“Saint Peter’s Chair At Rome”. Feast 18 January. From: “The Liturgical Year”. By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

English: The Chair of Saint Peter.

Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome.

Deutsch: Rom, Vatikan, Petersdom, 

Cathedra Petri (Bernini).

Photo: 15 May 2005.

Source: Own work.

Licence (CC-BY-SA 3.0).

Author: Dnalor 01

(Wikimedia Commons)

Abbot Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.

1805-1875.

Printmaker: Claude-Ferdinand Gaillard (1834–1887).

Published 1878, or earlier.

Date: 7 May 2007 (original upload date).

Source: Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.

Author: The original uploader was

Ikanreed at English Wikipedia

(Wikimedia Commons)

From: “The Liturgical Year”.
   By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.

      Volume 3.

      Christmas.

      Book II.

The Archangel Gabriel told The Blessed Virgin Mary, during The Annunciation, that the Son Who was to be born of her should be a King, and that of his Kingdom there should be no end.

Hence, when the Magi were led from The East to the Crib of Jesus, they proclaimed it in Jerusalem that they came to seek a “King”.

But this new Empire needed a capital; and, whereas the King, who was to fix his throne in it, was, according to the eternal decrees, to re-ascend into Heaven, it was necessary that the visible character of his Royalty should be left here on Earth, and this even to the end of the World.

He that should be invested with this visible character of Christ our King would be the Vicar of Christ.

Our Lord Jesus Christ chose Simon for this sublime dignity of being His Vicar. He changed Simon’s name into one which signifies “The Rock”, that is “Peter”; and, in giving him this new name, He tells us that the whole Church throughout the World is to rest upon this man as upon a Rock which nothing shall ever move.

But this promise of Our Lord included another; namely, that, as Peter was to close his Earthly career by the Cross, He would give him Successors in whom Peter and his authority should live to the end of time.

It was in order to nullify, by the authority of the Liturgy, the strange Protestant pretension that Peter had not lived and died in Rome, that Pope Paul IV, in 1558, restored the ancient Feast of Saint Peter’s Chair at Rome, and fixed the Feast Day on 18 January.

For many Centuries, The Church had not Solemnised the Mystery of the Pontificate of the Prince of the Apostles on any distinct Feast Day, but had made the single Feast of 

22 February serve for both the “Chair at Antioch” and the “Chair at Rome”.

From that time onward, 22 February has been kept for the “Chair of Antioch”, which was the first occupied by the Prince of the Apostles.