The Prince of the Apostles, whose original name was Simon or Simeon, but who was surnamed Peter, or the Rock, by Christ Himself, was a native of Bethsaida, on the banks of the Sea of Gennesaret. He was the son of a fisherman named Jonas, and the brother of St. Andrew. Little is known of his early life, but he is said to have married young, and to have gone to Capernaum with his bride because her mother lived there. He followed his father’s profession, considered an honorable one amongst the Jews, and he and his brother continued to gain their livelihood by fishing long after they became the disciples of Christ. St. Andrew was a follower of St. John the Baptist, and many are of opinion that St. Peter also had often gone to hear him preach. In any case, the brothers had both long looked for the coming of the Messiah, and their minds were to a certain extent prepared to find Him, not amongst the great, but the humble ones of the earth. Andrew having witnessed the Baptism of Christ, and heard the Carpenter’s Son addressed as the Lamb of God, sought Him to whom so strange a title was given, to try and learn its meaning. In his converse with the Lord, he recognized that He was the eagerly hoped for Leader, and went at once to tell his brother Simon the good news. Together the two returned to Jesus, and directly the Master looked at Simon He won the young fisherman’s whole heart. He called him by his name, telling him He knew that of his father also, and gave him the new title of Cephas, or the Rock, of which the Greek form is Petrus, on which the claim for the supremacy of the first Apostle is founded.
After this most important interview with Christ, the brothers often resorted to Him for help and advice, either together or singly; but it was not until some months later, when the incident of the miraculous draught of fishes had taken place, that the definite call was given to them to follow Christ, who promised to make them fishers of men. As was so often the case in his later career, it was when he was most oppressed with his unworthiness that Simon, or Cephas, was singled out for special favor. Overwhelmed with a sense of the divinity of the Lord, he had just entreated Him to depart from him, when he was invited to remain with Him always, and without a moment’s hesitation he obeyed, forsaking all which he had hitherto valued. The boat, which had so long been the source of his livelihood, now became the symbol of the Church, of which he was later to be the pilot; and the rest of the Gospel narrative is full of instances of the affection in which he was held by the Master, who cured his wife’s mother of a fever, and was often his guest at Capernaum.
When, after the Feast of the Passover, the Savior chose His twelve Apostles, the first place was given to Peter; his boat was taken to preach from more than once; and he was with Christ when He raised the daughter of Jairus. He was the very first to proclaim the divinity of the Lord at that critical moment when Jesus asked His disciples, ‘Whom say ye that I am?’ And his eager reply, ‘Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,’ was rewarded by the wonderful words: ‘Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church’, and I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven.’ He was present with Saints James and John at the Transfiguration, and was the only one of the three privileged witnesses of that remarkable manifestation who ventured to speak. When some of the new converts fell away, unable to bear the doctrine taught by the Son of God, and the Master, turning to the twelve, asked the touching question, ‘Will ye also go away?’ St. Peter cried: ‘Lord, to whom should we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life.’ That he should ever have been weak enough to deny the Lord he loved so well is one of the sad mysteries of human nature but out of his very weakness came the strength which, after his bitter repentance, made him the true rock of the Church, against which even the rates of hell were unable to prevail.
After the Resurrection St. Peter was the first to enter the sepulchre; he was also the first of the Apostles to whom the risen Lord appeared, and he was the only one of the twelve to hold any conversation with the Master before the Ascension, for, with this exception, the parting words were addressed to all, not to any individual. Cheered and comforted by the forgiveness of his denial implied in the thrice-repeated question, ‘Do you love Me?’ and braced up to meet without shrinking the terrible death prophesied for him, St. Peter called a meeting of the Apostles immediately after the return from Mount Olivet, whence the Master had been received out of their sight. At this meeting, held in the upper room so full of memories of the Lord, St. Peter proposed the election of a new Apostle to take the place of the traitor Judas, and the lot having fallen on Matthias, he was thenceforth numbered amongst the original band. On the Day of Pentecost, when the Savior’s promise was fulfilled and the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the twelve, St. Peter was the one who calmed the excitement, rightly interpreted the remarkable occurrence, and, by the eloquence with which he testified and exhorted the wondering audience, won over some three thousand souls to the faith. It was St. Peter, in conjunction with St. John, who wrought the first miracle after the Lord had left the earth, fulfilling His prophecy that they should do great things through His power; for, going up one afternoon to the Temple, they cured a man who had been lame from his birth, at the Gate Beautiful, St. Peter commanding him in the name of Jesus to arise and walk.
