Saint Peter, Prince of the Apostles

The time having come when the Son of God wished to form his apostolic college and prepare laborers for the preaching of the Gospel, he came to the shore of the Sea of Galilee, which the Gospel also calls the Sea of Tiberias and the Lake of Gennesaret, and, having caught sight of the two brothers Peter and Andrew who were casting their nets into the sea, he said to them: 'Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.' Saint Peter was too well warned by his name Simon, which means obedient, of the obligation he had to submit to the will of such a great Master, to resist it. He therefore left his nets at that very hour, and followed the one who called him, abandoning entirely to his providence the care of his person and of his whole house, which had subsisted until then only by means of his fishing. But he risked nothing by this abandonment; for Our Lord, for the government of a boat, gave him that of his Church, and for nets half-broken, gave him the fullness of gratuitous graces which are sovereign means to take souls and draw them to God. He also took an affection for everything that touched him, and even honored his house with several visits, in one of which he healed his mother-in-law of a violent fever that was tormenting her; and, after having eaten with his disciples, he performed there in the evening a crowd of miracles. The little boat of the holy Apostle had been until that time the instrument of his trade; but it was from then on an excellent figure of the Christian Church of which he was to be the pilot. It is with this view that Our Lord permitted him sometimes to return to it, to steer it at sea and to use it for fishing. One day, being himself extremely pressed by a numerous crowd that had come to hear him, he entered into it, and having had it moved back from the shore, he used it as a pulpit to instruct this innumerable multitude. Then he commanded Peter to go into the deep sea and to cast his nets there to catch fish: Saint Peter answered him that they had worked there uselessly all night, but that, since he commanded it, he would make no difficulty in casting the net once more. The command of the Master and the obedience of the disciple had such a happy success that the net was immediately filled with a great number of fine fish, and it even appeared so heavy that it was necessary to call Saint James and Saint John, who were in another boat, to pull it from the water. Saint Peter was then touched by the sentiment of a profound humility, and, throwing himself at the feet of the Savior, he said to him: 'Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.' But the Son of God reassured him and told him to fear nothing, and that, in the future, he would no longer fish for fish, but that he would take men by the spiritual net and hook of preaching. This whole action is filled with great mysteries. One sees there, as in a painting, that it is in the Church alone, figured by the little boat of Saint Peter, that one must seek Jesus Christ and his doctrine; that before his coming, the preachers, who were the Prophets and the doctors of the law, were extremely powerless to effect the conversion of souls; but that his presence gave a marvelous strength to his missionaries for this great work; that after he had preached, the Apostles were to go into the deep sea, that is to say into all the infidel nations, to cast there the nets of the Gospel; that Saint Peter would be the head of this mission and of the whole Church, and that the other evangelical laborers, that is to say the bishops, the doctors and the preachers, would only be called in partem sollicitudinis, to be his cooperators and to have a share in his solicitude; finally, that the more one succeeds in the ministry of preaching and the salvation of souls, the more one must humble oneself before God, recognizing that one is of oneself incapable of any success, and that a work of such great merit depends entirely on his grace and his mercy.

The entire Gospel is full of the other favors that Our Lord bestowed upon Saint Peter. When He went to raise the daughter of Jairus, one of the principal leaders of the synagogue, wishing to have only three disciples with Him, He named Saint Peter first to accompany Him. When He chose twelve Apostles from the great number of His disciples to be the foundations, the columns, the torches, the precious stones, and the architects of His Church, He also gave the first rank to Saint Peter; and this is why the Evangelists, who often change the order of the other Apostles, never change that of Peter, but always place him at the head of all the others, and often even name only him, contenting themselves with speaking of the others in common, as those of whom he was the leader. Moreover, when the Apostles, who were at sea, were surprised by such a furious storm that they believed themselves absolutely lost, the Savior having come to their rescue by walking on dry land upon the waters, our Apostle was again the first who recognized Him, and he was the only one who had the courage to ask Him to walk on the water as He did, and to go to Him by a path so new and so little traveled by men. The execution did not astonish him more than the request: for, scarcely had Our Lord answered him, "Come," than he threw himself down from the boat and began to walk on the sea as if it had been dry land: in which his faith is all the more admirable, as the sea was then agitated by a great wind; it raised mountains of water on all sides; hardly could a very strong and well-equipped ship be safe. It is true that a gust of wind which increased the storm made him tremble a little; which was the cause that he began to sink into the water and to get wet; but Saint Maximus, in the first sermon on the feast of the Apostles, after having said that Our Lord only permitted this weakness to show the difference that existed between the Master and the disciple, adds that, in this very fear, the faith of Peter appears quite marvelous, since by crying out without being troubled, "Lord, save me," he showed that he indeed distrusted himself, but that he had entire confidence in the help of Him who had called him. Indeed, scarcely had the Son of God given him His hand than he regained his former firmness, and, walking on the waves with an intrepid assurance, he returned to the ship in His company, by the same path he had come.

Shortly after, the holy Apostle gave another proof of his love and zeal for Our Lord. One day, this divine Master, preaching to the Jews of Capernaum, revealed to them the adorable mystery of the Sacrament of the altar, which He wished to institute; He told them that His flesh was truly food, and His blood truly drink, without the use of which it would be impossible to have life. Not only the coarse people, but also several of His disciples were scandalized by it and withdrew from His company. Then He addressed His Apostles and said to them, "Do you also wish to go away?" but our Saint, speaking for all his brethren, said to Him with much tenderness, "Lord, what are You saying to us? To whom then could we go? Your words are words of eternal life, and we believe firmly, and we are entirely persuaded that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." Thus, he was the first who confessed the truth of the Eucharist, and he also engaged his companions to confess this great mystery and to remain firm in the service of Jesus Christ.

He made, a few days later, an almost similar confession, which earned him great praise and a very advantageous promise from his divine Master. Our Lord, having passed to the district of Caesarea Philippi, asked His disciples what sentiments men had of the Son of Man, that is to say, of Himself. They answered that some took Him for Elijah, others for John the Baptist, others for Jeremiah, others finally for one of the ancient Prophets, without determining any one in particular. "Until then," says Saint Leo, Pope, "the answer was common, because it was only a question of the various opinions of the people; but when the Son of God added: And you, who do you say that I am, and what sentiments do you have of My person? Then he who was the first in the dignity of Apostle was also the first in the confession of His divinity: "You are," said Peter, in the name of all, "the Christ, Son of the living God." Our Lord, who never allows Himself to be surpassed by His servants in the testimonies of love and benevolence that they show Him, replied to him immediately: "You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah: for it is not flesh and blood that have revealed this great mystery to you, but My Father who is in the heavens. And I say to you that, as you have recognized and confessed Me as the Christ and the true Messiah, who has come to found the Church of the children of God on earth, I also declare that you are the rock and the foundation of this Church, and that it will be upon this rock that I will build it; which I will do so solidly that all the powers of hell will never be able to prevail against it. I will also give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, so that what you will have bound on earth will be bound in the heavens, and what you will have loosed on earth will be at the same time loosed in the heavens." Thus, as Saint Leo also says, He gave by participation to Peter what belonged to Him by power, and He associated him with that sovereign authority which belongs to Him alone by the infinite merit of His person.

One day, our Saint, wishing to dissuade his divine Master from enduring the death that He desired with such ardor, Jesus Christ rebuked him with indignation and called him Satan; not that He entirely disapproved of his affection and zeal, which Saint Jerome highlights extremely as a mark of his faith and the high esteem he had for the dignity of his Master: the Savior of men acted thus to teach us that we must regard as tempters those who turn us away from suffering something for His service. A few days later, He chose him again to be present at His Transfiguration, so that the great mystery which was to make the glory of His divinity appear would not only receive testimony from Moses, who represented the law, and from Elijah, who represented the Prophets, but also from Peter, whom He had designated as the head of His Church. The Evangelists teach us that this Apostle was so charmed by the marvelous brightness that appeared on the face and on the garments of the Son of God, that he exclaimed: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: let us set up three tents, one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." But he was then in ecstasy; and it was no longer his reason, says Saint Chrysostom, but his love that was speaking: which is what Scripture signifies to us when it says that "he did not know what he was saying."

Jesus Christ showed again by another action the preeminence He wished to give him over his brethren. The tax collectors having asked this apostle if his Master did not pay the annual tax of the temple, He wished him to go and bring them a piece of silver that He had him find miraculously in the mouth of a fish, indivisibly for Him and for himself. He then taught him, as the one to whom He had given the keys of the kingdom of heaven, that he should not limit the forgiveness of sins to seven times, but that he should grant it without limits, and as many times as he would find in the penitents the necessary dispositions to receive it.

Since then, our Saint having asked Him what reward they should expect from His goodness, he and the other Apostles who had left everything to follow Him, He did not answer him that, having left only a boat and his nets, they did not have the right to expect a great reward, but, considering, says Saint Jerome, that they had left much since they had reserved nothing for themselves, and that they had even renounced the desire and the hope of acquiring the goods of this world, He answered that their salary would be very great, and that, since they had followed Him with such promptness and courage, on the great day of His judgment they would be seated on twelve thrones, and would judge the twelve tribes of Israel. It was also the questioning of Saint Peter and three other Apostles that made Him declare, a little before His passion, the terrible signs of the ruin of Jerusalem and those of the end of the ages; which made Him recount the beautiful parables of the ten virgins and the five talents, and which finally made Him explain the form of the last judgment and the separation that would take place there of the good and the wicked, to receive a definitive sentence that would be very different.

But if this great Apostle appeared so often during the course of Our Lord's life, he appeared much more during the time of His passion and since His resurrection. He was one of the two whom He sent to prepare the things necessary for the Last Supper, so that, being destined to be the first priest of the New Testament, he might himself arrange what was to serve for the institution of the august Sacrament of our altars. When Our Lord wished to wash his feet, he gave signs of a great love and a profound reverence for his master: even more fervent in wishing to let himself be washed so as not to be separated from Him, than he had been in refusing this office of humility, he showed that it was the ardor of his faith and his charity that made him act in all things. Driven by this same fervor, he wanted to know who was the traitor who was to deliver Jesus Christ into the hands of the Jews, and he signaled to Saint John to ask Him. It must be admitted that he showed too much presumption when, the Son of God having told His Apostles that that very night they would all be scandalized because of Him and would abandon Him, Peter replied that, when all the others would give way to cowardice and abandon Him, he alone would do no such thing, but that he would remain inseparably attached to His person, and that he was ready to endure both prison and death for Him. Thus, this excess of boldness drew upon him the terrible prediction of his three denials. Nevertheless, we must not omit here what Saint Jerome says on this subject: *Non est temeritas neque mendacium, sed fides et ardens affectus Apostoli Petri*: "this was not rashness nor a lie, but an effect of the faith and the ardent love of the apostle Saint Peter."

It is to this same ardor that we must attribute what he did in the Garden of Olives, when, seeing the Savior in the hands of His persecutors, he drew his sword, and, by striking one of the servants of the high priest, cut off his right ear. Heretics tax this action as violence and impiety; but Saint Ambrose, on the twenty-second chapter of Saint Luke, speaks of it quite differently, and he makes no difficulty in comparing it to that which Phinehas did, when he pierced with his sword a prince of the people of Israel who was about to join to idolatry a shameful lewdness with a Midianite woman: which was so pleasing to God that, for this alone, He stopped the plagues He was about to unleash upon His people and promised this great priest that the sovereign priesthood would never leave his house. Indeed, far from Our Lord having forbidden Peter to use a sword, He had, on the contrary, testified that one must have them at the time of His arrest; and, when our Apostle replied to Him that they had two, He had only said that it was enough. Saint John Chrysostom also marvelously highlights the obedience of Saint Peter, in that he was no less prompt, at the first command of his Master, to put his sword back into its sheath than he had been to draw it. It is easy to see that, as the character of heretics is to poison everything and to decry the most heroic actions of the servants of God, it is on the contrary the character and the spirit of the holy Doctors of the Church to judge favorably those which Scripture does not condemn, and which may have been done in the spirit of Jesus Christ.

As for the drowsiness of our Apostle in the Garden of Olives, and his flight when Our Lord had been taken, one can only attribute them to the weakness of his nature, the misery of which he felt, so that he might better recognize in the future what he had of himself and what he had by the help of grace. His denials, one of which was accompanied by perjury and blasphemy, are even more inexcusable, and we must consider him as a terrible example of the falls of which we are capable when we rely only on ourselves. But if we look, on the other hand, at the penance of Peter and the tears he shed for this crime, not only during the three days of the death of the Son of God, but also for the rest of his life, we will be forced to admit that they served advantageously for his sanctification, and that they are among those faults which, according to Saint Augustine, are occasions for a greater good in those who are called to holiness, by divine decrees. Thus, however great this sin was, it did not prevent Our Lord, who has infinite goodness for repentant sinners, from having for him, after His resurrection, the same considerations He had had before. When He appeared to Magdalene, He recommended above all that she go and warn Peter that He had risen; shortly after, He showed Himself to him in private, before visiting His apostolic college; and, far from reproaching him for his infidelity and ingratitude, He gently wiped away his tears, and restored his heart which was as if drowned in a torrent of pain and bitterness. Finally, He did not withdraw the promise He had made to him to give him the keys of the kingdom of heaven; on the contrary, as Saint Gregory the Great remarks very well in the twenty-first homily on the Gospels, He had only permitted his fall so that, being destined to be the sovereign Pastor of the faithful, he might learn, through his own weakness, the compassion he should have for sinners, and the mercy he should exercise toward the penitent.

