The Chair of Saint Peter the Apostle

This feast recalls the office given to Peter, the leader of the apostles. The Gospel of Matthew tells that when Simon declared Jesus to be the Christ, Jesus answered, “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church.” The bishop’s chair, cathedra in Latin, was the ancient sign of a bishop’s teaching office, and the feast honors Peter as the first bishop of Rome, where by tradition he died a martyr under Nero about 64.

A feast of Peter’s chair is listed in Rome as early as 354. In Saint Peter’s Basilica an old wooden chair, venerated as Peter’s, has been enclosed since 1666 in a great bronze throne designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.