St. Peter presided at the election of the first seven deacons of the Church, whose chief functions were to assist the Bishop at the altar, distributing the consecrated wine to the communicants, and to take care of the poor and widows amongst the Christians. When, as a result of the conversion of so many heathens by the Apostles, the great persecution arose, St. Peter remained at Jerusalem, to comfort and sustain the sufferers. He was present at the death of St. Stephen, and risked his own life at every turn by the unfailing courage with which he bore witness to the truth. He was the judge who condemned Ananias and Sapphira, and he was the first Apostle to receive a Gentile into the Church. When the fury of the heathen against the faithful had somewhat abated at Jerusalem, St. Peter went with St. John to Samaria, there to confer the gift of the Holy Spirit on the many new converts won over to the faith by St. Philip, one of the first deacons. St. Peter then paid a pastoral visit to various outlying districts, cheering and encouraging the Christians and working many miracles. At Lydda he restored to health a man named Aeneas, who had long suffered greatly from palsy; and at Joppa he raised from the dead the widow Tabitha, celebrated for the generous help she had long given to the poor and oppressed.
At Joppa, St. Peter lodged with his namesake Simon, a tanner, whence he was summoned to Caesarea, as related in the tenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, to baptize Cornelius, a Gentile who had been converted by an angel sent direct from heaven, and from him received instructions to summon the great Apostle to his aid. The full significance of this demand of one who was not a Jew for admission to the Church is enforced by the graphic description of St. Peter’s struggle before he realized that it was his duty to obey. The messengers of Cornelius arrived when the Head of the Church was wrestling in prayer on the house-top, and they were waiting at the gate below whilst the remarkable vision was going on, revealing the will of God in the matter. St. Peter returned with them to Cesesarea, and there baptized, not only Cornelius, but many others who had gathered round to witness the strange ceremony; for even whilst the Apostle was telling the wonderful story of the work and life of Christ, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word.
This incident, the rumor of which reached Jerusalem before St. Peter’s return, caused much excitement amongst the Jews, and it needed all the Apostle’s eloquence to convince them that he had done right. In the end, however, even ‘they of the circumcision’ were induced to hold their peace and glorify God, who to ‘the Gentiles also had granted repentance unto life.’ Not long after this first admission of outsiders to the Church took place the Conversion of St. Paul, an event of perhaps even more importance than the baptism of Cornelius. The departure of the Apostles to preach the Gospel in all lands scattered the twelve, but St. Peter was at Jerusalem in the year 37 A.D., when St. Paul paid him a visit, abiding with him several days, and that close friendship between the two great teachers began which had such important results for themselves and those committed to their care.
The probability is that, whilst still making the Jewish capital his headquarters, St. Peter made many missionary journeys elsewhere, travelling in Galatia, Bithynia, Cappadocia, etc., and winning very many to Christ, keeping in touch with his converts later by constant letters and messages to them. Although it is not alluded to in the Acts of the Apostles, a tradition is very generally received that St. Peter went to Antioch before he took up his abode in Rome, with which city his name is chiefly connected. Some, including such great authorities as Eusebius, Origen, St. Jerome, St. Chrysostom, and St. Gregory the Great, believe him to have founded a Church in the ancient capital of Syria, to have been chosen its first Bishop, and to have presided over it for no less than seven years. In the most ancient Calendar, which has been preserved to modern times, that of Pope Liberius, dating from the fourth century, the 22nd of February is marked as sacred to the Chair of St. Peter at Antioch, and it is also noted in all early martyrologies; it having been customary for several centuries for Bishops to celebrate the day of their consecration, as well as for converts to keep the anniversary of their baptism.