Peter and John had run together to the sepulcher of the Son of God; John, as the youngest and most agile, arrived there first; but Peter nevertheless entered it first; according to the same Saint Gregory, this was not without great mystery; likewise, it was not without a singular prerogative of benevolence and love that Peter was honored first of all the Apostles with this amiable presence of his divine Master. Who does not see in this his preeminence over them, and that Our Lord, regarding him as their head, wanted him to begin to exercise toward them what He had recommended to him before His passion with these words: "When you have turned back, do not fail to confirm and strengthen your brothers"? We also do not doubt that, in the forty days of interval between His Resurrection and His Ascension, He consoled him many other times by His secret and private visits, in order to instruct him in all that he had to do in the future for the good government of His Church. But the Evangelists have only reported the apparitions He made to him in public and in the presence of the other Apostles. In one of these, the Savior asked him three times if he loved Him, and if he had more affection for Him than the other disciples. It was, says Saint Augustine, so that Peter, bearing witness three times to the great love he had for Jesus Christ, might thereby erase the shame of the three denials he had committed through his cowardice, and that his tongue might be no less the instrument of his love than of his fear. It was also to prepare him for the great employment of pastor of souls, which Saint Augustine calls *amoris officium*, "the office or employment of love"; Saint Chrysostom, *amoris argumentum*, "the proof of love"; and Saint Gregory, *amoris testimonium*, "the testimony of love." Indeed, as Peter assured Him with humility of his true love, He said to him twice: "Feed my lambs," and once: "Feed my sheep"; by these words, He made him not only the Pastor of the Christian people, signified by the lambs, but also the Pastor of the other pastors, signified by the sheep; and, to speak with Saint Ambrose, He gave him to His Church, *ut sui amoris Vicarium*, "as the vicar of His love." He then predicted to him the manner in which he was to die, which was the torment of the cross; He commanded him to follow Him: Peter obeyed immediately; and, seeing Saint John who was also following, he asked the Savior what would become of this dear disciple. Heretics have seen in this request a condemnable curiosity; but Saint John Chrysostom has remarked in it, on the contrary, a great charity of Saint Peter toward Saint John; and, indeed, when Our Lord told him to follow Him, without worrying about John, He did not do so to tax Peter with any vice, but to teach him that the grace He granted him of revealing to him the kind of his death was a particular privilege that He did not grant to all the others.

This is what we find in the four Evangelists regarding the person of Saint Peter. He appears there on all sides with a lively faith, a profound humility, a blind obedience, and an ardent and generous charity. The favors of Our Lord toward him are continuous and abundant, and there is no encounter that does not give us marks of his primacy over the other disciples. But it must be admitted that it was a time when, not having yet received the Holy Spirit, he was far from possessing all the qualities necessary for him to destroy idolatry, to convert men obstinate in their crimes, and to establish throughout the world the faith of a crucified God: the abundance of light and strength, which he needed for such a great enterprise, was reserved for the infusion of this divine gift which was to enlighten his soul and set it ablaze with the fire of his holy love. To make himself worthy of such a great favor, he withdrew, after the Ascension of Our Lord, with the other Apostles, into the cenacle, where this company of divine men was accustomed to withdraw when they were in Jerusalem. However, after the deplorable fall of Judas and his desperate death, an Apostle was missing from the mysterious number of twelve that the Savior had established. Peter stood up in the midst of his brothers, and, beginning more openly his functions as universal Pastor, he told them that it was necessary to fill the place of this wretch, according to this word of the Psalmist: *Episcopatum ejus accipiat alter*: "May his episcopal dignity be given to another!" They proceeded to this election, and the lot happily fell upon Saint Matthias, who was the twelfth Apostle.

For ten days the Apostles had been waiting, living in recollection and prayer, when on the first day of the feast of Pentecost or the oblation of the first fruits of the wheat, one of the three main feasts of the people of God, around nine o'clock in the morning, at the moment when they were offering in the temple the loaves made with the new wheat, a violent noise was suddenly heard, like that of a storm. The house where the disciples were assembled was shaken by it. At the same instant, tongues of fire descended from heaven and rested upon each of them. These sparkling flames were the symbol of the divine ardors that inflamed their souls, and the emblem of the supernatural charity destined to warm the world, long since cooled by selfishness, superstition, and the depravity of morals.

Saint Peter, in particular, received on this occasion an outpouring of the Holy Spirit more abundant than that which was poured out upon the ancient Prophets and upon Moses himself. It was then that he entered into that holy intoxication that the prophet Joel had predicted, and that, being filled with the virtue from on high, he opened his mouth to preach the unknown mystery of the Redemption of the world; he spoke only one language, but he was understood in all kinds of languages, and his preaching bore such great fruit that no fewer than three thousand people were converted and embraced the faith of Jesus Christ crucified. What is very remarkable in this is that, among these people, there were several whom neither the words, nor the miracles, nor the admirable examples of Jesus Christ had been able to soften and attract to his service, and who had even rendered themselves guilty of his death by asking Pilate that he be crucified, as our Apostle publicly reproached them in his sermon. Thus the Son of God did, through his Apostle, what he had not done by himself, and made the word of the former more effective than he had made his own, in order to show that the remission of sins and the sanctification of souls were a fruit of the outpouring of his blood and the descent of the Holy Spirit.

One saw then in Saint Peter, says Saint Augustine, what an abundant outpouring of the grace of the Holy Spirit can do. It so strengthened this heart, previously so timid, so weak, that it made him publicly and courageously bear witness to Him whom he had just denied. It opened this mouth that fear had closed to the truth, and it opened it with a singularly remarkable advantage. All those upon whom the Holy Spirit had descended received the gift of speaking various languages. But Saint Peter was either the only one or the first of all to preach Jesus Christ loudly to this crowd of Jews who surrounded him, and to confound those who had put him to death by the irresistible testimony he rendered to his glorious resurrection. If anyone, adds the same doctor, wishes to taste the pleasure of such a holy and agreeable spectacle, let him read the book of Acts; he will see there with admiration Jesus Christ, preached with intrepidity by the very one whose denial he reads with sorrow in the Gospel. He will see there this heart, once so cowardly, now filled with a noble courage; this tongue, once a slave to fear, now full of freedom and confidence; the mouth, which recently denied Jesus Christ three times, now makes him confessed by three thousand enemy mouths. Grace shines in him with such brilliance, the Holy Spirit shines in him with such fullness, in his mouth the word of truth has so much weight and authority, that this man, who was trembling just a moment ago for fear that the Jews would put him to death with Jesus Christ, now makes the Jews tremble, converts a very large number of them, and makes those who took the life of the Savior ready to lose their own for the love of him. Such is the work of the Holy Spirit.

But if grace appears admirably in the courage of Saint Peter, it is no less manifested in his humility. This fire, says Origen, this activity, this boldness to speak and to act that one has seen until now in him, almost disappeared subsequently, to give way to a spirit so humble, so moderate, so ready to yield to others, and to humble himself before everyone, that one can hardly recognize the impetuous nature of Saint Peter and the rank he held in the Church above all others. However, one must admit the following exception: When it was a question of the interests of the Church and of exposing himself to fatigue and danger, then we always see him appear first. Outside of these circumstances, it is very easy to do nothing but in common with others, without having any particular honor. The humility he practiced then showed that the promptness and boldness he demonstrated on other occasions were no longer the effect of his natural ardor, but rather that of the charity that the Holy Spirit had poured into his heart.

The Acts of the Apostles then represent to us that Saint Peter, entering the temple with Saint John, met there at the gate a beggar forty years of age, who was lame from birth, and whom they brought every day to this place to ask for alms from passersby; he gave him a much more considerable one than all those he had received until then; for, after telling him that he had neither gold nor silver, he healed him with these words: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk!" Such a great miracle attracted a large crowd around the Apostles, and this is what gave Saint Peter the occasion to give a second sermon: he advanced the affairs of religion even more than by the first, since he had the happiness of converting five thousand men there. Several Saints have remarked, on this miracle, that, when prelates are models of renunciation, of voluntary poverty, they perform great wonders and operate marvelous conversions; but that, when they attach themselves to the goods of the world, they no longer have the same power. Such was Saint Peter: after the conversion of so many people who brought their treasures to his feet, he was so destitute of everything that he did not even have money to give alms to a poor person.

The priests who were then in the temple conceived an extreme spite for his preaching, and, having seized his person and that of Saint John, they sent them to prison. The next day, Annas and Caiaphas, princes of the priests, assembled the sovereign council to hear this case, and, having had the holy Apostles appear before them, they asked them in whose name, and by what virtue they had made the lame man walk. Saint Peter answered courageously: "We have performed this healing in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you have rejected as a rejected stone and whom you have crucified, but whom God, his Father, has resurrected to be the source of salvation for all men." Such a generous answer astonished them all the more, as having also brought before them this same lame man who was known to everyone, and seeing him walk quite straight, they could object nothing to such an indubitable miracle. Thus, all they could do after a long deliberation was to forbid Peter and John to ever speak of Jesus Christ to anyone whatsoever. But the Apostles answered them with the same courage that they would not keep this prohibition at all, because they were more obliged to obey God, who commanded them to announce the mystery of salvation, than them, who wanted to prevent its publication: despite this answer, our illustrious accused were released.

This first persecution, far from being prejudicial to the Church, was, on the contrary, extremely advantageous to it; one saw it immediately increase wonderfully by the number of those who joined it every day, and one cannot admire enough the holiness with which these first Christians lived under the guidance of Saint Peter. Saint Luke teaches us that they all had but one heart and one soul; that they possessed nothing but in common, and that the distribution of goods was done there with so much justice that there were no poor among them. The Apostle maintained this spirit with an admirable sweetness: he won over all the faithful so much that those who had some remnants of possession sold them eagerly to bring the money to his feet. Ananias and Sapphira, his wife, were of this number: but, whether they had done it reluctantly and only so as not to appear singular, or whether they had since repented of having done so, they plotted together to declare to the Apostle only a part of the price they had received for it. Peter, who knew that it is the office of the Pastor to mix severity with sweetness, for fear that too much indulgence might give rise to laxity, having known, by revelation, the sacrilegious design of these two Christians, punished them for it in a terrible manner. Ananias having brought him his money, and having protested to him that this was the entire price of his inheritance, he said to him in a thundering tone worthy of the majesty of the head of the Church: "Why, Ananias, have you given place to Satan to take possession of your heart? Was it not in your power not to sell your field, and was it not still in your power, after having sold it, to keep the whole price? Why then have you taken this criminal resolution to come and lie to the Holy Spirit? Know that it is not to men that you have lied, but to God." At these words, which were like a thunderbolt, Ananias was seized with a fear of death, and, having fallen at his feet, he expired. The same thing happened to Sapphira, his wife. Knowing nothing of the tragic death of her husband, she came, three hours later, to make the same protestation that he had made. Their crime was not wanting to keep a part of their money, since, being able to legitimately keep the whole sum and the inheritance itself, they could not be guilty of keeping a part of it; but it was to make a profession before God of a perfect poverty and an entire stripping of all their goods, and to remain nevertheless owners, by retaining what they pretended to abandon for his love; which was an hypocrisy and a kind of sacrilege. The terrible punishment that followed this fault was a salutary instruction for the faithful, and the Holy Scripture teaches us that it imprinted a great fear in the minds of all those who had knowledge of it.

For one action of severity by Saint Peter, we have an infinity of others of benevolence and mercy. He performed so many miracles that the streets through which he passed were continually lined with sick people whom everyone placed at the door of their house, in order to receive healing by his touch or by his word. But it was not necessary that he touch them or see them, since his shadow alone gave health to those upon whom it passed; which that of Jesus Christ had not done, to show the truth of what he himself had said: "that those who believed in him would perform miracles similar to those he performed, and that they would perform even greater ones." They also brought to Saint Peter sick and possessed people from all the surroundings of Jerusalem, and he never failed to heal them. So many wonders animating the envy and rage of the priests and doctors of the law, they seized Saint Peter once again and at the same time all the other Apostles, and had them locked in a narrow prison. But an angel having delivered them at night, without forcing the doors or making a breach in the walls, they began again the very next morning to preach the faith of Jesus Christ in the middle of the temple. The Council, being warned of it, sent to fetch them without violence, for fear of irritating the people; and, when they had arrived, the princes of the priests asked them why, after the prohibition they had given them, they had not ceased to speak continually to the people of Jesus of Nazareth. "It is," said Saint Peter again generously, "because we have a Master greater than you, who commands us, who is God, and that we are more obliged to obey him than you." This answer, which was approved by all the Apostles, was the cause that they were whipped before the whole assembly; but this punishment, far from saddening them, gave them an extreme joy, and they considered themselves much honored to have suffered this affront for the name of Jesus Christ, their Master.

Saint Peter then presided over the election of the seven deacons, whose main functions must be to assist the bishop at the altar, to distribute the blood of Jesus Christ, and to take care of the subsistence of the poor and the widows of the Church; and he soon had the consolation of seeing one of this blessed troop, Saint Stephen, fight and die for the faith. But, as the great persecution that arose at the same time against the whole flock of Jesus Christ forced the faithful to leave Jerusalem and to disperse in all directions, our Apostle had a beautiful opportunity to show his prudence, his charity, his zeal, and the tireless care he had for this still nascent Church. He remained at first with the other Apostles in the city of Jerusalem, for fear that their departure would discourage those who remained there as Christians and make their persecutors triumph.

