The Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, Apostle
In Cathedra S. Petri Apostoli Antiochiae
This feast honours the teaching and governing office which our Lord conferred upon Saint Peter and his successors, symbolised by the chair (cathedra) from which the chief shepherd presides over the Church; on this day the 1962 calendar keeps the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, the city where Peter is said to have presided before going to Rome.
On the twenty-second of February the Church keeps the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch. The “chair” — in Latin cathedra — is the seat of a teacher and ruler, and from earliest times it became the natural emblem of the authority which Christ entrusted to Peter when He said, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church… and I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 16). The feast does not celebrate a piece of furniture but the abiding office of Peter, by which the flock of Christ is taught, confirmed, and held in unity.
Devotion to the Chair of Saint Peter is very ancient at Rome, where the fourth-century calendar known as the Depositio Martyrum already records a commemoration of Peter’s chair on this day. The Roman liturgy long honoured two such feasts — the Chair of Peter at Antioch on the twenty-second of February, recalling the see Peter is said to have held before going to Rome, and the Chair of Peter at Rome on the eighteenth of January. The second of these was removed from the calendar in 1960, so that in the books of 1962 it is the feast of the Chair at Antioch that remains on this day.
The Rock of Unity
The feast turns our minds to the Petrine ministry as a gift for the whole Church. To Peter alone the Lord said, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and thou, being once converted, confirm thy brethren” (Luke 22), and to him alone, after the Resurrection, “Feed my lambs… feed my sheep” (John 21). In honouring the Chair of Peter the faithful give thanks for the visible centre of communion that keeps the Church one across every age and nation.
The Introit of the Mass sings of the promise made to Peter, and the whole liturgy breathes confidence in Christ’s pledge that the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church. It is fitting, on this day, to pray for the Holy Father, the successor of Peter, and for the unity and steadfastness of all the faithful in the one faith handed down from the apostles.
The Collect
O God, who, by delivering to Thy blessed Apostle Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven, didst confer upon him the pontifical power of binding and loosing: grant that, by the help of his intercession, we may be delivered from the bonds of our sins. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Deus, qui beato Petro Apostolo tuo, collatis clavibus regni caelestis, ligandi atque solvendi pontificium tradidisti: concede; ut, intercessionis eius auxilio, a peccatorum nostrorum nexibus liberemur. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Patronage
The feast is bound up with veneration of the papacy and the See of Rome, and is a fitting occasion to pray for the Holy Father and for the unity of the Church.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar the Chair of Saint Peter is observed on 22 February as a feast, without distinction of Rome or Antioch; the separate celebration of the Chair at Rome (18 January) is no longer kept.
Common Questions
What does the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter celebrate?
It celebrates the teaching and governing office that Christ gave to Saint Peter and his successors. The chair, or cathedra, is the symbol of that pastoral authority by which the Church is taught and kept in unity.
When is the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch?
In the 1962 calendar it is kept on 22 February as a feast of the Second Class, in white.
Were there once two feasts of Saint Peter’s Chair?
Yes. The Roman calendar long honoured both the Chair of Peter at Antioch (22 February) and the Chair of Peter at Rome (18 January). The 18 January feast was removed in 1960, leaving the 22 February feast of the Chair at Antioch in the 1962 books; the modern calendar keeps a single feast of the Chair of Saint Peter on 22 February.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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