When, at the end of the seven years of his episcopate. St. Peter was compelled to leave Antioch, he chose, it is said, St. Barnabas to take his place, and returned to Jerusalem, where King Herod, anxious to please the Jews, was doing all he could to vex the Church. He slew the first Bishop of Jerusalem, and put St. Peter in prison, intending to bring him forth to the people after the Feast of the Passover, but whether to set him free or repeat the tragedy of the murder of St. James does not appear. How the King’s intentions were frustrated is well known: an angel released St. Peter from prison, and after the Apostle had assured his friends of his safety by his visit to the house of Mary, he withdrew from Judea to Caesarea. How long he remained there is not known, but he was again at Jerusalem when the great Council of the Apostles was held, to consider whether it was desirable, as some urged, to administer circumcision to the converts to Christianity, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. On this occasion St. Peter addressed the assembly with his usual pregnant eloquence, but where he went after the meeting is somewhat obscure.
A charming tradition relates that the Savior Himself appeared to the Apostle in a vision, and said to him: “Arise, Peter, and take possession of the West, for it has need of thee, to flash before its eyes the torch of the light of the Gospel. I, even I, will be with thee there.’ In any case, St. Peter seems to have felt that he might now safely leave the work in Judea to others, and he started for Rome, sowing the seed of the faith by the way, and arriving there when the Emperor Claudius was still on the throne. Of his early experiences in the Imperial City nothing is known, but that he founded the Church of Rome and was its first Bishop is accepted as a fact by Christians of pretty well every shade of belief, though how long he presided over his see there is quite unknown, the opinion of St. Jerome that he lived in Rome for twenty-five years being considered erroneous. That he suffered martyrdom under Nero is also generally believed, chiefly because in no other way could the prophecy of Christ have been fulfilled, but also on the undeviating authority of early ecclesiastical writers. Origen and Eusebius assert that he was crucified with his head downwards, at his own request, and others add that he was shut up in the Mamertine Prison with St. Paul for eight months before the end, converting and baptizing the gaolers Processus and Martinianus, with many others who came to visit them. St. Peter, it is said, was scourged before his death, but St. Paul, as a Roman citizen, was spared that humiliation. It is generally supposed that the martyrdom took place on the banks of the Tiber, outside the Ostian Gate; but opinion is divided as to whether the Apostles suffered together, or only on the same day of the year, St. Peter dying exactly twelve months before St. Paul.
According to St. Gregory, who held the former belief, the bodies of the Apostles were at first buried in the Catacombs, two miles outside the city, beneath the site of the present Church of S. Sebastiano. Tradition asserts, however, that they remained there only eighteen months, when the remains of St. Paul were taken somewhat further along the Ostian road, whilst those of St. Peter were re-interred on the Vatican hill, from which the great church dedicated to him was to rise later. Many years afterwards the bones were again disturbed, and now it is generally supposed that one half of each body rests beneath the Church of S. Paolo fuori le Mura and the other half in the vault known as the Confessio di S. Pietro in the great Cathedral; whilst the heads are kept in a costly reliquary in yet another sacred building, the Basilica of S. Giovanni in Laterano, the Mother of all the Churches.
History and well-established tradition are responsible for the facts related above, but these have been largely supplemented by many beautiful legends, some so realistic and impressive that it is impossible to help feeling that they are at least founded on truth. To the narrative of the release from prison of St. Peter, for instance, various details have been added which have found credence amongst the faithful. The Apostle, who was to be put to death after the Passover, was guarded in his confinement by sixteen soldiers, two of whom were constantly with him in his cell, and he was bound down to the ground by two heavy chains, which chains, after being long preserved as sacred relics at Jerusalem, came into the possession of the Pope, and were by him placed, with great reverence, in a church built specially for their reception, known as S. Pietro in Vincoli, where they still remain, the festival of their acquisition being kept on August 1. Raspings filed from these holy chains by the Pope himself were sometimes sent as rewards to those who had aided the Holy See in times of difficulty, but otherwise they remain, it is said, exactly as they were when they fell from the Apostle’s limbs at the touch of the angel.