But, shortly after, Saint Philip, one of the seven deacons, having converted and baptized many people in Samaria, and even Simon Ma gus, who was move Simon le Magicien Adversary of the apostles mentioned in the writings attributed to Linus. d by the great miracles that this great preacher of the Gospel was continually performing, Saint Peter and Saint John came there, at the request of the other Apostles, to lay hands on the newly baptized and give them the Holy Spirit. Simon Magus, seeing that, through this august ceremony, the Holy Spirit descended visibly upon the faithful, and that they subsequently spoke various languages and performed great wonders, offered money to the Apostles to have, like them, the power to give the Holy Spirit. But Saint Peter, speaking up, said to him: "May your money perish with you, miserable and impious man, who have persuaded yourself that the gift of God could be acquired with money! You can have no part in the mystery of life that we proclaim." He nevertheless exhorted him afterward to do penance; but, as this sacrilegious man, who gave his name to the most detestable plague that can exist in the Church, we mean simony, far from doing penance, continued to sow his errors, not only among the Samaritans but also among the Jews and the Gentiles, and even as far as Rome, Saint Peter, who had begun to fight him in Samaria, pursued him everywhere until his death, and we shall see him subsequently win great victories over him, and, after a signal triumph, force him to flee and hide so as to appear no more on earth.

Saint Paul, having been converted to the faith on January 25th of the year 35 of salvation, Saint Paul Apostle cited by Saint Jerome to illustrate divine decrees. came, three years later, to Jerusalem, to see Saint Peter and confer with him on the mysteries of our religion, as he says himself in his epistle to the Galatians, chapter 1. It was therefore in the year 38. At that time, peace being restored to the faithful throughout Palestine and Syria, our holy Apostle, who knew that the care of all the Churches had been entrusted to him, resolved to travel through all the places where the Gospel had been preached, both by the other Apostles and by the disciples who had dispersed during the persecution, in order to strengthen the new converts there, and to increase, by his word and his miracles, the flock of the Lord. It was then, according to the most probable opinion, that he established his see in Antioch, as in the capital of the entire East, while waiti ng to be Antioche Ancient city where Saint Publia and her community resided. able to establish it in Rome, which was the capital of the West, of the empire, and of the whole world. It is true that Saint Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, makes no mention of this see of Antioch; but, besides the tradition that attests to it, we have authentic testimonies in Eusebius of Caesarea, Saint Jerome, Saint Leo, and several other very ancient ecclesiastical authors: and the Church itself celebrates the feast on February 22nd. Some say that it lasted only four years, others seven years; but that it must be started from the time of the Ascension of Our Lord. Others finally say that it lasted seven years, according to the opinion of the ancients, and that nevertheless it is not necessary to start it before the year 38. But that depends on the time of the death of our Saint, since having held his see for twenty-five years in Rome, and seven years in Antioch, it is necessary that there have been thirty or thirty-two years between the establishment of this see and the time of his martyrdom.

In the course of the same visit, our holy Apostle being in Lydda, a city situated on the edge of the Mediterranean, and very famous later under the name of Diospolis, healed there a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed for eight years: this was the cause of the conversion of the inhabitants of this city and those of Saron. He also resurrected in Joppa a holy widow named Tabitha or Dorcas, a great almsgiver, who was considered the mother of the poor and the refuge of the unfortunate, by saying to her only these three words: "Tabitha, arise!" It was in the same place that, being in ecstasy, he saw descending from heaven a large sheet held by the four corners, in which there were all kinds of four-footed beasts, reptiles, and birds, and he heard a voice saying to him: "Peter, arise, kill and eat." He replied: "Far be it from me, Lord, that I should eat these animals! I have never eaten any of the meats that the law declares unclean." But the voice replied to him immediately: "Do not call unclean what God has purified." This vision began again in the same way three times, and, at the third time, the sheet appeared to return to heaven. As he was meditating deeply on what this apparition meant, which was the figure of the calling of the Gentiles to the faith, three messengers came, on behalf of Cornelius, a centurion in the Roman troops, to beg him to come to Caesarea, in order to instruct him, with all his family, in the true means of being saved. He consulted the Holy Spirit on this, who ordered him to follow these messengers, as being sent by his movement, and made him understand that those who were waiting for him in Caesarea were these unclean animals that he had to spiritually kill and eat. When he had arrived there, he preached the faith to Cornelius and to a great crowd of other Gentiles, who had gathered to hear him; at the end of his sermon, the Holy Spirit, who had worked invisibly in their hearts, also descended externally upon them; Saint Peter, recognizing by this that God wanted to incorporate them into his Church, had them all baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, that is to say, not with the baptism of Saint John, which did not have the strength to remit sins, but with the baptism of Jesus Christ, in the name of the three divine persons, which had the power to effect this remission.

From there he went to Jerusalem, where he appeased the murmurs of Cerinthus, who, since then, has been an impious man and a heresiarch, and of the other newly converted Jews, who found it wrong that he had given entry into the Church to Cornelius the centurion and to the others who were not circumcised. He then sent Saint Barnabas to Antioch, to cultivate in his absence this great field where the faith had been happily planted, and he had the consolation of learning that he produced great fruits there, and that the faithful had left the name of disciples to take that of Christians. Some time later, a new persecution arose in Judea against the flock of the Son of God, by the impiety of Herod Agrippa, whom the Emperor Caligula had made king of the Jews, and who wanted, by this cruelty, to win the good graces of that nation. Indeed, Saint James the Greater was beheaded; and Saint Peter, whom he had arrested as a prisoner, was also to be executed in the presence of all the people after the feast of Easter; but an angel miraculously took him out of prison, and returned him to the prayers, tears, and groans of the whole Church.

It was on this occasion that the Apostles, after having composed the creed that bears their name, and which, in twelve articles, contains the principal points of our faith, took the resolution to divide the world among themselves, and to distribute themselves throughout all the nations of the earth to bring the light of the Gospel there. Saint Peter was to preach in Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and the other provinces of Asia, to fix his first see in Antioch and then in Rome, where the chair of Jesus Christ was to be established, and the head of the Church was to reside.

Saint Peter, after having been delivered from prison, left Jerusalem, and set out with some disciples to travel again through the provinces of the East, Syria, and Asia Minor that they had already evangelized. He went to Caesarea, a very important city at that time, advantageously situated on the edge of the Mediterranean. Simon Magus was then in this city, surrounded by numerous disciples whom he had attracted by his prestiges, and by his doctrine which justified all disorders and all sins, as well as all the errors of the human mind. Saint Peter refuted all the errors and infamies of this impostor; for whatever the power of man and the demon may be, it cannot prevail against the truth or against the divine power that resides in the ministers of Jesus Christ. Simon, having been convicted of imposture and magic, was driven out of the city by the indignant people, and a large part of the inhabitants received the gift of the faith.

Saint Peter, after having strengthened the faithful of Caesarea in their belief, left this city to go and bring the Gospel elsewhere and destroy the evil that the enemy of God and the Church was doing in different places. He placed at the head of the Church of Caesarea, in the capacity of bishop, the centurion Cornelius. Having learned that Simon had gone to Tyre, the Apostle called three of his disciples, Clement, Nicetas, and Aquila, and commanded them to go there before him, to inquire about what was happening there and to report it to him by letter. The three disciples obeyed, arrived in Tyre, passing through Dora, and lodged with Berenice the Canaanite, who informed them exactly of all the success that Simon had obtained over the minds of the inhabitants.

The Apostle, at this news, immediately set out, and after having visited and evangelized, on the way, the city of Ptolemais, he arrived in the city of Tyre where he was received amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. After having announced to them one God, creator of heaven and earth, author and preserver of our souls and our bodies, he declared to them that the diseases with which they had been afflicted by Simon and by the demons of whom this magician was the instrument and the minister, would disappear when, converted to the true God, they had been purified by holy baptism. Indeed, a great number of Tyrians were instructed, baptized, and healed of their bodily and spiritual diseases. The rumor of these wonders went as far as Sidon; which engaged the inhabitants of this city to send a deputation to Saint Peter who was still staying in Tyre. The Apostle therefore finished healing the diseases of this last city, instituted a church there, at the head of which he placed as bishop one of the priests who accompanied him. Then he left for Sidon.

As soon as Simon had learned of the arrival of Saint Peter in this city, he left it precipitously with his companions. A great number of inhabitants, at the word of the Apostle, believed in Jesus Christ, did penance, were healed, and formed a Church to which Saint Peter appointed a bishop. From Sidon, the Apostle went to Berytus where, upon his arrival, an earthquake occurred. The people came to find Saint Peter to implore his help. Then Simon regained his audacity; he wove a plot, in concert with Appion, Annubion, Athenodorus, and his other companions; but the people rushed in a crowd upon them, covered them with wounds, and did not cease striking them until they had expelled them from the city.

Then all those who were struggling with diseases and with demons came to throw themselves at the feet of Saint Peter. Then the Apostle of God, raising his hands to heaven, and conjuring the Lord, healed them by the sole effect of his prayer. He stayed a few more days in their midst, and after having confirmed a great number in the faith and baptized them, he gave them Quartus as bishop.

Upon leaving Berytus, the Apostle went to Byblis. There, he learned that Simon had just fled to Tripoli. He remained only a short space of time in this city. After having restored health to several sick people there and instructed its inhabitants in the doctrine of truth and piety, he gave them John-Mark as bishop; then he set out toward Tripoli, in order to follow the traces of Simon, so that it would be manifest that he was pursuing him, and that he was not seeking to avoid him.

Now, as Saint Peter was entering this city, many people from Tyre, Sidon, Berytus, and Byblis ran to meet him, desirous of hearing him; the inhabitants of Tripoli, in particular, showed a lively eagerness to see him: they ran for the most part. Those of the brothers who had been sent in advance told Saint Peter and his disciples what the state of this city was, and what Simon had done there. The Apostle was led to the house of Maron. Arrived at the door of this dwelling, he turned toward the crowd that was following him, and promised to speak to them the next day about what concerns the worship of God. Simon, learning of his arrival and his brilliant reception, understood that he could not fight against him in this city, and he left Tripoli that very night to go to Syria.

Saint Peter, after having announced to the immense crowd that was following him the words of eternal life, laid hands on all the sick who were presented to him, and healed them entirely; which caused a great number of men to believe in Jesus Christ and ask for baptism. The Apostle regenerated them in the sacred waters, distributed the Eucharist to them, gave them as bishop Maron, his host, a man distinguished by his virtue and by the consideration he had acquired, and a Christian already arrived at perfection, then ordained twelve priests and several deacons, who were to provide for the needs of the widows. After having spoken to them of the necessity of order and general harmony, having represented to them that the good of the Church was interested in this perfect union and in respectful obedience to the bishop he had just given them, he bade them farewell and left for Antioch in Syria, after having stayed three months in Tripoli, a considerable city of Phoenicia.

Having left Tripoli, Saint Peter set out for Antioch. On his way, he stayed for a day in Orthosia, not far from Tripoli; as almost all the inhabitants of this city had heard the evangelical preaching, he stayed there only one day and went to Antarada, or simply Arada. There he healed a paralytic and another woman deprived of the use of her hands, and by his presence delivered a possessed woman. From there, he left for Balanea; the following day he arrived at Pelta or Paltos, then at Gabala, and subsequently at Laodicea. Having reached the gates of this beautiful and great city, he said to Nicetas and those who followed him: It is fitting that we stay here for a few days; for it may be that, in such a considerable multitude, there are some persons worthy of the promises and the inheritance of Jesus Christ.

This great Apostle performed many healings in this city and delivered several people possessed by unclean spirits. He established Churches there, at the head of which he placed bishops. He remained only a few days in this city and set out on his way to come to Antioch.

At his approach, the people of this great city, who had often heard of him, came to meet him and welcomed him with joy as the herald and apostle of truth. Through his prayers and the laying on of hands, Saint Peter healed a great number of the sick in Antioch. He announced to the inhabitants of this city the unity of God and the trinity of the Divine Persons. It was there that he conferred baptism upon Faustus, who had been preparing for it for some time. At the same time, an order from the emperor caused all magicians to be sought out. To avoid being arrested in Antioch by the imperial satellites, Simon the Magician fled from that city and returned to Judea.

From then on, Saint Peter worked freely within this popular city, considerably increased the Church that already existed there, and gave it Saint Evodius as bishop before going to found the Church of Rome. He entrusted this Church to Saint Evodius to govern, just as the rich man entrusts his flock to the shepherd who must guard it; he retained over this fold the same jurisdiction he had possessed before. He also sent Saint Marcian as bishop to Syracuse, a city in Sicily, and Saint Pancras to Taormina, another city in the same province.

After leaving Antioch, he set out for Asia. Passing through various cities and towns, he came to stay in Tyana, a city of Cappadocia, then in Ancyra, in Galatia; in this latter city, by means of his prayer, he raised a dead man to life, then instructed in the faith and baptized a great number of people. He also founded a Church there and established a bishop.

From there, he came to Synada, a city of Phrygia, then to Pessinus, the metropolis of that province. Then, reaching Pontus, he evangelized various cities, such as Gangra in Paphlagonia, Claudiopolis, Amasea, the metropolis of the Hellespont, and arrived as far as Sinope, an important city situated on the shores of the Euxine Sea. From Sinope, he went to Nicaea, then to Nicomedia, where he established the disciple Prochorus as bishop. Then he preached in Ilion, or Troy in the Hellespont, and entrusted this Church to Cornelius the Centurion, who already held the episcopal charge of Caesarea in Palestine. According to an ancient author, the Apostle returned once or twice to Jerusalem for the feast of Easter before completing his apostolic journeys in Asia. But it is certain that he evangelized the various provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and Asia after having founded the Church of Antioch and before going to Rome. This is what historians have concluded from the letter he wrote to these various peoples, as well as from the testimonies of Eusebius, who marks this preaching of Saint Peter as one of the most important functions of his apostolate. Saint Jerome and Saint Leo also attest to it. Saint Epiphanius even says that since he had fixed his see in Rome, he nevertheless left this Church to come and visit those of Bithynia and Pontus. Pope Saint Agapetus testifies that this Apostle ordained and established various bishops in the East. Ecclesiastical history and all traditions agree on this point.

