use one
stick to prop up the circle on a tabletop, sliding the popsicle
stick through any of the gashes they like. Then let them try using two
sticks. Then three. They'll find that three supports are necessary
(say, at the 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00 positions). And so it is with
Christ's Church.
Make sure they know that Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium work
together and can't contradict each other. Make sure they know what infallibility is and isn't (i.e., it does not mean
"sinless" or "impeccable," and it does not mean that everything a given
Pope says is true and right). Show them a list
of the Popes so they can see the
unbroken line going from the present Pope all the way back to St.
Peter. (By the way, we all know that St. Peter is mentioned in Sacred
Scripture, but did you know that the second and fourth Popes are
mentioned as
well? St. Linus can be found in II Timothy 4:21, and St. Clement is
mentioned in Philippians 4:3.)
The Chair of St. Peter is also important for the sake of unity. Note
that unity is one of "the four marks of the Church": we say that "the
Church is One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic." You can teach your
children about the importance of unity by grabbing a large handful of
popsicle sticks or twigs, tying them together with twine, having your
child grab
the bundle and challenging him to break it. He will find it difficult
if not impossible. Then untie the
bundle and ask him to break each single stick one at a time to
demonstrate that unity is a source of strength. Unity in the Church,
through the Petrine Office, is
also one of the means -- along with Scripture and Tradition -- of
keeping doctrine consistent throughout the ages and
across nations.
You can teach your children about the 4 Marks and 3 Pillars of the
Church by printing out this page
(pdf), cutting along the lines, taping "The 4 Marks" and "The 3
Pillars" at least 8 inches inches apart on a tabletop, and mixing up
the possible answers, placing them in a pile face-up. Challenge your
kids to place the correct marks on "The 4 Marks of the Church" label,
and the correct pillars on "The 3 Pillars of the Church" label. Note
that pages 16-18 of Baltimore
Catechism 2 (pdf) and pages 70-77 of Baltimore Catechism 3 (pdf) may
help you teach these things to
your children.
Finally, a few odds and ends you and your children might enjoy on this
feast:
Pope Benedict XVI's address on the feast of the Chair of St.
Peter
February 22,
20016
Dear Brothers and Sisters! The Latin liturgy celebrates today the feast
of the Chair of Peter. It is a very ancient tradition, witnessed in
Rome since the end of the fourth century, which renders thanksgiving to
God for the mission entrusted to the Apostle Peter and his successors.
"Cathedra" literally means the established seat of the bishop, located
in the mother church of a diocese, which for this reason is called
"cathedral," and it is the symbol of the authority of the bishop and,
in particular, of his "magisterium," that is, of the evangelical
teaching that he, insofar as a successor of the apostles, is called to
guard and transmit to the Christian community.
When the bishop takes possession of the local Church that is entrusted
to him, he, bearing the miter and the shepherd's crosier, sits on the
cathedra. From that seat he will guide, as teacher and shepherd, the
journey of the faithful in faith, hope and charity.
Which was, then, the "cathedra" if St. Peter? He, chosen by Christ as
"rock" on which to build the Church (cf. Matthew 16:18), began his
ministry in Jerusalem, after the ascension of the Lord and Pentecost.
The first "seat" of the Church was the Cenacle, and in all probability
in that room, where Mary, the Mother of Jesus, also prayed with the
disciples, a special place was reserved for Simon Peter.
Subsequently, the see of Peter was Antioch, a city situated on the
Oronte River in Syria, today Turkey, which at the time was the third
metropolis of the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria in Egypt. Of
that city, evangelized by Barnabas and Paul, where "for the first time
the disciples were called Christians" (Acts 11:26), Peter was the first
Bishop.
In fact, the Roman Martyrology, before the reform of the calendar,
established also a specific celebration of the Chair of Peter at
Antioch. From there, Providence led Peter to Rome, where he concluded
with martyrdom his course of service to the Gospel. For this reason,
the See of Rome, which had received the greatest honor, received also
the task entrusted by Christ to Peter of being at the service of all
the local Churches for the building and unity of the whole People of
God.
In this way the See of Rome came to be known as that of the Successor
of Peter, and the "cathedra" of its Bishop represented that of the
apostle charged by Christ to feed all his flock. It is attested by the
most ancient Fathers of the Church, as for example St. Irenaeus, bishop
of Lyon, who in his treatise "Against Heresies" describes the Church of
Rome as "greatest and most ancient, known by all; … founded and
constituted at Rome by the two glorious Apostles Peter and Paul"; and
he adds: "With this Church, because of her outstanding superiority, the
universal Church must be in agreement, that is, the faithful
everywhere" (III, 3, 2-3).
Tertullian, for his part, affirms: "How blessed this Church of Rome is!
The Apostles themselves shed on her, with their blood, the whole of the
doctrine" ("La Prescrizione degli Eretici," 36). The Chair of the
Bishop of Rome represents, therefore, not only his service to the Roman
community, but also his mission of guide of the whole People of God.