Among the many legendary incidents of the stay of St. Peter at Rome is the picturesque trial of strength between him and Simon the magician, who, as related in the Acts of the Apostles, had already given the Apostles some trouble at Jerusalem, offering to purchase for money their power of working miracles. St. Peter, says St. Augustine, was so enraged against him that if he had fallen on the traitor, he would certainly have torn him to pieces, an incidental proof of the fiery zeal which animated the man whom St. Chrysostom called the ‘burning lover of Christ.’ Convicted of imposture by the superior power of the Holy Spirit working through St. Peter and St. Paul, Simon dung all his implements of magic into the Dead Sea, and fled to Rome. Here he attracted the notice of the Emperor Claudius, who believed his power to be of Divine origin, and even had a statue erected to him in the Isle of the Tiber, with the inscription, ‘Simoni Deo Sancto.’ Inflated with pride at his reception at Court, Simon now claimed to be indeed a god, declaring that he could heal the sick and raise the dead.
On the death of the Emperor the magician is said to have become the chief adviser of his successor, Nero, who, ever full of superstition, tried to win from Simon some of his supposed skill in the black art. Hearing of the deceptions practised by the impostor, St. Peter and St. Paul determined to put him to shame at Rome, as they had already done at Jerusalem. They therefore challenged him to prove his power &fore them in the presence of the Emperor, who, expecting an exciting scene, gave his consent. Two tests were to be tried. Simon was to raise the dead, and prove that he had spoken the truth when he had said that he could fly, for that angels would come to his aid, even as they had done to that of the Christian’s Master at His ascension. The body of a young man who had recently died was laid upon the ground, and Simon was told to restore him to life. He bid the corpse arise, but it remained perfectly rigid. Then the Apostles spoke, and immediately the man stood up on his feet fully restored to life. The second trial resulted in the death of Simon. Crowned with laurel as a victor, he flung himself from a lofty tower, and seemed for a while to be floating in the air. Then he fell with a great crash, and when picked up was found to be mortally injured. He died a few days later in great misery and suffering, laying the blame of his defeat on St. Peter, whom he accused of causing the angels — or, rather, the demons — who were upholding him to loosen their hold on him through his prayers to a higher Power. This quaint story is related by St. Justin, St. Ambrose, St. Cyril, St. Isidore, and many others, and there seems little doubt that in the first century of the Christian era there really lived a magician whose name was Simon, and who for a long time had followers amongst the converts, for so many his works seemed as wonderful as those of Saints Peter and Paul. Irenaeus speaks of him as the ‘father of all heretics,’ declaring that all who corrupt the truth are his disciples. In Roman history a magician is mentioned who tried to fly in Nero’s presence, but was killed in the first attempt, his blood staining the robes of the Emperor.
A more pleasing legend is that of the meeting of St. Peter with Christ outside the gates of Rome, supposed to have taken place soon after the death of Simon the magician. Nero, it is said, was filled with fresh fury at the defeat of his favorite, for he had hoped that the hated Apostles would be put to shame. He resolved that they should die, and that St. Peter should be the first to suffer. Hearing of this, the Christians entreated their beloved Bishop to withdraw for a time till the storm should be over past. He refused at first, but, being won over by the importunities of the converts, he at last reluctantly left Rome by the Appian Gate under cover of the night. Some say that the bolts of the gate fell back of themselves, but that in spite of this the way was barred so that St. Peter could not pass through. Others assert that he had not gone far when he was startled by a radiance in his path, and there, walking to meet him, was the Savior Himself, who looked at him with eyes full of reproach. In wondering awe, St. Peter fell on his knees, saying: ‘Lord, whither goest Thou?’ And Christ replied: ‘I go to Rome to be crucified a second time.’ Then the beautiful vision faded away, but St. Peter knew full well what it had meant. He was to return to Rome to suffer the death prophesied for him by his Master so long ago, and without a moment’s hesitation he retraced his steps. He was at once taken prisoner, and, with St. Paul, thrown into prison, whence no angel this time delivered him. A church, still known by the name of Domine quo Vadis, was later built upon the Appian Way to commemorate this touching meeting, and in it is a marble slab with a copy cut in it of the footprint said to have been left by the Savior where He stood to address St. Peter. The original stone containing the sacred imprint is preserved in the Church of St. Sebastiano.
Although St. Peter is justly reverenced as the founder of the Church in Rome, and the whole city is full of memories of him, there is no actual record of the building under his instruction of any special House of God. A tradition is, however, generally received that he converted the residence of a Roman Senator named Pudens, whom he had won to the faith, into a place of worship for the Christians, who had previously met only in secret in the Catacombs or in private rooms. The Church of St. Pietro in Vincoli alluded to above is supposed to occupy the site of the house of Pudens.