Let us add that among the number of bishops instituted by Saint Peter, tradition also includes Saint Urban, who was placed at the head of the Church of Tarsus; Saint Epaphroditus, who governed the Church of Andriaca (Andraca or Adriana), a city of Lycia situated a short distance from Myra; Phygellus, who was bishop in Ephesus, but who shortly after had the misfortune of suffering shipwreck in the faith and embracing the errors of Simon the Magician; Saint Apelles, who was the brother of Saint Polycarp and who was placed in charge of the Church of Smyrna.

Here is a fact of very great significance. Saint Peter ordained and instituted the first bishop of Byzantium, today Constantinople. This becomes manifest through the letter of Pope Agapetus, which was read at the Fifth Ecumenical Council. One reads there in precise terms that Mennas was the first bishop of Constantinople that the Holy See had ordained since Saint Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, had consecrated the first bishop of Byzantium. This letter, approved by the Fathers of a general council, acquires more weight and authority than all the accounts of Greek and modern historians.

After having accomplished immense apostolic labors in the East, established episcopates in the principal cities, and founded flourishing Christian communities; after having, by the virtue of the name of Jesus, taken countless spoils from the demon and subjected vast regions to the obedience of faith, Saint Peter, this great Apostle, whose zeal was heroic and courage indefatigable, prayed to the Son of God to deign to enlighten him and manifest to him where he should henceforth direct his steps and efforts. It was then, as ancient tradition teaches us, that Our Lord appeared to him during the night in a vision and said to him: "Arise, Peter, take possession of the West; for it needs you to make the torch of evangelical light shine before its eyes. As for me, I will be with you."

Saint Peter, who already knew that Rome was to be the principal place of his apostolic chair, understood then that his mission in the East was accomplished. He did not hesitate; he resolved to leave immediately. He shared the vision he had had with the faithful of Asia, left them constitutions, then embarked for Italy, then the mistress of the world.

He arrived first in Macedonia, and gave as bishop to the Church of Philippi, Olympus, one of the seventy-two disciples; he instituted Jason as bishop of Thessalonica, and Silas as bishop of Corinth, where this disciple was staying while awaiting the arrival of Saint Paul. After also placing Herodion at the head of the Church of Patras, he embarked for Sicily.

Arrived in this province, he went to Taormina and lodged with Pancras. From there, he took his route toward Rome, passing through different cities of Italy, which, to this day, glory in having been honored by the presence of such an Apostle. Thus Naples, that splendid city, which rivals Carthage and Corinth in magnificence and competes with Rome for grandeur, Naples was illustrated by the wonders that Saint Peter performed there; after he had celebrated the holy mysteries there, he gave his disciple Asprenas, or Asprenate, as bishop to this city; and never, since that happy event, have the Neapolitans forgotten to celebrate its memory and to testify their gratitude to their distinguished benefactor. The Apostle was accompanied by Clement, son of Faustus, a man very distinguished in the eyes of the Romans for his noble origin and rare wisdom, by Saint Mark, Saint Martial, Saint Apollinaris, and some other disciples. Baronius adds, according to an ancient tradition, that Saint Peter, driven by the winds, landed at Livorno; that from there he went to Pisa, where he celebrated the holy sacrifice, and that from this city he headed toward the capital of the world.

It was in the second year of the empire of Claudius that the Apostle entered Rome. He immediately began to enlighten this great city, which had allowed itself to be plunged more than any other into the darkness of idolatry. The infinite number of martyrs, who were seen there soon after, sufficiently marks the great success of his preaching, and with what happiness he worked for the conversion of the leaders of the senate, the knights, and the people. He sent missionaries from then on to various provinces, not only of Italy, but also of Gaul, Spain, and Africa: which acquired a great number of new servants for Jesus Christ. Finally, he wrote his first Epistle there, which he addressed to the Christians scattered in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, in order to strengthen them in their belief, to equip them against the snares of heretics, and to inspire in them the true morality of Christianity.

The foundation of the Church of Rome and other Churches by Saint Peter immediately dealt a mortal blow to the superstitions of paganism, to the reign of demons and idolatry. The historian Dio testifies that the Emperor Claudius was forced to declare a large number of pagan festivals and ceremonies abrogated and suppressed. The gates of hell, stripped of their ancient power, could no longer sustain their work. Their reign, that of falsehood and iniquity, was then decreasing noticeably. But if they could not stop their rapid decadence, at least they then made the greatest efforts to paralyze the effects of the all-powerful virtue of Jesus Christ, which was felt in the preaching of the Apostle. They stirred up troubles and lively agitations within Rome itself, so that the peace of the empire appeared threatened, and the magistrates and Emperor Claudius believed themselves obliged to decree the expulsion of the Jews and Christians. This expulsion took place in the ninth year of the empire of Claudius, the forty-ninth of Jesus Christ. This decree, however, did not have great consequences. All the Jews soon obtained permission to return to Rome. Be that as it may, Saint Peter left the capital at that time to go again to the East, where his presence was necessary.

It was not without a particular guidance of divine Providence that he went shortly after to Jerusalem. A great dispute had arisen in Antioch among the faithful: some, who were Jews, maintained that it was necessary to join Judaism to Christianity, and that one could not be saved without observing the law of Moses; and others, who were Gentiles, absolutely refused to submit to this servitude. A question of such great importance deserved to be examined and decided by the one who represented Jesus Christ on earth. Saint Paul and Saint Barnabas, with some other disciples, deputies of both parties, came to find him in Jerusalem. He assembled there the Apostles who could be there, that is to say, Saint John who had not moved away from it, and Saint James the Less who was its particular bishop, with the priests who composed this Church, and held with them the first Council of Christendom. The difficulty was proposed there, and the apostle Saint Paul, after having represented how God had used him to attract the Gentiles to the faith, declared that it was very inappropriate to impose on them an obligation that the Jews themselves had always regarded as an unbearable yoke. Also, when Saint James had opined in the same sentiment, it was drafted in writing, and the decree was formulated in these terms: "It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, not to impose upon you any other laws than these, which have been judged necessary: That you abstain from meats sacrificed to idols, from the blood of animals, from strangled beasts, and from fornication." This decree was addressed to the faithful of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia, who had left gentility.

As it did not yet forbid the Jews, who had become Christians, the observance of legal ceremonies, they always continued to keep them, and Saint Peter, with the other Apostles, to accommodate their weakness, also kept them sometimes, especially when they were with them, and when they judged it necessary not to alienate their minds from the doctrine of the Gospel. Thus our Apostle, having since gone to Antioch to confirm in the faith the Gentiles who had become faithful, ate at first with them indiscriminately of all kinds of meats; but, at the arrival of some Jews who came from Jerusalem to speak to him, fearing that they might be scandalized to see him live in the freedom that Christianity gave to the Gentiles, he separated himself from the latter and returned to the abstinence of meats forbidden by the law. Saint Paul, who feared that this example of the head of the Church, whose every action was regarded as a living rule of Christian morality, in serving the Jews, might be prejudicial to the Gentiles, and make them doubt the doctrine of the Council of Jerusalem, rebuked hi m pu Paul Apostle cited by Saint Jerome to illustrate divine decrees. blicly; it is even said, in the Epistle to the Galatians, that he resisted him to his face, that is to say in his own presence, because he was blameworthy. Saint Jerome and the Greek Fathers were persuaded that this was done by concert between them, and that Saint Peter, who had extreme charity for the Christians of both peoples, wished himself, by a holy address, to be rebuked, so that, his action preventing on one side the scandal of the Jews, the remonstrance of Saint Paul would prevent on the other that of the Gentiles. But Saint Augustine opposed this sentiment with all his might, believing that it struck too much at the literal meaning of the Holy Scripture. Indeed, it is better to say, with this holy doctor, that Saint Paul effectively judged the action of Saint Peter blameworthy, and that he seriously remonstrated with him about it, because of the bad consequences he foresaw. But this does not diminish anything of the merit and glory of our great Apostle, since, if he committed some fault there, it was extremely light and entirely excusable, having no other intention than that of the salvation of the Jews, whom he regarded as the cherished people of God, and not believing that the Gentiles, who knew he was a Jew, should draw bad consequences for themselves from seeing him observe ceremonies in which he was born and raised. Moreover, Saint Cyprian remarks that he showed in this encounter an incomparable sweetness and humility, since, far from contesting against Saint Paul, and defending his action and his intention, he immediately yielded to his remonstrances, without his quality of prince and pastor of the whole Church, and that sovereign authority he had received over all the faithful, giving him any movement of indignation against the one who was rebuking him.

The heretics, instead of admiring this modesty of which one finds so few examples in princes and sovereigns, used the dispute of the Apostles to combat the primacy of Saint Peter; but they are no less ridiculous in that than one who would contest the sovereignty of a king, by reading in history that one of his advisors had made a remonstrance to him. God, to keep the greatest men in humility, often uses their inferiors to enlighten them and declare his will to them. Thus he instructed Moses through Jethro, and David, king and prophet, through other Prophets much lesser than him; but that does not combat their preeminence, and does not prevent them from being above those instruments that divine wisdom employs to instruct them.

From Antioch, Saint Peter returned to Italy, where he traveled through its various provinces, proclaiming the Gospel. This is reported by Eusebius, Rufinus, and other ancient authors. Indeed, as Asterius testifies, this Apostle, having received from Jesus Christ the charge to feed and nourish His flock, did not languish in soft idleness. He did not choose a sweet and peaceful life; he did not seek to avoid perils. On the contrary, he lived in the greatest and most continuous activity; he made long and arduous journeys to all parts of the earth, with the goal of enlightening the blind with the torch of the Gospel, of serving as a guide to those who were lost, of encouraging and advancing those who were already walking in the path of truth and piety, of constantly fighting the enemies of God and His Church, of exhorting His soldiers, of suffering all kinds of persecutions, of enduring the horror of the most frightful prisons; in a word, of preaching Jesus Christ in every place, amidst all the labors and dangers that the mind can imagine.

He had already sent his disciples to all parts of the universe, in the East and in the West. He wished to go there himself in person. After entrusting the administration of his Pontifical See of Rome to Saint Linus and Saint Cletus, he left for saint Lin Immediate successor of Saint Peter before Clement. Great Britain, which a recent conquest had just opened to the Romans. He crossed the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Ocean, and landed among these warlike, barbaric, and inhuman peoples, abandoned to idolatry, and cast into their hearts the fertile seed of the faith, which was soon to produce abundant fruits there.

When he had submitted to the yoke of the Gospel several of these inflexible and fierce men, ready to wage the harshest battles against the Romans to repel the dominating yoke, the Fisherman crossed the Ocean to visit Spain, and to pass from there into Africa. Tertullian, Saint Cyprian, Saint Gregory, Innocent I, Metaphrastes, and Baronius testify that Saint Peter brought the faith to Africa, and notably to Carthage, Numidia, and Mauretania. After traveling through the main places of these regions, as well as the two Libyas and Cyrenaica, and after leaving Saint Crescent as bishop of Carthage, he arrived in Egypt, in Alexandria, where he publicly confirmed the institution of Saint Mark, his disciple, as bishop and administrator of this great city; he went from there into the Thebaid, instituted Saint Rufus as bishop of Thebes, an opulent city, very populous and very famous for its hundred gates, then penetrated into the depths of Ethiopia, into the vast regions of the Dawn, visus etiam Memmonis domum et secreta Aurora extremaque Æthiopum.

It was then that he had a revelation to go to Jerusalem in order to assist at the passing of the Blessed Virgin. The circumstances that accompanied the presence of the Prince of the Apostles at the death, burial, and resurrection of Mary are described in the narrative of the Assumption of the glorious Mother of Jesus Christ.

1. The ancient ecclesiastical author cited by Hollandus says that Saint Peter instituted his disciple Saint Linus as bishop in order to govern the Church of Rome during his absence. Saint Linus was ordained, adds Hollandus, under the consulship of Saturninus and Scipio, that is to say, in the year 56, and during nine years of Saint Peter's life, he was his vicar or chorepiscopus. Saint Peter also ordained Saint Cletus to be, like Saint Linus, his vicar or chorepiscopus. But as long as this Apostle lived, he remained Sovereign Pontiff of the Catholic Church.

From Jerusalem he returned to Egypt, and passed through Africa to return to Rome. After staying for some time in that city, and having settled all things there, he traveled through the other provinces again, instituted bishops and priests there, gave, in particular, Saint Barnabas as bishop to the church of Milan, and Saint Paulinus to the church of Lucca. He also provided for the spiritual government of the cities of the Mediterranean. This care of the churches required much time.

Now, while he was thus working in the ministry of preaching, after he had won innumerable peoples to Jesus Christ, he received a heavenly warning and the angel of the Lord said to him: "Peter, the time of your death and your deliverance approaches; you must return to Rome; it is in that city that you will suffer the death of the cross, and then you will receive the crown of justice." At these words, Saint Peter glorified God and gave Him thanks. He finished, over a few days, setting the affairs of the Churches in order, and returned to Rome around the eleventh year of the empire of Nero.

What compelled him to this return was, on one hand, the cruel persecution that this emperor exercised against the faithful, in which they needed no less help than that of their Pastor and the head of the people of God, and, on the other, the impudence of Simon Magus, who, having won over Nero's mind through his magical operations, was once again having himself recognized in Rome as a divine virtue and a god descended from heaven. When our Apostle arrived there, he marvelously fortified the Christians against these abominations, and, having a moment of leisure, he wrote his second canonical Epistle against a great number of heretics who were beginning, from that time on, to torment the Church. He addressed it to all the faithful in general, and, among other things, he warned them that the time of his death was near, and that he had received a revelation of it from Our Lord.

