Saint Peter and Saint Paul:

Feast day : 29 June

Today the Church celebrates the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the two glorious apostles and pillars of the Catholic Church. True to their calling, by the power of the Spirit of God they preached the Gospel with courage and constancy undergoing all manner of labour and danger for the cause of Christ and His Church. In the persecution of Christians under the rule of Nero, they are believed to have been martyred in the year 69 on the 29th of June. Saint Peter was sentenced to be crucified whilst Saint Paul was beheaded. In all his humility, Saint Peter requested that he be crucified upside down as he believed he was not worthy of the honor to suffer in death like his Divine Master. Their bodies were buried in the catacombs, two miles from Rome and several months later were moved; St. Peter’s body to Vatican Hill on which today stands the St. Peter’s Basilica and the body of St. Paul was buried in a place further from Rome on the Ostian road where today stands the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Early Church:

The Acts of the Apostles narrates the events after the Ascension of Our Lord beginning with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. After the death of Stephen, Saint Peter and the apostles remained in Jerusalem during the heat of the persecutions to strengthen the faith of the converts whilst the new disciples preached the faith in all the places they were scattered to. After the conversion of Saul into Saint Paul, the persecution in Jerusalem ended. The apostles then dispersed to neighbouring provinces to preach the Gospel. St. Peter founded the church of Antioch which was the metropolis of all the East. He is believed to have resided there till the year 40 often travelling to other countries to preach the gospel to the Jews dispersed throughout all the East. When he was in Jerusalem in the year 37, St. Paul paid him a visit and stayed with him for fifteen days. After the partition of nations among the apostles in the year 40, St. Peter chose Rome and preached the gospel to the Jews first and later to the Gentiles. According to St. Jerome, he held the see of Rome for twenty five years, though he often travelled to the East and established bishops in all the places. He wrote two Epistles. The first General Council was held by the apostles in Jerusalem in the year 51 in which Saint Paul gave an account of the progress made through his preaching among the Gentiles and was formally acknowledged by the Church as the Apostle of the Gentiles. He wrote 14 Epistles where he speaks of his missions, the conversions, miracles and all his labours and sufferings. His letters most importantly testify to the extraordinary gifts and graces that he was blessed with and the zeal with which he argued and convinced philosophers and ordinary men about the good news of the salvation that has come to mankind through Christ.

Arrest & Death:

The great progress which the faith made in Rome was the cause of the persecution that Nero raised against the Church. By the year 64, he began to persecute the Christians in Rome and as the persecution peaked, the community urged St. Peter to withdraw from the city for a while. He accordingly yielded to their request and made his escape by night. As he was going out of the gate of the city, he met Jesus in a vision and asked him “Lord, wither art thou going?” Jesus answered , “I am going to Rome to be crucified again.”St. Peter readily understood this vision to be meant for himself and taking it as a reproof for his cowardice and a sign of his impending martyrdom, he returned back to the city. Soon after he was arrested and put in prison alongwith St. Paul who also is believed to have been guided by a vision of his martyrdom in Rome. The two apostles are said to have remained in prison for eight months, during which they converted several of the guards.

After being condemned under the Roman laws, they were sentenced to death. Saint Peter was sentenced to be crucified on the cross whilst Saint Paul was to be beheaded. As is the punishment under the Roman law, they were probably also scourged before being put to death though St. Paul, being a Roman citizen may have been exempted from it. They are believed to have been martyred in the year 69 on 29th of June. Saint Peter requested that he might be crucified with his head downward as he was not worthy to suffer in the same manner as his Divine Master. St. Gregory writes that the bodies of the two apostles were buried in the catacombs, two miles out of Rome. From there the body of St. Peter was carried to the Vatican hill where today stands the St. Peter's Basilica and the body of St. Paul to a place a little further from Rome on the Ostian road where today stands the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.