Another legend fully believed in the early Church, though there is no allusion to it in the Acts of the Apostles, was that St. Peter, who is known to have been married before his conversion, had an only daughter, whose name was Petronilla or Petrena. De Rossi and others assert, however, that she was the child of St. Peter by adoption only; but whatever the relationship, all agree in saying that she was of wondrous beauty, and accompanied her father on all his missionary journeys. During the second stay of St. Peter in Rome the young girl was attacked by a mysterious disease, depriving her of the use of her limbs. The converts who had witnessed so many miracles of healing wrought by the Apostle expected that he would at once restore his child to health, and one day, when several of them were sharing a meal in his house, one of them made bold to say: ‘Master, how is it that thou, who healed the infirmities of others, dost not heal thy daughter?’ To this very natural question St. Peter replied: ‘It is good for her to remain sick.’ That all might know, however, that it was the will, not the power, which was wanting, he turned to Petronilla bidding her arise and wait on those at table. She did so, and when the meal was over meekly took her place again upon her couch of suffering. Some years later St. Peter was permitted to give her back the use of her limbs. She was once more his constant companion, and, growing ever more lovely, she attracted the notice of a young Roman nobleman named Flaccus, who besought her to be his wife. Fearing to refuse him, for she does not seem to have been endowed with the courage of her father, yet not wishing to marry a heathen, Petronilla temporized, telling him that if he would return on a certain day, she would allow him to carry her home. Then she prayed earnestly for help in her perplexity, and on the very morning of the day when the wedding should have taken place, she was found dead in her bed. The attendants who had come to escort the bride to her bridegroom’s palace bore her instead to the grave, where she was laid with much pomp and ceremony, a crown of roses on her brow. According to another version of the story of Petronilla, she lived to a great age, surviving her father for thirty-four years.
The mystery shrouding the death of the great Apostle has led to the growing up of many traditions on the subject. It is related, for instance, that after he was bound to the cross, he made a beautiful speech to those who had gathered about him to watch his sufferings, and some of the very words of this farewell are quoted. ‘O great and profound secret of the Cross!’ he is reported to have said, ‘it is by it that God draws all to Him. It is the Tree of Life which has destroyed the Empire of Death; it is by the fruit of this tree, O Savior! that Thou hast opened my eyes; open now the eyes of all present that they too may contemplate the consolation of eternal life.’
When life was quite extinct, and the executioners had withdrawn, the disciples were allowed to remove the body, and it was taken from the Cross by a Roman named Marcellus, who had been converted by St. Peter, and was the son of Mark, a prefect. As the mourners, after washing the corpse, were embalming it, three strangers joined them whom no one had ever seen before, but who said they had come from Rome. When all was ready the sacred remains were buried beneath a terebinth-tree, and one of the strangers addressed the Christians, bidding them rejoice, for the death of the Apostles would have great results for them. That night Marcellus was appointed to watch over the grave, and as he sat weeping St. Peter appeared to him, called him by his name, and reproached him for wasting time in mourning. ‘Brother Marcellus,’ he said, ‘thou hast not heard the voice of the Savior, who said, ‘‘Let the dead bury their dead.” “Yea, but I did,” replied the watcher. ‘Well, then,’ added St. Peter, ‘weep no more . . . but rejoice, in that you have done honor to the follower of Him who is in the very heart of life and of the faith. Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and announce, as my lips command thee, the kingdom of God.’ Then Marcellus went and told the other believers what he had seen and heard, so that all were greatly cheered and comforted. It is related further that St. Peter also appeared soon after his death to Nero, terrifying him by the awful fate he prophesied for him.
St. Peter, as chief of the Apostles, is, of course, the titular Saint of many churches, and the patron of numerous towns. England, which he is said to have visited on one of his missionary journeys, at one time honored him especially, though after the Reformation he fell into something like disrepute, on account of his identification with the claims of the Papacy. The great Benedictine Abbey which once occupied the site of the present Cathedral of Peterborough was dedicated to St.