As for the war he waged against Simon, after several disputes he had with him, where he admirably refuted his impostures, he finally proposed to him that, to end their differences, they should bring the body of a dead man, and that whoever resurrected him would be recognized as the preacher of the truth. Simon consented, trusting in the enchantments of his magical art; and, indeed, a dead body was brought and exposed before everyone; but Simon could do nothing else, with all his sorceries, but make him move his head a little. The Apostle, on the contrary, after having given the people all the time to recognize the impotence of his magic, and the weakness of the demon when he is bound by the power of God, invoking the name of Jesus Christ, resurrected the dead man and made him walk, speak, and eat in the presence of this great number of witnesses. This miracle having discredited the impostor, whom Saint Ignatius calls the first-born of Satan, he soon saw himself abandoned by those who previously regarded him as a divinity. In his rage, having made a pact with the demon to be lifted into the clouds and transported to an unknown place, he told the Romans that, since they did not render him the honors due to him, he had resolved to return to heaven, from where he would punish them with incredible miseries and calamities, and he marked the day on which he was to leave them and fly into the middle of the air. Saint Peter, to dispel this enterprise which could only be prejudicial to the propagation of the Gospel, ordered, the day before, which was a Saturday, a general fast in the Church: which was, according to some authors, the origin of the fast or abstinence of Saturday; and, after having joined prayer and tears to this mortification, he appeared generously, the next day, at the place the magician had designated to be the theater of his imposture. Curiosity had attracted a large crowd there. One saw first this impostor, who was invisibly carried by the demon, take his flight toward the middle of the air, and rise to reach the clouds. But the holy Apostle having renewed his prayer, and having sent it on the wings of angels before the majesty of God, he drew from it such prompt help that Simon was overturned before he was out of the sight of men. Thus, he who wanted to ascend into heaven fell miserably to the earth; and he who wanted to fly like the eagles, breaking his feet and legs, saw himself in the powerlessness to walk. He was to die at that very hour; but the Apostle obtained for him a little respite, so that he might have time to recognize himself, and that the people might be better convinced of his malice and impiety. This delay, nevertheless, was very short; for the next day, having had himself carried to a village named Ariccia, near Rome, he expired there like a reprobate, that is to say, without weeping for his crimes and without giving signs of regret for his apostasy, his sacrileges, his infamies, and the great number of heresies he had sown in the world.

As ordinarily the Fathers and ecclesiastical authors present only the substance and indication of the facts that accompanied the martyrdom of Saint Peter, and not the details that relate to it, we will reproduce the primitive monuments, which contain not only the foundation of the facts, but also the circumstances, developed in a manner entirely consistent with the tradition of the Fathers of the Church. Here is the account that Pope Saint Linus addressed to the churches of the Orient on the passion and martyrdom of Saint Peter:

« After having long and by different kinds of instructions announced the way of salvation, performed, in the presence of the people, striking miracles, waged for the name of Jesus Christ numerous battles against Simon Magus and several other heralds of the Antichrist; after having endured multiplied sufferings, the rigors of flagellation, the darkness and horror of prisons, the blessed Peter thrilled with joy in the Lord, rendered thanks to him day and night with the brothers, at the sight of the multitude that came to embrace the faith of God and of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Constantly applied to prayer and preaching, as well as to the other duties of piety, especially to those of charity and chastity, he made grace penetrate the heart of those who came to hear him, he exhorted those who believed in Jesus Christ to live according to the rules of modesty and continence. Indeed, at the sight of the powerful domination it exercised over the world, the great city of Rome had conceived sentiments of pride and taken on airs of pomp; it had for this very reason, as usually happens in opulence and idle security, let itself be dominated by the disorder of sensualism. For very often the pride of the spirit is accompanied by the dishonor of the flesh.

« It happened therefore that the discourses of the blessed Peter inspired in several women of different ages, of the noble and powerful classes, a great love of chastity: most even of the Roman Ladies took the resolution to keep their hearts pure, at the same time as their bodies, as much as it would depend on them. But as the time approached, when the fidelity and the sufferings of the blessed Apostle were to be rewarded. »

[...thoughts], the head of the party of perdition came to oppose the progress of the Gospel: the antichrist Nero, who was consummate iniquity, ordered that the Apostle be chained and put in a frightful prison.

« It was there that he was visited by four concubines of the prefect Agrippa, named: Agrippina, Eucharia, Euphemia, and Dione. When he had spoken to them of chastity and explained all the commandments of Our Lord Jesus Christ, they blushed and conceived pain at seeing themselves thus subjected to the passions of Agrippa. From then on, having come to an understanding among themselves, they vowed themselves to chastity, and, fortified by Our Lord Jesus Christ, they resolved no longer to acquiesce to his adulterous desires. They avoided, in fact, not only all commerce with him, but even his presence. Agrippa felt a keen sorrow from this. He had their steps watched, and his people informed him that they were assiduously going to the blessed Apostle to listen to his instructions. He had them brought to him, and, in the violence of his senseless passion, he said to them: "I know where you come from. This Disciple of Christ has taught you no longer to see me. But I have the persuasion that his magic, his artifices, could not diminish the love you have for me." They were insensitive to all his caresses, because the discourses of the Apostle had strengthened them.

« Seeing then that they followed the doctrine of Peter and that it was the cause that led them not to consent to his flattering words and to despise by common accord his passion, he began to make the most frightening threats to them; he swore that he would have them all burned alive in a burning fire; that he would inflict the greatest tortures on Peter, and that he would erase his name forever from the memory of men. But he could not bring them to consent to his passionate views. "We prefer," they said, "to lose our lives for chastity in all kinds of torments, rather than to renounce Jesus Christ, to whom we have made a vow of continence."

« The prefect Agrippa was therefore irritated, mainly against the Apostle; he gnashed his teeth against him, and he sought some occasion and some plausible reason to have him perish. However, one of the matrons of the first nobility of Rome, wife of Albinus, one of the intimates of Caesar, came to hear Peter. She was called Xandippe, and was accompanied by several other distinguished ladies. When she had heard what the Apostle said concerning faith and chastity, she resolved, on this subject, to avoid with care everything that could be illicit. Albinus felt a keen displeasure from this, and was very irritated against the Apostle. In vain did he employ caresses and threats, Xandippe remained firm in the faith and in her resolution. Albinus was bound by friendship with Agrippa, the prefect of Rome; he shared his pain with him, told him that the preachings of Peter were the cause of it. He begged him by the friendship he had shown him until then, to avenge him of Peter. He added that if his friend refused him this favor, he would avenge himself. Agrippa replied that as a result of the discourses of this man, he himself had to endure similar things, and even harsher ones.

« Albinus, seeing that it was impossible for him to engage Xandippe to renounce the faith and the evangelical rules, therefore concerted with Agrippa to surprise Peter as in a net, and to have him perish as a magician. Now, Xandippe, learning of this project, sent a faithful messenger to Saint Peter to warn him to leave Rome and to avoid almost inevitable traps. She herself nevertheless also made known the plot of Albinus and the prefect Agrippa to the son of the prefect Marcus, to Marcellus, who, after having left the pernicious doctrine of Simon Magus, had shown himself in every circumstance faithfully and courageously attached to the blessed apostle Peter.

« The next day, some of the senators rose in the middle of the session and said: We call your attention, noble Patricians, to a doctrine that tends to the perversion of the eternal city: Peter unties marriages by the teaching of divorce, he separates our wives from us, and we do not know what new and unheard-of law he is introducing among us.

« In saying these words, they provoked the others to rise against the Apostle, and to have him appear before the tribunals. Then Agrippa congratulated himself on seeing that the occasion he desired to accuse Peter had presented itself in the Senate. But neither Peter nor the faithful were unaware of what had just happened. They had immediately received the news from those of the senators whom the Lord had enlightened through the intermediary of Peter. That is why Marcellus and the brothers begged Peter to go away. The Apostle said to them: It is not necessary, my brothers and my children, to flee the sufferings that present themselves to be endured for the Lord Jesus Christ, when he himself, of his own free will, in view of our salvation, offered himself to death.

« At these words, Marcellus and the brothers burst into tears, and said to him: Have pity on us, Father full of goodness, have compassion on the young people and on those who are still novices in the faith; do not forsake us, do not abandon them in the midst of the dangers of idolatry. Peter replied to their entreaties in these terms: You advise me to flee, and thus to inspire by my example the youth and the faithful with the fear of suffering, while I must announce with constancy the word of God and preserve the fundamental rules of holy purity, which I have laid down. You think that I must flee, in order to avoid a death that all day long I call for by my sighs and by my groanings, because I consider it as the entrance to life, and that, moreover, I must by it glorify the Lord, according to what he has revealed to me.

« Upon hearing these words, the brothers cried out: O Father, who teach us the truth, what have become of the words that you addressed to us, when you assured us that you were ready to die for our salvation? And now we cannot obtain that, for our salvation, and until we are strengthened, you consent to live a little longer.

« The young adolescents whom he kept with solicitude, and whom he had raised with care in the faith and in chastity, raised their hands to heaven, then considering his face attentively, fell at his feet while pushing cries of pain: O good father! good shepherd! you who are, after the Lord, sweetness itself, why, after having surrounded us with so much affection, having recently birthed us to the Lord, in the sacred fountain, why, by a resolution that had never entered your heart, do you abandon us so prematurely, and expose us to the bites of cruel wolves?

« The ladies, their heads covered with ashes, also threw out cries: Is this, they said, this goodness that you preached to us while speaking of the Savior? In his mercy he granted to your tears an eternal pardon for your momentary renouncement; and now, despite our weeping, and these floods of tears, you do not even grant us a short delay, especially since by remaining in this life you could still serve the Lord, and merit this eternal crown which is all prepared for you.

« The guards of the prison, Processus and Martinianus, with other magistrates and employees, likewise conjured him. Lord, they said to him, go away where you wish; for we believe that already the emperor no longer remembers you; but this unjust Agrippa, whom both the love of his concubines and the ardor of his passions excite, hastens to destroy you. If, in fact, he obtained an imperial order, Plautinus, this man to whom we have obligations, who entrusted your guard to us and recommended you to our care, would send us a death sentence against you. You know it: when, by the efficacy of your prayers, at the sight of the admirable prodigy that made, in the neighboring prison, a fountain flow from the rock, you had brought us to the faith, and baptized us in the name of the holy Trinity, you were free to go where you wanted: no one disturbed you; it would no longer be the same now, if the demonic fire that excites the city took hold more and more of Agrippa. That is why we pray you, you who are the minister of our salvation, to deign to grant us this return; you have delivered us from the bonds of our sins and from those of the demons, now, for the salvation of a numerous people, not so much by virtue of our permission as out of regard for our prayers, come out of these irons and this frightful prison whose guard is entrusted to us, and go away!

« The widows also, and the orphans, and persons burdened with old age, came, their hair disheveled, their faces undone, their chests bare, and said to him: You have healed various diseases, you have even resurrected persons who came to our aid and who took care to relieve us, and today, Father full of goodness, you withdraw yourself from our needs. Let us rather, let us all go before you, for fear that, deprived of the teaching of your doctrine, our souls might perish, and that, deprived of the relief that you procured for them, our bodies might be consumed by languors; hasten to send us where you wish us to go, so that we may not have the misfortune, being deprived of our master, to see perish the life that he communicated to us, and that, by remaining in this life, we might not die an unhappy death.

« Peter, hearing these complaints coming from all sides, as he was compassionate beyond all expression, and as he could never without weeping see the tears of the afflicted, was overcome by so many tears; he said to them: Let no one of you accompany me, I will go out alone after having changed my costume. Indeed, the following night, after having celebrated the office, he said his farewells to the faithful, gave them his blessing while recommending them to God, then he left alone. On his way, the straps that served to bind him fell off by themselves. Now, as soon as he wanted to go out through the gate of the city, he saw Christ presenting himself to meet him; he adored him, and said to him: Lord, where are you going? Christ replied to him: I am going to Rome, to be crucified there again. — You are going to be crucified again? asked Saint Peter. — Yes, the Lord replied to him, I am going to be attached to the cross again. — Peter said to him: Lord, I am going to return and I will follow you.

(A small chapel stands today at the place of the meeting. It is known by the name of *Domine, quo vadis?*)

« After he had finished these words, the Lord went back to heaven. Peter followed him for a long time with his eyes, shedding tears of joy. Returning then to himself, he understood that the Lord had, by these words, announced to him the death that he was to suffer; that this Savior full of goodness, who suffers in the person of his elect by a sentiment of compassion and who manifests his protection by the glory with which he honors their martyrdom, was to suffer again in the person of his Apostle. He therefore retraced his steps, returned to the city full of joy, and glorifying God, he told his brothers that he had met the Lord, and he told them how the Savior had declared to him that he was going to be crucified again in the person of his Apostle.

« When he had announced that he was going to suffer death, all shed tears and threw out cries; they made their pain burst forth by weeping and sobbing: Good shepherd, they said, consider your sheep: consider how useful it is that you strengthen by your word those whose faith is still so weak. See how these wavering hearts need to be strengthened by you. — It is easy for the Lord, replied Peter, to confirm without my weak words the hearts of his servants. For those whom he has planted, he will make them grow to such a point of perfection, that they will be able to plant themselves. As for me, in my capacity as a servant, it is necessary that I accomplish the will of the Master. That is why, if he wants me to remain still in this body for you, I do not refuse it. And if his design is that I suffer for his name and that by my sufferings he deigns to receive me, I am happy, I am ravished with joy at the sight of his benefit.

