Anonymous Roman carving: Sts. Peter and Paul from the gravestone of the boy Asellus
Peter
(d. c@ 64). A native of Bethsaida, a village near Lake Tiberias, he was the son of John, was called Simon, and lived and worked as a fisherman on Lake Genesareth. His brother Andrew introduced him to Jesus, who gave him the name Cephas, the Aramaic equivalent of the Greek Peter (the Rock). He was present at Christ's first miracle at Cana and at his home at Capernaum when Jesus cured his mother-in-law, and his boat was always available to the Savior. When Peter acknowledged Jesus as "the Christ . . . the son of the living God" (Matt. 16:16), the Lord replied, "You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church" (Matt. 16:18) and "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: Whatever you bind on earth will be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven," statements underlying Catholic teaching that Peter was the first Pope and the whole Catholic concept of the primacy of the papacy. Peter is mentioned more frequently in the gospels than any of the other apostles, was with Christ during many of his miracles, but denied him in the courtyard of Pontius Pilate's palace, where Christ was being held prisoner. He was the head of the Christians after the Ascension, designated Judas' successor, was the first of the apostles to preach to the Gentiles, was the first apostle to perform miracles, and converted many with his preaching. He was imprisoned by Herod Agrippa in about 43, but guided by an angel, escaped and firmly proclaimed that Christ wanted the Good News preached to all at the assembly at Jerusalem. After this episode, he is not mentioned in the New Testament again, but a very early tradition says he went to Rome, where he was Rome's first bishop and was crucified there at the foot of Vatican Hill in about 64 during the reign of Emperor Nero. Excavations under St. Peter's Basilica have unearthed what is believed to be his tomb, and bones found in the tomb are still under intensive study. [His feast day is] June 29.1
Paul
(d. c. 67). Born of Jewish parents of the tribe of Benjamin sometime between 5 and 15 in Tarsus, which also made him a citizen of Rome, Saul studied under the famous Jewish rabbi, Gamaliel, in Jerusalem. A tentmaker by trade, Saul became a rigid Pharisee and a rabid persecutor of the Christians. He was present at the stoning of Stephen but only as a spectator. On the way to Damascus to arrest some Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem, he experienced his famous vision (sometime between 34 and 36), which led not only to his dramatic conversion but (in view of the tremendous impact he was to have on early Christianity) was to shape the whole Christian experience. He spent the next three years in Arabia (probably the Nabatean kingdom) and then returned to Damascus to preach. He immediately encountered resistance from the Jews, a resistance that was to continue throughout his life and travels. Forced to flee secretly from Aretas, the Nabatean King, he went, sometime between 36 and 39, to Jerusalem, where he met the apostles, and through the sponsorship of Barnabas was accepted by the Christian community. He returned to Tarsus for several years, then about 43 was brought to Antioch by Barnabas and was made a teacher in the church there. After accompanying Barnabas to Jerusalem in 44 with a donation from the church at Antioch to the church at Jerusalem, Saul was sent out, with Barnabas, to preach the gospel on the first of his three missionary journeys. During 45-49, it took them to Cyprus, Perga, Antioch in Pisidia, and the cities of Lycaonia; it was on this journey that Saul was changed to Paul. On his return he went to Jerusalem in 49 and was successful in convincing Peter, James, and the other apostles that Gentile Christians need not be circumcised and have Jewish law forced on them-a decision that ensured the universality of Christianity-and secured the approval of the Jerusalem Church for his mission to the Gentiles. Shortly after his return to Antioch, Paul and Barnabas set out on their second missionary journey (49-52). After revisiting the churches founded on the first journey, Paul crossed to Macedonia (as a result of a dream) and preached the gospel in Europe for the first time. He founded churches at Philippi (where he and Silas were imprisoned and miraculously escaped), Thessalonica, and Beroea; preached, with little effect, on the Unknown God in Athens; and then spent 50-52 at Corinth, where he founded a flourishing church. He then returned to Antioch but soon set out on a third journey (53-58). He spent two years at Ephesus teaching and working n3iracles there and in the surrounding areas but was driven out by rioting silversmiths, whose trade in statues and shrines of Diana was being adversely affected by Christianity; from there he went to Macedonia and then in 58 back to Jerusalem with contributions for the mother church. At Jerusalem, he was attacked by a mob for his missions to the Gentiles and put under protective arrest by the Roman soldiers. A plot against his life caused the Roman captain to send him to Governor Felix at Caesarea, where his trial was delayed two years (58-60) until Festus succeeded Felix, when Paul as a Roman citizen demanded and was granted a trial in Rome. On the way to Rome in 60-61, he was shipwrecked off the coast of Malta but eventually reached Rome, where he remained under house arrest in his own lodgings for two years, 61-62-the last time he is mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, the major source of biographical material about him. According to Clement of Rome, writing only thirty years after Paul's death, Paul went to Spain after his imprisonment, and on his return, according to the pastoral epistles, revisited Ephesus, Macedonia, and Greece, 63-67. According to tradition he was again arrested, probably at Troas, and returned to Rome, where he was executed on the same day as St. Peter (in 67, according to Eusebius) during the persecution of Christians under Emperor Nero (by beheading, according to Tertullian). One of the most creative of Christian writers, Paul wrote epistles to the Romans (from Corinth, 57-58); 1 Corinthians (from Ephesus in 54); 2 Corinthians (probably from Philippi in 57); Galatians (from Ephesus about 54); Colossians, Philemon, Ephesians, and Philippians (probably from Rome in 61-63); 1 and 2 Thessalonians (from Corinth in 51-52); and two pastoral epistles to Timothy and one to Titus. The epistle to the Hebrews is now believed to have been written by another author of Alexandrian background; it was not accepted canonically in the West before 350 and was probably written sometime between 60 and 90. [His feast day is] June 29; Paul's conversion is celebrated on January 25.2
1
John J. Delaney, Pocket Dictionary of Saints
(Garden City, New York: Image Books, 1983), 400.
2 Ibid., 393.
Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church, P.O. Box 207 ● 781 Wading River Rd., Manorville, NY, 11949.
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