Peter, with St. Paul and St. Andrew; and Northumberland long looked upon him as a special protector. In Rome the great Apostle has ever been the Saint of saints; and on every side traces are met with of the loving reverence in which his memory has from the first been held. Antioch, which prides herself on having honored St. Peter long before his name was heard in Rome, still greatly reverences his memory. He is revered throughout the whole of Italy and in all Catholic countries.
Many coins, notably those of Louvain, bear his effigy; and there is scarcely a city on the Continent which has not, at least, one church dedicated to him.
St. Peter is the patron Saint of reapers, probably because the Church celebrates his release from the prison at Jerusalem on August 1st, about which time the harvest generally begins; whilst shoemakers, saddlers, and other workers in leather invoke his aid, possibly because of the angel’s words: ‘Bind on thy sandals.’ Fishermen appeal to him because he was of their vocation; and probably as a supplement, so to speak, of the care he takes of them, he is also supposed to look after all who supply planks for boats, floors, or ceilings. The bankers of Paris, too, are under his special protection, though why it is difficult to say.
Chief of the many attributes of St. Peter are the keys, in allusion, of course, to the words of the Savior, ‘I will give unto thee the keys of heaven and of earth’ — a prophecy taken by Roman Catholics to include the entrance to purgatory as well, for the gate of it is named after the Apostle, who is said to appoint the angel guarding it.
Sometimes St. Peter has one key only, but generally he holds two, one a large one of gold, the other smaller, of silver; but examples occur, as in a mosaic on a tomb preserved in the Lateran Museum, of the introduction of three, the last probably intended to be that of purgatory. These keys are of different forms, and a whole system of symbolism, into which it is not necessary to enter here, has been founded on their shape and size. They have been adopted as part of their crest or armorial bearings by many religious communities. Two keys with a crozier over the door of a monastery were long the sign that it was under the protection of the Prince of Apostles. The abbots of Cluny combined in their seal the keys of St. Peter with the knife of St. Paul, which also mark the 29th of June in many old calendars; whilst a big key without the knife is the sign of the 22nd of February, the date of the foundation of the See of Antioch, and also of the 1st of August, the day of the delivery of St. Peter from prison by the angel. Occasionally a fish, the sign of the Apostle’s original vocation, and also the type of Christianity, especially of baptism, its initial rite, is placed in the hand of the Apostle, or he is seen in a small boat drawing in the net full of fishes. The last scene has been chosen by the Popes for representation on their official seal, which is called the * ring of the fisherman.’
In pictures of the Assumption or Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, St. Peter generally holds the holy- water sprinkler as celebrant of the mysteries; in other scenes he carries a cross, sometimes over his shoulder, in token of the instrument of his death, sometimes in his hand, as a simple emblem of his belief in Christ. Strange to say, in spite of the persistency of the legend that the Apostle was crucified head downwards, the cross is seldom reversed; and pictures in which his death is thus represented are extremely rare. Sometimes, as in the MS. named after the Princess Melisenda, long kept in La Grande Chartreuse, and now in the British Museum, St. Peter carries a cross with a very long staff and short arms, as a token probably of his position as a bishop. When, as in a bas-relief on a sarcophagus at Arles, the cross is heavy and studded with gems, it is supposed to indicate his martyrdom; and if it bears the monogram of Christ, it is believed to have reference to his Apostolic dignity.
The much-venerated bronze figure of St. Peter in the Cathedral at Rome upholds a monogrammatic cross and is seated in an episcopal chair, so that it typifies him in his double capacity as Bishop and Apostle. In some calendars the chair, with or without the figure of the Saint, replaces the key on the 18th of January and the 22nd of February, the days of the foundation of the Sees of Rome and Antioch. In certain old pictures a kind of sheet full of animals is represented descending from the sky, whilst St. Peter gazes up at it in wondering awe; in others, a spring is issuing from the walls of his prison in Rome, in allusion to the legend that a miraculous supply of water appeared to enable Saints Peter and Paul to baptize their gaolers. Yet another symbol of the great Apostle is the cock, on which it is said he could never look without tears after his terrible fall, but this, strange to say, is of comparatively rare occurrence, perhaps because it recalls the favorite Saint’s denial of his Lord. In Russia and other northern countries St. Peter is popularly supposed to begin the breaking up of the ice by flinging a hot stone upon it, and in some calendars a stone or a large egg is associated with the key on February 22nd. The egg is said to have reference to the fact that the wild geese begin to lay about the same time as the ice breaks up.