« When therefore by these words and by others similar he consoled the souls of his brothers, and that they could not contain their tears, arrived Hero with four apparitors and ten other men who apprehended him. After having torn him from the midst of the faithful, they bound him and went to present him before Agrippa, prefect of the city. Agrippa seeing him, said to him: You are very bold to circumvent the people and to persuade women to separate from their husbands. You have dared, to the shame of the Jews, to introduce the cult of I do not know what Christ, to teach I do not know what vain doctrine, entirely opposed to the religion and the sacred ceremonies of the eternal city!

« In this moment, the face of the Apostle became brilliant like the sun, and Peter spoke to him in these terms: I see where you are aiming, O you, the torch of libertinage, the friend of illicit voluptuousness, the inventor of the most atrocious cruelties, the persecutor of the innocent, the abettor of immoral and perverse men, the artisan of lies, the dwelling of Satan! You are ignorant of the glory that I ambition, and it is for that that you say that I seek to seize the confidence of men and women. — Since you know, replied Agrippa, that I am ignorant of that in which you glory, make it known to me. — Peter replied to him: May I have no other glory than the cross of my master and Lord Jesus Christ, of whom I am the servant. — Do you wish then, said Agrippa, to be crucified as your Lord and your God was crucified? — I am not worthy, replied Peter, to render from the top of the cross the world witness of my sufferings; but I wish, whatever be the kind of torture that it pleases you to make me endure, I desire ardently to imitate the passion of Christ. Then Agrippa, hiding the passion of his incontinence behind an accusation of superstition, condemned the Apostle to be crucified.

« As soon as this news was spread, there was immediately a great gathering of people; the streets and the squares could not contain the men of all ages and of all conditions who rushed: rich, poor, widows, orphans, small and great, all raised their voices and said loudly:

Why is Peter delivered to death? What crime has he committed? In what has he harmed the city? It is not permitted to condemn an innocent! One must fear that Christ might avenge the death of such a great man, and that we might all perish. At the same time crowds of people unleashed themselves against Agrippa; they undertook to deliver Peter and to preserve his life: the tumultuous voices of the people answered one another, and Rome was in trouble and confusion.

« Then Saint Peter stopped a little, then mounted an eminence; from there, having by sign invited the people to silence, he spoke to them thus: Romans, who believe in Jesus Christ and hope in him alone, remember his patience, and may the prodigies that he has operated before your eyes by my hands console you. Wait for him at his advent, when he will come to render to each according to his works. What you now see happening to me, has been announced to me for a long time by the Lord: The disciple, he said, is not above the Master, nor the servant above his Lord. Know therefore that I am in a hurry to arrive at this last term, where, delivered from this body, I will present myself to the Lord. If your charity for me is sincere, if you want to give me a true proof of your filial piety, do not hold me back when I am going to God, do not prevent me from going promptly to Jesus Christ. Remain therefore peaceful, rejoice in my immolation, so that, joyful, I may offer my sacrifice to the Lord. For God loves him who gives with a good heart.

« These words had difficulty calming the sedition, and preventing Agrippa from being torn apart. For these crowds of people could and desired keenly to overthrow this prefect; they only feared to sadden the Apostle who imitated the example of his Master, when the latter said: I can pray to my Father, and he will send me at that very hour, if I wish, more than twelve legions of angels. An infinite multitude followed the Apostle and the apparitors toward a place called Naumachia, near the Obelisk of Nero, on the mountain. There was placed a cross. Then the Apostle considering the people who were weeping and wanted to excite a new sedition, spoke to them thus: I conjure you, my brothers, do not prevent my sacrifice. Do not seek to rage against Agrippa, do not have against him bitter resentment, for he is the artisan of a foreign work. The author of my bodily death is the demon, who in this abuses the permission that the Lord has left him. He is irritated to see that my evangelical ministry has taken from him vessels of ignominy, which have become vessels of continence, temples of Jesus Christ, tabernacles of honor and grace. That is why, my brothers and my children, show yourselves obedient to my recommendations... It is now the time to offer my sacrifice. Remember the signs, the prodigies and the miraculous healings, that Christ, by my ministry, has operated before your eyes and in your favor. *Mémentote signorum et prodigiorum atque sanitatum, quæ Christo operante et me ministrante, vidistis et sensistis*. The bodily diseases of several were only healed, so that the souls of all might be saved. Dead bodies were resurrected, so that dead souls might be rendered to life. But why delay and not advance toward the cross? Farewell, my brothers, be patient, and observe what I have told you, I recommend you to the Lord Jesus Christ.

« He advanced then, then standing before the cross, he said: O cross, whose name is a hidden mystery! O ineffable favor; for in the name of the cross is peace! O cross, you who unite man to God, and drew him magnificently from the empire and the yoke of Satan! O cross, you who, always by means of the true faith, represent vividly to the human race the passion of the Savior of the world, and the redemption of all men until then captive! O cross, you who each day offer to the faithful peoples the flesh of the immaculate Lamb, who preserve them effectively from the mortal venom of the ancient serpent, and who extinguish without cease in favor of the believer the flaming sword that prevents entry into paradise! O cross, you who each day establish peace between heaven and earth, and put back under the eyes of the eternal Father the death of the Mediator who resurrected from among the dead to die no more; you who were so happily charged to renew incessantly this great mystery; it is for you that I suffer violence; now that I touch the last term of this bodily existence, I will not cease to make known the secret mystery that God has hidden in you, and that my soul and my life have until now not ceased to publish. O you who believe in Jesus Christ, do not look at what appears here to your gaze as a cross. And now especially, O you who can hear me at this last hour of my temporal life, silence the language of the senses, raise your spirits: from these visible appearances carry them toward what is invisible, and you will understand that in Jesus Christ, by the cross, has been operated the mystery of salvation. To render to the earth the body that you received from it, Peter, is a debt that you must pay by the ministry of those to whom it belongs to kill the body.

« At the same time, he said to those who commanded the executioners: Why do you waste time? apparitors, you to whom I am entrusted, why do you delay? Accomplish the order that has been given to you, strip me of this mortal garment, so that, clothed in that of immortality, I may enjoy the presence of the Lord ».

« Then he made another request; he prayed in these terms those who served the executioners: I pray you, you the ministers of my true salvation, to place me in my crucifiement head down and feet up. For it is not fitting that the servant be crucified as the Master of the universe was crucified for the salvation of all the world: I want to render him glory by my death. I ask that you grant me this favor, so that also my eyes may directly contemplate the mystery of the cross, and that the words that I will address from there to those who surround me may be heard more easily. The executioners turned the cross, fixed the foot up, and the arms down.

« As soon as the executors had finished the crucifiement, Peter, seeing the people weeping, began to console them by speaking to them of the mystery of the cross; he said: O great and profound mystery of the cross! O ineffable and invincible bond of charity! For it is by the cross that God has drawn everything to him. This is the tree of life that has destroyed the empire of death. It is by the fruit of this tree that you opened my eyes, Lord; open likewise the eyes to all these, so that they may also contemplate the consolation of eternal life.

« At these words, God opened, in effect, the eyes of those who were weeping and who were shedding tears over the sufferings of Peter, and they saw angels present with crowns of rose and lily flowers, and Peter who stood at the summit of an upright cross, receiving from Jesus Christ a book, where he read the words that he uttered. At this sight, they began to rejoice and to manifest their joy so much in the presence of the Lord, that the incredulous and the executioners, seeing thus in joy and in gladness those whom they saw previously in sadness and in tears, were suddenly as if struck with stupor and as if seized with fear.

« The blessed Peter, seeing then that his glory was manifested to those who, a moment ago, were shedding tears, rendered thanks to Our Lord Jesus Christ, saying: You alone, Lord, were worthy to be crucified directly at the top of the cross, because you redeemed the whole world from sin: I wished to imitate you, even in your death; but I would have regarded it as a usurpation to be crucified as you; *Sed rectus crucifigi, non usurpavi*. For we are simply men and sinners, born of Adam; as for you, you are God begotten of God, and the true light gone out from the true light before all ages; toward the end of time, you deigned, in favor of all, to make yourself man, without contracting the stain of man, in order to be the glorious redeemer of man. Rectitude, elevation, height, belong only to you alone. As for us, we are, according to the flesh, the children of the first man, who lowered toward the earth the principal part of his being. His fall marks the mode of human generation. For we are born in such a way, that we are overturned and that we appear leaning toward the earth, and that what is on the right, is found on the left, and that what is on the left, is found on the right; it is that in effect in our first parents, the condition of this life has been changed. This world regards as the right part what is the left part: it is by this last means, Lord, it is by your holy preaching that you have delivered those who were to perish, as formerly the Ninevites. As for you, my brothers, who love to listen to the word of God, understand what I am going to announce to you, that is to say the mystery of all creation, the principle of all created existence. For the first man had lost all his race. *Nam primus homo, cujus genus in specie ego habeo, misso deorum capite, ostendit olim perditam generationem, mortua enim erat generatio ejus, et nec vitalem habebat motum*. But drawn by his mercy, He who is the principle, came into the world, clothed in bodily substance, suspended then to the cross to honor this holy vocation, that is to say the cross; he has re-established and he has prescribed to us the things which, as a result of the iniquity and the error of men, have been inverted, overturned; thus, the present things have been considered as the eternal things, and the eternal things were regarded as present and temporal things; one took what belongs to the right for what belongs to the left. *Restituit et constituit nobis ea, quæ antea hominem iniquo errore immutata fuerunt, præsentia videlicet ut æterna, et æterna ducebantur ut præsentia, et dextera sinistra*. In effect, he has glorified the right, he has brought back all the signs to their proper nature, estimated as goods the things that one did not consider as goods, and declared really advantageous the things that one believed harmful. That is why the Lord had said mysteriously: If you do not treat the right as being the left, and the left as being the right, and the things above as being the things below, and what is in front as being what is behind, you will not know the kingdom of God. This science therefore, I make it appear in me, my brothers, and what I have just said is the image under which the carnal eyes envision me suspended to this cross. This is, in effect, the character of the first man. As for you, my beloved, who hear these things, if you understand them perfectly and if you make the application of them to your ancient error, to your first way of living, you are going toward the most assured port of the faith; continue to walk in this way, direct your course toward the rest of your celestial vocation; may your way of acting be holy: the way that you must follow to arrive at this goal, is Jesus Christ. It is therefore necessary to mount on the cross with Jesus Christ, the true God, who is for us the immutable and living word. It is for that that the Holy Spirit also says: Jesus Christ is the word and the voice of God. For the rest, the word marks this upright cross to which I am attached. And because the voice belongs properly to the body, which carries particular traits that are not attributable to the Divinity, one recognizes that the proper traits of the cross figure the human nature, which became by the first man subjected to the error of the inversion of things, but which recovered the true intelligence of it by him who is God and man. In effect, the very key of science was attached to the middle of the cross, and is only obtained by conversion and by a holy life, by faith accompanied by repentance.

« The blessed Apostle spoke thus to the people with a joyful face and a serene air. He cried out then, and made a prayer in these terms: These words of life, Lord Jesus Christ, it is you yourself who have made them known to me; you have revealed to me what I have announced touching this wood, this mysterious tree; I render you thanks for it, not with a heart that often admits some affection little conformable to holiness, not with carnal lips nor with a tongue that utters the true or the false, nor with words that material organs articulate; but I render you thanks, clement King, with this voice that is understood in the midst of silence, that is heard not in public, not by means of the sounds of a mortal mouth; this word does not come from the earth, nor has anything earthly, it is not written in books, it has nothing material, it touches no one in a sensible manner. Lord Jesus Christ, you who are my king and my Master, I render you thanks with this spirit that believes in you, that understands you, that loves you, that embraces you, and with this interior voice that speaks to you, that interpellates you, and whose accents, formed by a humble spirit, are heard by you alone. My Lord, my Father, you are full of a friendly goodness, you are the author and the consumer of our salvation. You are the object of my desires, you are my refreshment and my delights. You are everything for me, and in my eyes all goods are in you; you are everything for me and you take the place for me of everything that exists. In my eyes you are everything. It is in you that we have life, movement, and being. That is why we must consider you as taking the place yourself of all goods, so that you may grant us those that you have promised, that the eye has not seen, that the ear has not heard, that the heart of man has not conceived, and that you have prepared for those who love you. Keep these goods for your servants, make them enter into participation, into possession of these precious advantages, because you are the eternal and sovereignly good Pastor, you are the true Son of God. I remit to you, I recommend to you the sheep that you have entrusted to me. Make them yourself enter into your fold; keep them, for you are yourself the door, the fold, and the porter. You are yourself their pasture and their eternal food. To you honor and glory, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and in all the ages of ages!

« As soon as all the people had, at that very hour, answered: Amen, Peter rendered the spirit. Thus died this Apostle, who was then nearly eighty years old, after having governed the Church of Rome for twenty-five years, and carried the burden of Head of Christendom for thirty-eight years, since the death of Christ.

« Immediately Marcellus, son of Mark, prefect of Rome, converted by Saint Peter, and become one of his most fervent disciples, without waiting for the advice of anyone, took down from the cross the body of the blessed Apostle, washed it with milk and with excellent wine. Having then crushed aromatic gums, taken fifteen hundred minae of aloes, myrrh, balsamic leaves, and stacte, with various other aromatics, he embalmed it with care. He also filled with Attic honey the new tomb that he prepared, and, after having anointed the body with very precious perfumes, he deposited it in this sepulcher.

