Fr. Robert Gahl, Director of the Program of Church Management in Rome, appeared on EWTN News Nightly to explain the meaning and history of the feast of the Chair of St. Peter.
Celebrated for over a thousand years, this feast day commemorates the day when St. Peter gave his first sermon in Antioch, the place where Christians were first called Christians. It is also a reminder of St. Peter, the first Pope, giving the first magisterium ever, under the guide of the Holy Spirit.
A relic of the actual chair used by St. Peter is now enthroned at the rear of the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica. Its sculpted gilt bronze casing was designed by Bernini and constructed in the seventeenth century. As Pope Benedict XVI said during his Angelus speech on February 19th 2021, this chair is “a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his Successors to tend Christ’s flock, keeping it united in faith and in charity.”
Watch Fr. Gahl’s full appearance here:
