ON THE CHAIR OF ST. PETER AT ANTIOCH
in the year of Christ XXXVII.
CommentaryThe Chair of St. Peter the Apostle at Antioch (SS.)
By J. B.
[1] Antioch, the metropolis of Syria and of the entire East, was the first city to bestow upon the disciples of Christ that most noble appellation of Christians; the first to be ennobled by the supreme throne of our religion, so that it was rightly afterward -- albeit for another reason -- called Theopolis by the Emperor Justinian. Hither Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, came when he heard that an immense multitude of people had given their names to Christ, and there he established the seat of his royal pontificate for a time. The witness is Eusebius in the Chronicle, at Olympiad 205, year 2: "Peter the Apostle, after he had first founded the Church at Antioch, St. Peter sat at Antioch for 7 years: is sent to Rome, where, preaching the Gospel, he continued as Bishop of that city for twenty-five years." The length of time during which he sat at Antioch is indicated by the book On the Roman Pontiffs, under Peter: "He first held the chair of the episcopate at Antioch for seven years." St. Gregory likewise, Book 6, Epistle 37, Indiction 15, to St. Eulogius, Patriarch of Alexandria: "And so, although there are many Apostles, nevertheless for the sake of that very primacy, the See of the Prince of the Apostles alone has prevailed in authority, which in three places belongs to one person. For he himself exalted the See in which he also deigned to rest and to end his present life. He himself adorned the See to which he sent the Evangelist as his disciple. He himself established the See in which he sat for seven years, although he was destined to depart." From this it can now be gathered in what year Peter established his See at Antioch. He established his Chair there in the year 37 For since, in the second year of Claudius, as St. Jerome writes in the book On Illustrious Ecclesiastical Writers, he proceeded to Rome -- that is, toward the end of the common era XLII or at the beginning of XLIII -- if one subtracts from this seven years, or six years and some part of a seventh, it would follow that toward the end of the year XXXVI of the same era he set out for Antioch, and established his see there at the beginning of XXXVII, which was the last year of the Emperor Tiberius, and the sixth from the death of Christ according to the more exact reckoning. See these matters discussed more precisely in our Petavius, volume 2 of the Doctrine of Times.
[2] The memory of that See is preserved in the Martyrologies on the eighth Kalends of March. The manuscript Martyrology of St. Jerome, or the old Roman one: "The Chair of Peter at Antioch." In agreement are the old Roman one edited by Rosweydus, Usuardus, the published Ado, and most manuscripts, even those bearing the name of Bede. which was then celebrated annually on 22 February, Otherwise the printed Martyrology of Bede reads thus: "The Chair of St. Peter, in which he sat at Antioch, where also the disciples were first called Christians." The same is read in the present-day Roman Martyrology and that of Rabanus. Wandelbertus likewise in the metrical Martyrology has this:
On the eighth, the Chair and teaching of Peter shines forth, The joyful city of Antioch, where it first flourishes under his governance.
The Martyrology published at Cologne in the year 1490, and very many manuscripts marked with the name of Usuardus, as well as the manuscript of Ado in the monastery of St. Lawrence at Liege: "At Antioch, the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, who, after the Antiochenes had driven out Simon Magus, who had seduced them to believe in himself and to stone Peter, Peter himself was received and exalted to the pontifical chair." The Martyrology of the Church of St. Gudula at Brussels: "At Antioch, the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, who after the Ascension of Christ held the priestly Chair in the regions of the East for four years; then he came to Antioch, and having driven out Simon Magus, he assumed the pontifical Chair, which he held there for seven years. When these were completed, Peter, in order to vanquish Simon Magus, came to Rome, and there presided worthily over the Roman Church for twenty-five years, seven months, and eight days, and no successor after him completed so much time in the governance of the supreme apostolate." The manuscript Florarium: "At Antioch, the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle (IX Lessons), where, namely, after Simon Magus had been driven out, Peter was received and exalted on the pontifical Chair in the year of salvation XXXVIII, where he sat for seven years, and thence set out for Rome." Galesinius: "At Antioch, the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle, who, freed from chains, after he had recalled to life the dead son of the Prefect Theophilus, presided over the Church of Antioch for seven years, having driven out Simon Magus." Canisius has nearly the same, and Maurolycus in other words.
[3] although some apocryphal matters concerning its beginning and manner These accounts are drawn from Book 10 of the Recognitions of St. Clement: since it is established that the Recognitions are either not a genuine work of Clement, or are certainly shamefully corrupted, it is not permissible to place faith in the deeds they narrate, nor is it worthwhile to refute them, since perhaps some of those events did occur. More material is found in certain handwritten codices under the title of the Chair, but derived from the same turbid source; from which James de Voragine, Petrus Equilinus, and others also drew their accounts. Concerning the rite of this feast, Bartholomaeus Gavantus treats briefly, after others, in his Commentary on the Rubrics of the Breviary, Section 7, Chapter 4. With what care and devotion the annual solemnity of the Chair was customarily observed, we showed on the eighteenth of January, when we discussed the Roman Chair.
[4] It is worthwhile to bring forth here what Joannes Beletus writes about this Chair in Chapter 83 of the Explanation of the Divine Offices -- he is said to have lived more than four hundred years ago, and is cited by James de Voragine himself, who died some three hundred and fifty years ago: "It is called," he says, "the feast of the banquets of Blessed Peter. For it was the custom of the ancient pagans, that each year in the month of February, on a certain day, they would place banquets at the tombs of their ancestors, which demons consumed during the night, called the feast of the banquets of St. Peter, while from this the souls were believed to be nourished, no less falsely than absurdly. For they thought that banquets of this kind were consumed by souls wandering around the tombs. This custom, however, and the error of such false opinion could scarcely be eradicated from the Christians. When holy men observed this and wished to extinguish that custom entirely, they instituted the feast of the Chair of St. Peter, both the one that was at Rome and the one at Antioch, and this on that very same day on which those abominable things were done by the pagans, so that by this solemn feast the feast of that depraved custom would be entirely extinguished. Whence also from those banquets this feast was called the feast of the Banquets of Blessed Peter." Thus Beletus. Elsewhere too, by the institution of some religious feast, the profane superstitions of the pagans were abolished: as is related on the first of August concerning the feast of St. Peter in Chains, in the Lessons of the Divine Office.
[5] From this, moreover, it seems possible to conclude that, because this feast is celebrated on the eighth Kalends of March, it is not therefore certain that Peter arrived at Antioch on that day, or that he sat down in the chair prepared for him (as is said) by the people; since that day was chosen for commemorating his Chair for the purpose of thoroughly eradicating from men's minds, by means of its new and sacred solemnity, the ancient superstitions that were customarily celebrated on that same day. Certainly the calendar of Silvius, written in the year of Christ 448, as we said in the General Preface to January, Chapter 4, Section 3, has this for this day: "The Deposition of St. Peter and Paul. formerly however the Deposition of SS. Peter and Paul. Dear Kinship" -- so called because the hatreds that existed between living parents are laid aside at the time of death. At that time, therefore, the Deposition of the Apostles was solemnly celebrated at Rome, of which on the third Kalends of July, when it is now celebrated, there is no mention in the same Calendar; nor on any other day of the Chair. Was the Natalis or Deposition of the Apostles first celebrated to replace those pagan funeral banquets with more sacred rites; and then, after this was transferred to summer, was the solemnity of the Chair instituted? But St. Augustine is more ancient than Silvius, whose sermon on the Chair of St. Peter we cited on 18 January: unless perhaps that sermon belongs to another author.