View source for Chair of Saint Peter

{{Short description|Relic in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City}}
{{for|the personal ordinariate of the Catholic Church|Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter}}
{{Infobox artwork
| title = Chair of Saint Peter
| image_file = Rom, Vatikan, Petersdom, Cathedra Petri (Bernini) 4.jpg
| image_upright = 1
| other_language_1 = Latin
| other_title_1 = Cathedra Petri
| artist = [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]]
| catalogue = 61
| year = 1657–1666
| type = Sculpture
| material = [[Gilding|Gilt]] [[bronze]]
| city = [[Vatican City]]
| museum = [[St. Peter's Basilica]]
| coordinates = {{Coord|41|54|8|N|12|27|12|E|display=it}}
| italic title=no
| preceded_by        = [[Habakkuk and the Angel (Bernini)]]
| followed_by        = [[Saints Jerome and Mary Magdalen (Bernini)]]
}}
[[File:Wood Carvings in English Churches II-112.jpg|thumbnail|The Pope's throne in St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican City (From ''Wood Carvings in English Churches'', 1910)]]
The '''Chair of Saint Peter''' ({{langx|la|Cathedra Petri}}), also known as the '''Throne of Saint Peter''', is a [[relic]] conserved in [[St. Peter's Basilica]] in [[Vatican City]], the sovereign enclave of the [[Pope]] inside Rome, Italy. The relic is a wooden [[throne]] that tradition claims belonged to the Apostle [[Saint Peter]], the leader of the [[Early Christians]] in Rome and first [[Pope]], and which he used as [[Bishop of Rome]].<ref name="vatican-state" /> The relic is enclosed in a sculpted [[Gilding|gilt]] [[bronze]] casing designed by [[Gian Lorenzo Bernini]] and constructed between 1647 and 1653.<ref name="vatican-state" /> In 2012, [[Pope Benedict XVI]] described the chair as "a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his Successors to tend Christ's flock, keeping it united in faith and in charity."<ref name="NCR2013">{{cite news|last1=Akin|first1=Jimmy|title=9 things you need to know about the "Chair of St. Peter"|url=https://www.ncregister.com/blog/9-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-chair-of-st-peter
|access-date=23 March 2016|publisher=National Catholic Register|date=February 20, 2013}}</ref>

The wooden throne was a gift from [[Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor of the Romans]] [[Charles the Bald]] to [[Pope John VIII]] in 875.<ref name="vatican-state">{{cite web |title=Interior of the Basilica |work=Vatican State |url=http://www.vaticanstate.va/content/vaticanstate/en/monumenti/basilica-di-s-pietro/interno.paginate.2.html |access-date=20 March 2013 |archive-date=16 May 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170516123709/http://www.vaticanstate.va/content/vaticanstate/en/monumenti/basilica-di-s-pietro/interno.paginate.2.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> It has been studied many times over the years, most recently between 1968 and 1974.<ref name="CathExch2016">{{cite web|title=The Chair of Peter|url=http://catholicexchange.com/the-chair-of-peter|website=Catholic Exchange|publisher=Sophia Institute Press|access-date=23 March 2016|date=February 22, 2016}}</ref> The study concluded that it was not a double, but a single chair, with a covering, and that the oldest parts are from the 6th century.<ref name="CathExch2016" /> The Chair of Saint Peter is the second altar within the church, with the first one being the one under [[St. Peter's Baldachin]]. It stands to remind visitors of the Catholic Church's authority.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Cathedra Petri (Chair of St. Peter) – Smarthistory |url=https://smarthistory.org/bernini-cathedra-petri-chair-of-st-peter/ |access-date=2023-02-23 |website=smarthistory.org}}</ref>

On 27 October 2024, the newly restored chair was shown in public for the first time since 1867, on a decision by [[Pope Francis]]. After the concluding Mass of the [[Sixteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops|Synod on Synodality]], it was centered in front of the baldachin.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-10/pope-may-we-be-church-on-the-move-sharing-joy-of-the-gospel.html|website=[[Vatican News]]|publisher=[[Dicastery for Communication ]]|place=Vatican City|title=Pope: May we be a Church on the move, sharing the joy of the Gospel|date=27 October 2024|first= Thaddeus|last=Jones}}</ref> By 28 October, the chair was in front of the right front pillar, and then on 26 November 2024 it was returned to the reliquary.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.instagram.com/share/_yjhq_wpw|website=Instagram|first= |last=cruxstationalis|title=Relic Of St. Peter's Chair Returns To Its Reliquary }}</ref> The chair was due to be on display until 8 December 2024.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2024-10/baldacchino-and-the-altar-of-the-chair-of-st-peter-basilica.html|website=Vatican News|first=Johana|last=Bronková|title=The Baldacchino and the Altar of the Chair of St. Peter's Basilica|date=26 October 2024}}</ref>