« In this work, he was helped by three Holy men who appeared immediately after the blessed Apostle had expired. They said they had come from Jerusalem in favor of the faithful of Rome. No one had seen them before, and no one could see them afterward. They had joined Marcellus, this illustrious man who, after having left the party of Simon Magus, had attached himself to the suite of Saint Peter; they transport Chef de la Chrétienté Apostle and first pope, mentioned as the father of Petronilla. ed with him the body of the Apostle and placed it at the foot of a terebinth, near a place called Naumachia, and which is still called the Vatican. Now, these men who said they had come from Jerusalem, spoke to the people: Rejoice, they said, and congratulate yourselves! for you have merited to have great patrons! They are the friends of Our Lord Jesus Christ! But know, they added, that after the death of the Apostles, the infamous Nero can no longer hold the reins of the empire.

« In the same night, as Marcellus was watching at the tomb of the Apostle, and that the keen regret for his master made him shed tears, the blessed Peter presented himself to him. At his sight, Marcellus was seized with fear: he rose immediately, to go to him. Brother Marcellus, said the blessed Peter to him, you have not heard the voice of the Lord who said: Let the dead bury their dead. — Cherished Master, I have heard it. Then Peter said to him: Do not weep then, as if, dead yourself, you had buried a dead man. But rejoice as living and as having rendered honors to Him who is in the bosom of life and joy. Let the dead bury their dead! As for you, as you have heard from my mouth, go, announce the kingdom of God!

« It was very agreeable news for all the brothers, when Marcellus told them these things; and from then on, from all sides, the faith of the faithful, by the virtue of the sufferings of Saint Peter, was confirmed by God the Father, in the name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the efficacy of the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit.

« Now, Nero, learning of the death of the blessed Peter, whom he had ordered to be imprisoned, and not to be put to death, sent people with orders to arrest the prefect Agrippa, for having, without his consent, had Peter put to death, to whom he was preparing to have various tortures endured. He complained, in effect, that he was, as a result of the prestiges of this man, deprived of Simon Magus, the preserver of his life, and he was afflicted by the loss of such a friend, who, following his way of envisioning things, rendered innumerable services to the prince and to the Republic. But Agrippa, through the intermediary of his friends, obtained to remain deprived of his charge, and to be able to live at his home as a simple private individual, and he avoided by this means the anger of the emperor. But he did not escape the punishment of divine judgment: celestial vengeance reached him a short time later, and he perished sadly.

« Finally, the cruel Nero applied himself to persecuting those whom he knew to be attached in a more intimate manner to the blessed Peter; he wanted, by the torments that he made them endure, to satisfy his hatred against Peter. The blessed Apostle, by revelation, gave knowledge of this to the faithful, and indicated to them the manner of avoiding the fury of this ferocious beast.

« Nero himself, in a vision, saw Saint Peter presenting himself before him, and commanding someone to flagellate the prince with force and rigor, and he heard this Apostle say to him: Abstain, impious one, from laying hands on the servants of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it is not given to you to arrest them now.

« A little frightened by this apparition, the tyrant kept himself at rest. As for the faithful of Rome, they rejoiced in the presence of the Lord, that the blessed apostle Saint Peter appeared to them often, and fortified them by his words. They therefore glorified together God the Father Almighty, and the Lord Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit. To him be glory, power, and adoration in the ages of ages! Amen ».

We do not undertake here to report the praises that the Councils and the Fathers of the Church have given to our holy Apostle: one may read for this purpose the sermons they delivered on the days of his feast; they will be found printed together in the Library of Preachers by the learned Father Combeïls, of the Order of Saint Dominic. It suffices to say that Saint Dionysius the Areopagite calls him the sovereign Glory, the highest Ornament, the Pillar and the very strong and very ancient Column of all theologians, and that Saint John Chrysostom names him the Master of the Apostles, the Principle of the orthodox faith, the great Interpreter of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, the necessary Counselor of Christians, the Treasure of supernatural virtues, the Temple of God, the Torch that illuminates the whole earth, the solid Stone of religion, and the ancient Source of the true sentiments of the Church. He also testifies that Peter is his inclination and his love, and that he cannot think of him without being filled with astonishment mixed with joy. Finally, he wishes that the nails of Peter, like so many precious stones, might compose a crown for him, with which he would find himself more adorned than with all the diadems of emperors.

The bishops of Rome have not only succeeded him for this particular see, which extends over a few cities of Italy, but for his primacy over all the bishops and all the Churches of the world, and for his power to bind and to loose throughout the earth, to declare the truths of the faith and to define the controversies that arise regarding them; to make universal laws that bind in conscience the entire Christian people, to assemble general Councils, to condemn heresies, to explain the true meaning of Scripture, and generally to do all that belongs to the sovereign Pastor of the flock of Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is not to Peter in his person alone, but also in that of all his successors, that Our Lord said: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"; and elsewhere: "Confirm your brethren; feed my sheep." As this Church was to subsist until the end of time, without either the princes of the world or all the powers of hell ever being capable of overturning it, it was not enough for its guidance, support, and stability to give it a first pastor who would have these rights and privileges for thirty or forty years; but it was necessary to give it a succession of pastors as stable as itself and which would only end with the universal world, who would exercise the same power. Thus, all the Fathers, both Greek and Latin, enlightened by tradition, have perpetually recognized this in the bishops of the See of Rome. This is what makes Saint Jerome say, in his Epistle to Pope Damasus: "For my part, I am united in communion with your beatitude, that is to say, to the chair of Saint Peter. I know that the Church was built upon this rock: whoever eats the Lamb outside this house is a profane person." And further down: "I do not recognize Vitalis, I reject Meletius, I ignore Paulinus: he who does not gather with you only scatters, that is to say, he who is not of Jesus Christ is of the Antichrist." And again in the same place: "If you declare that one must say three hypostases, I will have no apprehension in speaking thus." This is also what makes Saint Peter Chrysologus say, in his Epistle to Eutyches, that he exhorts him to receive with obedience the decisions of the blessed bishop of Rome, because Saint Peter, who lives and presides always in his see, continues to declare the truth of the faith there. Finally, this is what makes Saint Bernard say, in his Epistle to Innocent, that all the dangers and scandals of the kingdom of God must be reported to him, especially those that concern the faith, because it is in this see that the damages to the faith must be repaired, that the faith cannot receive any alteration or diminution, following this word of the Son of God: "Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail." In this same sentiment, the same Saint Bernard, speaking to Pope Eugene in the second book of De Consideratione, where no one has ever suspected him of having spoken out of flattery, tells him that he is the high priest, the sovereign Pontiff, the prince of bishops, and the heir of the Apostles; that he is Abel by his primacy, Noah by his government, Abraham by his patriarchate, Melchizedek by his order, Aaron by his dignity, Samuel by his authority to judge, Peter by his power, and Christ by his anointing; that it is to him that the keys were given and the sheep were entrusted; that other prelates were called to have a part in his solicitude; but that all the fullness of power was communicated to him. Finally, that his jurisdiction has no other limits than those of the world, whereas that of other bishops is limited to certain particular jurisdictions." It would be endless to report what the other holy Fathers have said on this subject, which is one of the principal points of Catholic doctrine against the errors of the last centuries: those who wish to be more perfectly instructed in it may read what Cardinal Bellarmine wrote about it in the first volume of his Controversies, and Du Fal, doctor of the Sorbonne, in his Treatise on the Sovereign Pontiffs.

Thus, the fruit that the faithful must draw from this life is not only to imitate the great actions and admirable virtues of this prince of the Apostles, but also to attach themselves with a faith so firm and constant to the doctrine of his see, that no temptation, no persecution, no address of heretics, no difficulty suggested by the demon may be capable of separating them from it. For he who is attached to this see walks in the light and in the way of salvation; but he who separates himself from it casts himself into darkness and can expect nothing other than to be condemned with the infidels and the enemies of God.

The attributes of Saint Peter are affirmative of his preeminence over the other Apostles.

Thus: 1st, numerous monuments, paintings, mosaics, and sculptures show him with the keys in his hand, or in the very act of receiving them from the divine Master; it is a figurative translation of the promises made by the Savior to the one he established as the head of his Apostles and his Church. It is a chapter of the Gospel a thousand times reproduced by the arts of these first centuries: *Tibi dabo claves regni cœlorum*.

2nd, It is known that, wishing to prelude his sufferings with an example of humility, our Savior washed the feet of his Apostles. Now, when this fact is represented in our ancient monuments, it is always Saint Peter, and Saint Peter alone, who is depicted. A sarcophagus from Arles shows him manifesting by his gestures and the animation of his face his astonishment and confusion, as in the sacred text: "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"

3rd, If he is represented with Saint Paul in the bottoms of cups, for example, the artist often distinguishes him by some particular mark intended to show that, although colleagues in the apostolate, Saint Peter and Saint Paul are not equal. When they are depicted in bust, both dressed in the *lucerna*, this garment, which is plain for Saint Paul, is adorned for Saint Peter with a border of pearls, or trinkets all around the neck. When they are seated, Saint Peter occupies a chair with a backrest, while Saint Paul has only a simple bench or *subseillium*. In general, when they appear to be conversing together, Saint Peter usually makes a gesture of address, or presents a volume to his interlocutor with an imperious air; the latter, on the contrary, listens attentively, makes a sign of adhesion with his hand, or leans on the book he holds on his knees.

If Saint Peter is represented with all the other Apostles, as in the mosaic of the baptistery of Ravenna, besides the characteristic emblem of the keys, he is wearing a kind of tiara, while the others are bareheaded; in one of the vials of Monza, whose disk is adorned with the busts of the twelve Apostles, Saint Peter, at the right of the Savior, wears a radiated crown that distinguishes him from his colleagues in the apostolate. In bas-reliefs, mosaics, and elsewhere, whenever Our Lord, in the midst of his chosen disciples, confers his powers upon them, it is invariably to Saint Peter that he hands the unrolled volume, symbol of the sovereign power of teaching and direction which is given to him, not only over the lambs, but also over the sheep. Elsewhere, still on the sarcophagi, the divine Master, again as the Good Shepherd surrounded by his twelve Apostles and twelve sheep that represent them, tenderly caresses with his hand a sheep larger than the others, which corresponds exactly to the prince of the Apostles. When the Church is represented under the emblem of the ship, it is Saint Peter who handles the oar.

4th, But here is what is even more important to attest the belief of the primitive centuries in the primacy of Saint Peter. Moses, head of the Judaic Church and legislator of the Hebrews, was the figure of Peter, vicar of Jesus Christ and visible head of the Christian Church; or rather the second was only the continuator of the first, just as the New Testament was the complement of the Old. This is a truth whose tradition was constant and common among the first Christians, and which was often developed in the teaching of the Fathers. Such is the origin of the innumerable reproductions of the figure of Moses in Christian monuments. And these representations almost always take him in the trait that constitutes the most vivid resemblance between the role of the ancient Moses and the new Moses, that is to say, the striking of the rock of Horeb. There, indeed, the comparison is not arbitrary; it is presented by Saint Paul himself: "The Israelites drank the water gushing from the rock, and that rock is Christ."

- Moses draws from the rock water that quenches the thirst of the Hebrews; Peter makes gush from the true rock, which is Christ, the mysterious source of grace that reaches the faithful through the channels of the Sacraments. A truly marvelous painting, discovered recently in a crypt of the cemetery of Callistus, which has been nicknamed the chamber of the Sacraments, unfolds this doctrine before our eyes in a series of paintings arranged with infinite art. In the first place, one sees Moses or rather Saint Peter, striking the mystical rock; from the stream that escapes from it, a seated personage pulls a fish at the end of a line. It is the image of the conversion of an idolater by the virtue of grace flowing from the side of the Savior; further on, in this same divine water, this same man is baptized by a minister standing before him and resting his hand on the head of the neophyte for the triple immersion. At some distance still, a priest, extending his hands over a bread and a fish, consecrates the holy Eucharist; and finally, seven personages seated at a table take part in the sacred feast, where only the bread and the fish appear as before.

But however palpable this demonstration may be, we have monuments that make it even more certain. It is first of all a cup bottom where the determination of the personage striking the rock is fixed by the very name of Peter, *Petrus*, written in the field, and also by the perfect conformity of the head with the traditional type of the prince of the Apostles. This same type is no less recognizable in most of the sculptures of sarcophagi where the subject that occupies us is reproduced. And, so that one cannot be mistaken about it, a point of comparison is usually offered right next to it, the arrest of Saint Peter, and the head of this Apostle and that of Moses striking the rock are absolutely identical.

There is even more: in the bas-relief of a magnificent and truly precious sarcophagus in all respects, a monument of the 4th century, discovered a few years ago at Saint Paul Outside the Walls, one sees first Saint Peter at the moment when Our Lord announces his fall and at the same time the prayer he addresses to his father so that the faith of his vicar, once converted, may no longer experience failure. The rooster is at his feet, which removes any hesitation about the attribution of the personage of Saint Peter. The prince of the Apostles carries in his hand the rod, symbol of the authority entrusted to him and which is never attributed, in our monuments, to any other Apostle. A little further on, he makes use of this scepter to strike the mystical rock, from which one sees an abundant water coming out. It is the divine word announced by Peter on the day of Pentecost. The Synagogue splits into two parts: on one side, those of the Israelites who run with avidity to the life-giving waters of Christ; on the other, and this is the object of a third scene, those who, closing their eyes to the light, conspire against Saint Peter, seize him by the arm, and drag him before the tribunals of the scribes. And here again Saint Peter holds the rod of command which, free or captive, he will never relinquish. Allegranza gives a very curious antique Christian stone, which shows the Good Shepherd surrounded by twelve full-length figurines, which are none other than the twelve Apostles. Now, the first on the right is recognized as Saint Peter, by the rod he holds in his hand.

