(A.D. 43.)
[All ancient Latin Martyrologies. The commemoration having,
however, died out, it was restored by Pope Paul IV. The feast of
the Chair of S. Peter is found in a copy of the ancient
Martyrology, passing under the name of S. Jerome, made in the time
of S. Willibrod, in 720.]
It was an ancient custom observed by churches to keep an annual feast of
the consecration of their bishops, and especially of the founding of the
episcopate in them. The feast of S. Peter's Chair is the commemoration
of the institution of the patriarchal see of Rome by S. Peter, the
Prince of the Apostles. "This day," says S. Augustine (Serm. xv. de
Sanctis), "has received the name of the Chair from our predecessor,
because S. Peter, the first of the Apostles, is said on this to have
taken the throne of his episcopate. Rightly, therefore, do the churches
venerate the natal day of that chair which the Apostle received for the
good of the churches."
The ancient wooden seat of S. Peter is preserved in the Vatican. That S.
Peter founded the church at Rome by his preaching is expressly asserted
by Caius, an ecclesiastical writer born about A.D. 202,[73] who relates
that he and S. Paul suffered there. The same is affirmed by Dionysius,
Bishop of Corinth, in the second age.[74] S. Irenaeus, who lived in the
same age, calls the Church of Rome "the greatest and most ancient
church, founded by the two glorious Apostles, Peter and Paul."[75]
Eusebius says, "Peter, that powerful and great Apostle, like a noble
commander of God, fortified with divine armour, bore the precious
merchandise of the revealed light from the east to those in the west,
and came to Rome, announcing the light itself, and salutary doctrine of
the soul, the proclamation of the kingdom of God."[76] And he adds that
his first epistle was said to have been composed at Rome, and that he
shows this fact, by calling the city by an unusual trope, Babylon; thus,
"The Church of Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you." (1
Pet. v. 13.[77])