The Chair of St. Peter

Saturday, February 22^nd is the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. Yes, we actually have a feast day in the Catholic Church to celebrate a chair! But this is not just any ordinary chair that we celebrate, and it is not so much the physical chair that we celebrate, but the spiritual meaning of the chair that represents a value beyond measure!

Here are 7 things you need to know about the Chair of St. Peter . . .
 

1. What is the Chair of St. Peter?

On the one hand, there is a physical object (an ancient and ornamented chair), and on the other hand, there is the spiritual authority that this chair represents.

 

2. What is the physical Chair of St. Peter?

This object is located in the apse of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, Italy. It is in the back of the chamber, behind the famous altar, below the well-known, stained glass image depicting the Holy Spirit as a dove (see above). This display contains an ancient chair that has been repaired and ornamented over time. Here is an image of that ancient chair that St. Peter sat on in the 1 ^st century (see below).

3. How has the chair changed over time?

Various modifications have been made to the chair, to repair and ornament it. Most notably, the famous Italian artist Bernini (1598-1680) created the current display (again, see the first picture above). In order to preserve the precious relic of the original chair of St. Peter it was enclosed in Bernini’s bronze design and the base of the chair is surrounded by statues of four Doctors of the Church (St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, and St. John Chrysostom).
 

4. What is the spiritual Chair of St. Peter?

Ex cathedra is a Latin phrase which means “from the chair.” It refers to the binding and loosing authority given to Peter and then his successors thereafter. The authority to bind and loose refers to infallible papal teachings by the pope when he officially teaches in his capacity of the universal shepherd of the Church a doctrine on a matter of faith or morals and addresses it to the entire world.
 

5. What is the Chair of Moses?

Like the Chair of St. Peter, it was both a physical object (see below) and represented spiritual authority given by God.
  When Jesus said of the teachers of the law and the
Pharisees, “They sit on Moses’ seat ( cathedra). Therefore, do whatever they tell you”, he was referring to a tradition that goes way back to Exodus 18:13-16. The scribes were the successors of Moses’ teaching authority. By sitting in his “seat” they held unique authority to interpret the Mosaic law.


 

6. How did St. Peter inherit this authority to sit on a chair and bind and loose?

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” - Matthew 16:17-19
Tradition holds that February 22 ^nd was the actual day that Jesus said these words to Peter giving him the chair and authority to bind and loose as the primary leader of his Church in the same way that Moses once had the chair and authority to bind and loose as the primary leader of Israel.
 

7. What did the Early Church have to say about the Chair of St. Peter?

“On him He builds the Church, and to him He gives the command to feed the sheep; and although He assigns a like power to all the Apostles, yet He founded a single chair…a primacy is given to Peter whereby it is made clear that there is but one Church and one chair. So too, all are shepherds, and the flock is shown to be one, fed by all the Apostles in single-minded accord. If someone does not hold fast to this unity of Peter, can he imagine that he still holds the faith? If he deserts the chair of Peter on whom the Church was built, can he still be confident that he is in the Church?” - St. Cyprian 251 AD