To celebrate the "Chair" of Peter, as we do today, means, therefore, to
attribute to it a strong spiritual significance and to recognize in it
a privileged sign of the love of God, good and eternal Shepherd, who
wants to gather the whole of his Church and guide her along the way of
salvation.
Among so many testimonies of the Fathers, I would like to refer to that
of St. Jerome, taken from a letter of his to the Bishop of Rome,
particularly interesting because he makes explicit reference in fact to
the "chair" of Peter, presenting it as the safe harbor of truth and
peace. Jerome writes thus: "I decided to consult the chair of Peter,
where that faith is found exalted by the lips of an Apostle; I now come
to ask for nourishment for my soul there, where once you received the
garment of Christ. I follow no leader save Christ, so I enter into
communion with your beatitude, that is, with the chair of Peter for
this I know is the rock upon which the Church is built! ("Le Lettere,"
I, 15,1-2).
Dear Brothers and Sisters, in the apse of St. Peter's Basilica, as you
know, is found the monument to the Chair of the Apostle, a mature work
of Bernini, made in the shape of a great bronze throne, supported by
the statues of four Doctors of the Church, two from the West, St.
Augustine and St. Ambrose, and two from the East, St. John Chrysostom
and St. Athanasius.
I invite you to pause before that evocative work, which today it is
possible to admire decorated with so many candles, and pray in a
particular way for the ministry that God has entrusted to me. Raising
one's gaze to the alabaster glass window that opens precisely above the
chair, invoke the Holy Spirit, so that he will always sustain with his
light and strength my daily service to the whole Church. For this, as
for your devoted attention, I thank you from my heart.
Footnotes:
1 The text of the Edict of Milan:
When I,
Constantine Augustus, as well as I, Licinius Augustus, fortunately met
near Mediolanurn (Milan), and were considering everything that
pertained to the public welfare and security, we thought, among other
things which we saw would be for the good of many, those regulations
pertaining to the reverence of the Divinity ought certainly to be made
first, so that we might grant to the Christians and others full
authority to observe that religion which each preferred; whence any
Divinity whatsoever in the seat of the heavens may be propitious and
kindly disposed to us and all who are placed under our rule. And thus
by this wholesome counsel and most upright provision we thought to
arrange that no one whatsoever should be denied the opportunity to give
his heart to the observance of the Christian religion, of that religion
which he should think best for himself, so that the Supreme Deity, to
whose worship we freely yield our hearts) may show in all things His
usual favor and benevolence. Therefore, your Worship should know that
it has pleased us to remove all conditions whatsoever, which were in
the rescripts formerly given to you officially, concerning the
Christians and now any one of these who wishes to observe Christian
religion may do so freely and openly, without molestation. We thought
it fit to commend these things most fully to your care that you may
know that we have given to those Christians free and unrestricted
opportunity of religious worship. When you see that this has been
granted to them by us, your Worship will know that we have also
conceded to other religions the right of open and free observance of
their worship for the sake of the peace of our times, that each one may
have the free opportunity to worship as he pleases; this regulation is
made we that we may not seem to detract from any dignity or any
religion.
Moreover, in the case of the Christians especially we
esteemed it best to order that if it happens anyone heretofore has
bought from our treasury from anyone whatsoever, those places where
they were previously accustomed to assemble, concerning which a certain
decree had been made and a letter sent to you officially, the same
shall be restored to the Christians without payment or any claim of
recompense and without any kind of fraud or deception, Those, moreover,
who have obtained the same by gift, are likewise to return them at once
to the Christians. Besides, both those who have purchased and those who
have secured them by gift, are to appeal to the vicar if they seek any
recompense from our bounty, that they may be cared for through our
clemency. All this property ought to be delivered at once to the
community of the Christians through your intercession, and without
delay. And since these Christians are known to have possessed not only
those places in which they were accustomed to assemble, but also other
property, namely the churches, belonging to them as a corporation and
not as individuals, all these things which we have included under the
above law, you will order to be restored, without any hesitation or
controversy at all, to these Christians, that is to say to the
corporations and their conventicles: providing, of course, that the
above arrangements be followed so that those who return the same
without payment, as we have said, may hope for an indemnity from our
bounty. In all these circumstances you ought to tender your most
efficacious intervention to the community of the Christians, that our
command may be carried into effect as quickly as possible, whereby,
moreover, through our clemency, public order may be secured. Let this
be done so that, as we have said above, Divine favor towards us, which,
under the most important circumstances we have already experienced,
may, for all time, preserve and prosper our successes together with the
good of the state. Moreover, in order that the statement of this decree
of our good will may come to the notice of all, this rescript,
published by your decree, shall be announced everywhere and brought to
the knowledge of all, so that the decree of this, our benevolence,
cannot be concealed.
From Lactantius, De Mort. Pers., ch. 48. opera, ed. 0. F. Fritzsche,
II, p 288 sq. (Bibl Patr. Ecc. Lat. XI). Translated in University of
Pennsylvania. Dept. of History: Translations and Reprints from the
Original Sources of European history, (Philadelphia, University of
Pennsylvania Press [1897?-1907?]), Vol 4:, 1, pp. 28-30. This text is
in the public domain.
