Apostle Peter

Simon, later called Peter (Greek Petros, rock, rendering Aramaic Kepha or Cephas), was a Jewish fisherman from Bethsaida in Galilee and the brother of the Apostle Andrew. The New Testament presents him as one of the first disciples called by Jesus of Nazareth. He belonged to the inner circle of the Twelve and is described as present at the Transfiguration and in Gethsemane. The Gospels record that Jesus renamed him Peter and, in the Gospel of Matthew, spoke of building the church upon this rock and giving him the keys of the kingdom, passages that became central to later claims of Petrine primacy. He is portrayed as impulsive and devoted: he attempted to walk on water, confessed Jesus as Messiah, and denied Jesus three times on the night of the arrest. The Fourth Gospel describes a threefold restoration by the Sea of Tiberias, in which Jesus charged him to feed his sheep. The Synoptic Gospels also associate him with Capernaum, where he had a house and where Jesus healed his mother-in-law, a notice that establishes that Peter was married.

After the resurrection and Pentecost, the Acts of the Apostles depicts Peter as a leading figure in the Jerusalem community. He preached at Pentecost, performed healings, spoke before the Sanhedrin, and took part in decisions about the inclusion of Gentiles, notably in the conversion of the centurion Cornelius and at the Council of Jerusalem. Paul's letter to the Galatians, an earlier independent source, confirms Peter's standing among the Jerusalem apostles, records that Paul conferred with Cephas, and describes a confrontation at Antioch over table fellowship with Gentile believers. Ancient Christian writers of the late first and second centuries, including Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyons, and Tertullian, treat Peter as a principal apostolic witness. Tradition attested by these and later authors such as Eusebius of Caesarea holds that Peter preached in Rome and that he also led the church in Antioch; Eastern patriarchal lists of Antioch begin with his name. No contemporary source records a year of birth.

New Testament evidence indicates that Peter was married: besides the healing of his mother-in-law, Paul remarks that Cephas was accompanied by a believing wife. Clement of Alexandria, writing near the end of the second century, states that Peter had children and preserves a tradition that Peter's wife suffered martyrdom. A daughter named Petronilla belongs to later legend and is not historically secure. Peter's death is placed by Christian tradition in Rome during the reign of Nero. The persecution of Roman Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in the mid-first century is the usual historical setting; ancient chronographers differ between dates in the mid-sixties. He is said to have been crucified. Origen, quoted by Eusebius, reports that Peter was crucified head downward at his own request. The Roman presbyter Gaius, about the year 200, pointed to a memorial of Peter on the Vatican hill. The present St. Peter's Basilica stands over that traditional tomb; twentieth-century excavations found a second-century tropaion and a venerated grave, though scholarly debate on the identification continues.

Peter has been venerated as apostle and martyr from the earliest Christian centuries, without a later formal process of beatification or canonization. The Catholic Church regards him as the first Bishop of Rome and first pope. Orthodox churches venerate him as chief of the apostles and as first bishop of Antioch. His principal feast, shared with the Apostle Paul, is 29 June, already attested in Rome in the fourth century. Other commemorations include the Chair of Saint Peter on 22 February and the Dedication of the Basilicas of Saints Peter and Paul on 18 November. He is patron of fishermen, net makers, shipbuilders, bridge builders, locksmiths, clockmakers, cobblers, bakers, butchers, harvesters, and stationers, of the city of Rome and of the papacy, and is invoked for longevity and against fever. Two New Testament letters bear his name; the early church attributed both to him, while modern critical scholarship generally treats the Second Letter of Peter as pseudonymous and remains divided on the authorship of the First Letter of Peter.