One of the most common attributes of Saint Peter is the cross, and commonly the jeweled cross that he holds in his left hand, and leaned against his shoulder, while with the right he receives the unrolled volume from Our Lord. This is the common type in sarcophagi, sepulchral stones, mosaics, and gilded glasses. The bronze statue that one sees at Saint Peter's in Rome carries the monogrammatic cross. The attribute of the cross alludes to the manner of death of this Apostle, and the monogram, which is nothing other than the abbreviation of the name of Christ, recalls in his hands the power that had been given to him to perform miracles by the virtue of this august name: "I have neither gold nor silver," he says to this infirm man who implored his pity at the door of the temple, "but in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk." A sarcophagus in the crypt of Saint-Maximin offers, in the resurrection of Tabitha, an interesting example of the exercise of this power of the prince of the Apostles. There also exists at Fermo, in Italy, a tomb where all the subjects represented in bas-reliefs are related to the life of Saint Peter.

CULT AND RELICS. — MONUMENTS. — WRITINGS.

Saint Peter having been deposited in the grottoes of the Vatican, on the Triumphal Way, this mountain which such a rich spoil has rendered more venerable than the Capitol was before, was later enclosed within the city, and the Popes had the basilica of Saint Peter built there, which is the richest and most superb edifice that has ever been seen in the world. Indeed, neither the temple of Ephesus, so renowned among the pagans, nor that of Solomon, so famous among the Jews, nor Hagia Sophia of Constantinople, which is presently the principal mosque of the Turks, nor the Escorial of Madrid, nor the cathedrals of Amiens, Beauvais, Reims, and Paris, which we have in France, have anything comparable to this august basilica: it is entirely built of marble inside and out; its grandeur and elevation are marvelous; its pavement, its walls, and its vault are so admirably adorned that they seem to have exhausted all the strength of art: its dome, which rises, so to speak, to the clouds, is an abridgment of all the beauties of painting, sculpture, and architecture; its covering is of lead and gilded copper. Finally, everything there is so rare and so exquisite that it surpasses all that one can imagine of it. It is in such a magnificent place that the precious ashes of the fisherman rest, so that everyone may know how much God honors his friends, and how advantageous it is to live and die in his service. One cannot express the devotion of all peoples to visit his sepulcher. One has seen there at all times a host of pilgrims from all corners of the earth. Emperors, kings, and the greatest princes of the world have come there to implore the help of the one who was taken from a boat to be made the pastor of the Church. Even the infidels and the heretics have been as if forced to respect him. When Alaric, king of the Goths, took Rome, having permitted the pillage to his soldiers, he wanted the basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul to be asylums, and forbade touching either the persons or the goods that would be within their enclosure: and when the empress Theodora ordered Anthimus to seize Pope Vigilius, in whatever place he could take him, she excepted the basilica of Saint Peter, as a place so holy and so august that it should be exempt from all sorts of violence.

For a few moments, the relics of the prince of the Apostles rested in the catacombs of Saint Sebastian, on the Appian Way. They had been transported there in a moment of danger; but they were restored to their primitive place by Pope Saint Cornelius. Under the emperor Constantine, they were deposited, by Pope Saint Sylvester, in a silver casket, which was enclosed in another casket of gilded bronze. Above, a gold cross of considerable weight was placed. The crypt in the middle of which this precious deposit was to remain was covered internally with metal plates: a solidly constructed vault defended the access to this venerable underground sanctuary against the indiscreet devotion of pilgrims or against the rapacity of the barbarians. In the time of Saint Gregory of Tours, a small square opening, made in the pavement and furnished with a bronze door, looked onto the casket. The entire Confession was splendidly decorated. At the time of the construction of the current edifice, the primitive disposition underwent no change: Paul V limited himself to redoing the approaches. Towards the end of the 16th century, while working on the pavement, the dark crypt where the body of the Apostle rests was discovered. Clement VIII, accompanied by Bellarmine and two other cardinals, descended into the sacred grotto, and, by the light of a torch, he contemplated the gold cross placed on the casket by Constantine. At this sight, the Pontiff and the assistants were seized with deep emotion. The Pope then ordered this opening to be closed in his presence. The major altar of the current basilica covers the ancient oratory founded by Pope Saint Anacletus, and the altar of the ancient basilica of Constantine. It is therefore placed above the tomb of the holy apostles Peter and Paul. Half of the body of Saint Peter and half of the body of Saint Paul are in this tomb. The other halves of the bodies of the holy Apostles are at Saint Paul Outside the Walls, under the major altar. The heads are at Saint John Lateran, as will be seen further on.

As the sovereign Pontiffs have always prevented with great care that the relics of the prince of the Apostles be taken from Rome, one sees almost none elsewhere than in this capital of the Catholic world. Nevertheless, the abbey of Cluny possesses a little of his ashes which were brought from Rome by religious. These inestimable relics, contained in a precious urn, were placed under the major altar of the abbey church by Hugh, archbishop of Bourges, recognized as authentic and venerated with tender devotion by Pope Callixtus II, when he honored the monastery of Cluny with his presence.

One saw at Abbeville, in the priory of Saint Peter, of the Order of Cluny, one of the nails with which this holy Apostle was attached to the cross.

As for the chains of Saint Peter, which are religiously preserved in Rome, we will speak of them on August 1st, the day on which their feast is celebrated.

The French republicans, having seized Rome in 1798, stripped the churches of all their silverware, and did no chaînes de saint Pierre Central relics of the biography, having bound the apostle in Jerusalem and Rome. t even respect the reliquaries that enclosed the venerable heads of Saint Peter and Saint Paul. These reliquaries, more rich than elegant, had been executed in 1369, under the pontificate of Urban V. They were adorned with a large number of precious stones, given by Charles V, king of France. It was therefore necessary to deliver these reliquaries; but at the same time, particular care was taken for the preservation of the holy relics, which were deposited in a tin box, well sealed and placed above the high altar of Saint John Lateran, where these heads had been venerated for several centuries. They remained there in the same box until 1803. At that time, a very rich Spanish lady, named Marie-Emmanuelle Pignatelli, duchess of Villa Ibernosa, a widow, wanted to repair a part of the losses that the rapacity of the French had caused to the churches of Rome. She had the crib of Our Lord, preserved at Saint Mary Major, adorned with gold and silver, as well as the notable piece of the true Cross that the church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem possesses; then she had two large silver busts of the holy apostles Peter and Paul executed, for which she wanted the faces to be in gold. These busts having been carried into the church of Saint John Lateran, Pope Pius VII went there on July 3, 1804, and had the tin box opened, in which two other silver boxes, in the shape of balls, were found, carefully wrapped and sealed. On one was the name of Saint Peter, and on the other that of Saint Paul. The first contained the skull, the lower jaw, and a vertebra of the prince of the Apostles. The official report does not mention what the second contained; but one sees by this act that the greater part of the head of Saint Paul was there. These holy relics were enclosed in crystal vases, so that the faithful could, according to the desire of the donor, see them when they would be exposed. These vases, trimmed in vermeil, were placed inside the busts where they are now, and they are taken out when the holy relics are exposed to the veneration of the faithful.

One still shows today, in Rome, the part of the Mamertine prison where the holy apostles Peter and Paul were chained by order of Nero. It consists of two dungeons, placed one above the other. A staircase of modern construction allows one to descend into the first, buried twenty-five feet underground. Under the Romans, there was neither staircase nor loss: one slid the condemned into it through a circular opening, made in the center of the vault, and which is still closed by an iron grate. On the right, one distinguishes the traces of a vent that allowed a little air and light to arrive in this living tomb. The upper dungeon is eight meters long, by three wide and four in height. The lower dungeon, located below the first and called the Tullian prison, is narrower, more humid, and totally deprived of light. One similarly lowered the condemned into it through an opening made in the center of the vault. The granite column to which the chain of the holy Apostles was sealed during their captivity is still standing. At its feet flows a fountain whose water pilgrims drink with respect. Tradition teaches us that this source gushed miraculously at the voice of Saint Peter, when the two jailers Processus and Martinianus, converted by the Apostle, received Baptism from his chained hand. An altar has been erected along one of the walls of the prison which is now a venerated sanctuary where masses are celebrated each day. Above this sanctuary, which today bears the name of *San Pietro in carcere*, two churches have been built, one called of the Crucifix, and the other dedicated to Saint Joseph.

On the road to Ostia rises a small chapel, called of the Farewells or of the Separation. It was erected at the place where the two Apostles going to martyrdom said their last farewell. Above the door, a bas-relief in white marble represents the two Apostles giving each other the kiss of peace and farewell; below one reads these words, preserved to the memory of the centuries by Saint Dionysius the Areopagite: "Peace be with you, head of the Church, pastor of all the lambs of Christ! said Saint Paul. — Go in peace, preacher of heavenly goods, guide of the just in the path of salvation! answered Saint Peter."

On the Janiculum hill is the church of Saint Peter in Montorio, which was built in the 15th century, under Sixtus IV; it is the church of the Franciscan convent. The courtyard of this convent contains a pretty rotunda temple, also raised in the 15th century over the hole where the cross of Saint Peter was planted.

Arriving at the place where the Baths of Caracalla were later built, the bandages that surrounded the wound made by the chains on the legs of the Apostle detached themselves. The piety of the faithful noted this place, and Constantine raised at this location the basilica *della Fascista*, where the bandages stained with blood were deposited. The monument, rebuilt since that time, still preserves its glorious tradition under the cardinalitial title of Saints Nereus and Achilleus, whose name it now bears.

In the church of Saint Mary *Traspontina*, one sees the columns to which the two Apostles were tied to be scourged before being led to martyrdom.

The church of Saint Mary the New, at the Forum, was built by Pope Paul I, to consecrate the place where Saint Peter had knelt while Simon the Magician rose into the air. The knees of the holy Apostle remained engraved on the stone, and this stone, kissed with love by millions of pilgrims, is preserved in the very place where the event took place. It is the most precious relic of Saint Mary the New.

In the basilica of Saint John Lateran, in the center of the transept, under the great arch of the main nave, supported by two columns of oriental granite thirty-eight feet high, rises the papal altar, the same where Saint Peter said mass. It is there as it was taken from the catacombs by Pope Saint Sylvester. Its simplicity and even its poverty recall well the first centuries of the Church: a few fir planks, without gilding and without ornament other than a cross carved on the front part, that is all. Out of respect, it has been surrounded by a marble balustrade, on which are engraved the arms of Urban VIII and the king of France. A rich star covers it entirely. It is, we believe, the only altar in the world under which there are no relics. To the successor of Peter belongs the exclusive right to celebrate the holy Mysteries there. Above the altar, one sees, at a great height, a tent of crimson velvet enhanced with gold. This pavilion covers an arch or ciborium in Parian marble supported by four columns of Egyptian marble with Corinthian capitals in gilded bronze. There are enclosed the heads of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul. Twice each year, on Holy Saturday and on Rogation Tuesday, they are solemnly exposed to the veneration of the faithful. There is another custom no less worthy of being known. In order to steep all young lips in the very source of the priestly spirit, the spirit of the apostolate and of martyrdom, it is at the foot of the altar of which we have just spoken, under the eyes of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, that the ordinations take place.

We have two epistles under the name of Saint Peter, which are of the number of those we call *catholic* or *ecumenical*. The first is addressed from Babylon, that is to say from Rome, to the faithful of Pontus, Bithynia, Galatia, Asia, and Cappadocia. The principal goal of the Apostle is to console and strengthen in the faith the faithful to whom he writes, and to support them in the midst of the afflictions and persecutions they were suffering. This is why he often puts before their eyes the greatness of their vocation, the grace that God has done them in choosing them, and the advantages there are in patiently enduring the evils of the present life. He also prescribes to them rules for conducting themselves with wisdom in the different states of this life. He orders them all to obey princes and all superiors; to servants, to serve their masters faithfully, not only those who are good and gentle, but even those who are harsh and difficult; to wives, to be submissive to their husbands and modest in their clothes; to all generally, to help one another, to occupy themselves with prayer and works of charity; to pastors, to conduct themselves with entire disinterestedness, and to govern their flock with charity and with gentleness, not by dominating the inheritance of the Lord, but by making themselves models of the flock, by a virtue that is born from the bottom of the heart.

The second epistle was written from Rome, like the first, but a few years later, and addressed also to the same faithful of Pontus and the neighboring provinces. The design of Saint Peter, in this letter, is to awaken the faithful and to leave them in writing an abridgment of the truths he had taught them, so that they can more easily put them back before their eyes after his death. He exhorts them to apply themselves to good works, to persevere in the sound doctrine of the Apostles, and to take care not to let themselves be corrupted by the illusions of false teachers who were already spreading several errors in the Church and scandalizing it by their bad examples. He refutes the errors of those who maintained that there would be neither resurrection of the bodies, nor final judgment, nor coming of Jesus Christ, nor conflagration of the world.

One has attributed to Saint Peter a book of his acts, an apocalypse, a gospel, a work having for title: *Of the preaching* or *Of the doctrine of Saint Peter*, and another: *Of the judgment*. But all these works are recognized as apocryphal.

We have completed this life with the *History of Saint Peter*, by the abbé Molstra; Godassard; the *General History of the Church*, by the abbé Darras; *The Three Romes*, by Mgr Gaume; the Bible without the Bible, by the abbé Galnet, 2 vol. in-8 raisin, laid paper, at M. Guérin, in Bar-le-Duc. — Cf. *Rome, its Churches, its monuments, its institutions*, by the abbé Rolland; the *Hagiology of Nice*, by Mgr Crousier; the Apostles, by the abbé Bourassé; the *History of the Roman Sovereign Pontiffs*, by Artand de Montor.