It is claimed by faithful believers in the supremacy of the See of Rome, not without some show of reason, that it was customary from the earliest days of the Church to mark the exceptional position of St. Peter by certain significant details of dress, attitude, or gesture. Sometimes, for instance, when Christ appears as the Good Shepherd surrounded by the lambs symbolizing the Apostles, St. Peter’s sheep is larger than that of any of the others, and Christ is caressing it tenderly. When the Church is figured as a ship, St. Peter is at the helm to mark the fact of his leadership. He was often associated with Moses, as in a painting in the catacomb of S. Callixtus at Rome, in which he and the prophet are striking a rock in the foreground, and other symbolical scenes are seen in the background. When the arrest of St. Peter is represented, Moses is sometimes introduced striking a rock, and the heads of the two figures are very much alike. In a fourth-century bas-relief on a sarcophagus found not many years ago in St. Paolo fuori le Mura, St. Peter is represented, the cock at his feet, at the moment when Christ prophesies his fall, but for all that he holds in his hand a rod, the symbol of authority which was never given to any other of the twelve; and in another scene on the same tomb he is striking a rock with this rod. If St. Peter is with all the other Apostles, as in the mosaics of the Baptistery of Ravenna, he sometimes wears a kind of tiara whilst the others are bareheaded, and it is always to him that the Master gives the scroll, the symbol of the power to teach.
The superiority of St. Peter was to a certain extent shared by St. Paul, and the two were very constantly represented together, the former, however, as a rule taking precedence of the latter. When, for example, both are seated, St. Peter is in a chair with a back, whilst St. Paul is on a mere bench; the robes of St. Peter are often beautifully embroidered, those of St. Paul are generally plain. When the two are talking together, St. Peter seems to be speaking with authority, St. Paul listening reverently, or St. Peter offers St. Paul a book, or points to one with a gesture of authority. St. Peter was the Apostle of the Jews, and St. Paul of the Gentiles, but together the two represent the entire Church of Christ, and their figures were long considered essential to any scheme of ecclesiastical decoration. They were more than Apostles, they were founders of a great institution, and they rank second only to the Evangelists. They are therefore constantly introduced in art on either side of Christ, or of the Virgin in glory in Heaven, and in numerous churches they appear on the right and left of the altar or at the entrance to the choir.
As a general rule St. Peter is represented as an elderly man of strong physique with a handsome, thoughtful face, and a thick, curly beard, never so long as that of St. Paul, leaving the mobile lips uncovered. He has gray hair, cut short, and in some early pictures he is slightly bald, so that he looks as if he wore the priestly tonsure. This peculiarity is, however, said to be founded on an old tradition that on one of his many missionary journeys he was shaved by the heathen with a view to making him appear ridiculous.
Amongst the earliest examples of the association of Saints Peter and Paul as founders of the Church are the bas-reliefs on certain ancient sarcophagi preserved in the Christian Museum of the Vatican, at Arles and elsewhere, the sculptures on the west front of the Cathedral at Arles, in which the Apostles are receiving the souls of the Just at the Last Judgment, with the mosaics in the Churches of S. Paolo fuori le Mura, S. Maria Maggiore, S. Croce in Gerusalemme, and SS. Cosma e Damiano, all at Rome, S. Ambrogio at Milan, and the Cathedral of Monreale.
Of the many devotional pictures in which the two great Apostles occupy an important place may be named, as especially characteristic, ‘the Madonna, with Saints Peter, Paul, Clement and Sebastian,’ by Ghirlandaio, in the Cathedral of Lucca; the ‘Madonna della Seggiola,’ by Luca Signorelli, in the Church of S. Niccolo at Cortona; the Madonna in glory with Saints Peter, Paul, Protasius and Gervasius, in the Cathedral of Citta della Pieve, by Perugino; the altar-piece, by Giovanni da Bologna, in the Venice Academy; the altar-piece of the ‘Crucifixion,’ painted in tempera by Bartolommeo Vivarini, in S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice, in which Saints Peter and Paul stand on the right of the Virgin beneath the Cross; the ‘Colonna Madonna,’ by Raphael, now in private possession in America; the ‘Enthroned Madonna,’ by Andrea Mantegna, in S. Zeno, Verona; the two sets of frescoes by Garofalo in the Cathedral of Ferrara; and the altar-piece, by Signorelli, in S. Medardo at Arcevia.
Fine single figures of St. Peter are that by Baldassare Peruzzi, now in the Grotte Scure of the Vatican; those by Ribera in the Corsini Palace, Florence, and the Prado Gallery, Madrid; whilst amongst noteworthy devotional pictures in which he appears without his great associate are the ‘Coronation of the Virgin,’ by Giotto, in S. Croce, Florence; the ‘St. Agnes’ of Andrea del Sarto, in the Cathedral of Pisa ; the ‘Madonna Enthroned,’ by Crivelli, in the National Gallery, London; the ‘Battle of Lepanto,’ by Paolo Veronese, now in the Venice Academy, in which St. Peter appears with other Saints in glory on one side of the Virgin; the ‘Madonna with four Saints,’ by Giovanni Bellini, in S. Zaccaria, Venice; the ‘Madonna and Child,’ by Piero di Cosimo, in S. Spirito, Florence ; the altar-piece, by Cima da Conegliano, in S. Maria dell’ Orto, Venice; and ‘Angels bringing the Cross to St. Peter,’ by Tintoretto, near the High Altar of the same church.
Celebrated representations of St. Peter enthroned as the Head of the Church are: that by Giotto, now in the Vatican; that by Masaccio, in the Brancacci Chapel of S. Maria del Carmino, Florence; and that by Marco Basaiti, in S. Pietro di Castello, Venice. Of the sculptured figures of the great Apostle may be named that attributed to Michael Angelo, in the Cathedral of Siena; the Group of Christ and St. Peter, by Giovanni Baptista della Porta, in S. Pudenziana, Rome, above an altar at which the Founder of the Church is said to have officiated as priest; the fifteenth-century figure in the Baptistery of the Frari, Venice; the statue by Paolo Romano, at the entrance of the Sacristy of the Vatican, opposite to one from the same hand of St. Paul; the statue by Donatello, on the west front of Or San Michele, Florence, with the bas-relief by the same master, in the South Kensington Museum, of Christ giving the Keys to St. Peter ; the ‘Deliverance of St. Peter from Prison,’ and his ‘Crucifixion,’ in the Bargello Museum, Florence, both by Luca della Robbia.
Representations of scenes alike from the authenticated history and legendary story of the life of St. Peter are, of course, extremely numerous, beginning with his Call by Christ and ending with his Crucifixion. Many of the finest works of art in which he appears as one of the principal actors, notably the great ‘Transfigurations’ and Suppers, have already been referred to in the general account of the Apostles; but amongst other beautifully-rendered subjects may be specially mentioned the various scenes in fresco by Cimabue, in the Upper Church of S. Francesco at Assisi; the ‘Preaching of St. Peter, with St. Mark amongst the audience making Notes, by Fra Angelico, part of the predella of an altar-piece now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence; the ‘Navicella,’ or ‘ Rescue of Peter,’ by Antonio Veneziano, long attributed to Taddeo Gaddi, in S. Maria Novella, Florence ; the series of scenes from the life of St. Peter in the Carmelite Church, Florence, by Masaccio and Filippino Lippi, which have been justly said to mark an epoch in art, so full of dignity are the Apostles and so dramatic the grouping of the figures; ‘Christ giving the Keys to St. Peter,’ by Perugino, in the Sistine Chapel, Rome ; the ‘Deliverance of St. Peter,’ by Raphael, in the Vatican Stanze, supposed to be entirely from the great master’s own hand, in which the soldiers wear sixteenth-century armor, in allusion to the escape of Leo X. after the Battle of Ravenna; the ‘ Master’s Reproof of St. Peter,’ by Luca Signorelli, in the Santa Casa, Loreto, Chapel of the Vatican, perhaps the finest of all renderings of the tragedy. Adapted from: The Saints in Christian Art: The Evangelists, Apostles, and Other Early Saints. By Mrs. Arthur Bell, (London: George Bell & Sons, 1901)