== Description ==
The relic itself is described as an oaken chair damaged by cuts and worms. The chair has metal rings attached to each side, allowing use as a {{lang|la|[[sedia gestatoria]]}}. The back and front of the chair are trimmed with carved ivory. This description comes from 1867, when the relic was photographed and displayed for veneration.<ref name=Waal/>

The [[reliquary]], like many of the medieval period, takes the form of the relic it protects, i.e. the form of a chair. Symbolically, the chair Bernini designed had no earthly counterpart in actual contemporary furnishings. It is formed entirely of scrolling members, enclosing a coved panel where the upholstery pattern is rendered as a low relief of [[Christ]] instructing Peter to tend to his sheep.<ref>{{bibleverse|John|21:17}}</ref> Large [[angel]]ic figures flank an openwork panel beneath a highly realistic bronze seat cushion, vividly empty: the relic is encased within.{{efn|In late 17th-century Venice, [[Andrea Brustolon]] constructed a few grandiose armchairs that employ similar sculptural figures doing duty as front legs and armrest supports.}}

The cathedra is lofted on splayed scrolling bars that appear to be effortlessly supported by four over-lifesize bronze [[Doctors of the Church]]: Western doctors Saint [[Ambrose]] and Saint [[Augustine of Hippo]] on the outsides, wearing miters, and Eastern doctors Saint [[John Chrysostom]] and Saint [[Athanasius]] on the insides, both bare-headed. The cathedra appears to hover over the altar in the basilica's apse, lit by a central tinted window through which light streams, illuminating the gilded glory of sunrays and sculpted clouds that surrounds the window. Like Bernini's ''[[Ecstasy of Saint Theresa]]'', this is a definitive fusion<ref>See ''[[Gesamtkunstwerk]]''</ref> of the [[Baroque]] arts, unifying sculpture and richly polychrome architecture and manipulating effects of light.

Above, on the golden background of the frieze, is the Latin inscription: {{lang|la|"[[:File:Chair of Saint Peter.jpg|O Pastor Ecclesiae, tu omnes Christi pascis agnos et oves]]"}} ('O Shepherd of the Church, you feed all Christ's lambs and sheep'). On the right is the same writing in Greek, {{lang|grc|"ΣΥ ΒΟΣΚΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΑΡΝΙΑ, ΣΥ ΠΟΙΜΑΙΝΕΙΣ ΤΑ ΠΡΟΒΑΤΙΑ ΧΡΙΣΤΟΥ"}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stpetersbasilica.info/Interior/Tribune/Tribune.htm|title=The Tribune: Altar of the Chair of St. Peter|access-date=14 September 2014}}</ref> Behind the altar is placed Bernini's monument enclosing the wooden chair, both of which are seen as symbolic of  the authority of the [[Bishop of Rome]] as [[Vicar of Christ]] and successor of Saint Peter.

==Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter==
[[File:Chair of St. Peter.jpg|thumb|The Chair of St. Peter in 2024 at St. Peter's Basilica, exposed for the first time since 1867]]

Early [[martyrologies]] indicate that two liturgical feasts were celebrated in Rome, centuries before the time of Charles the Bald, in honour of earlier chairs associated with Saint Peter, one of which was kept in the baptismal chapel of Old St. Peter's Basilica, the other at the [[catacomb of Priscilla]].<ref name=Waal>[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03551e.htm Waal, Anton de. "Chair of Peter." The Catholic Encyclopedia] Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908{{PD-notice}}</ref> The dates of these celebrations were January 18 and February 22. No surviving chair has been identified with either of these chairs. The feasts thus became associated with an abstract understanding of the "Chair of Peter", which by [[synecdoche]] signifies the [[bishop|episcopal office]] of the [[Pope]] as [[Bishop of Rome]], an office considered to have been first held by [[Saint Peter]], and thus extended to the diocese, the [[See of Rome]].<ref>[https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/chair-of-saint-peter "Chair of Saint Peter", Franciscan Media]</ref>

According to historian [[Anton de Waal]], although both feasts were originally associated with Saint Peter's stay in Rome, the ninth-century form of the {{lang|la|[[Martyrologium Hieronymianum]]}} associated the January 18 feast with his stay in Rome, and the February 22 feast with his stay at [[Antioch]].<ref name=Waal/>  The two feasts were included in the [[Tridentine calendar]] with the [[Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite|rank of Double]], which [[Pope Clement VIII]] raised in 1604 to the newly invented rank of Greater Double.

In 1960 [[Pope John XXIII]] deleted the January 18 feast from the [[General Roman Calendar]], along with seven other feast days that were duplicate feasts of a single saint or mystery. The February 22 celebration became a [[Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite|Second-Class Feast]]. This calendar was incorporated in the [[1962 Roman Missal]] of [[Pope John XXIII]], whose continued use [[Pope Benedict XVI]] authorized under the conditions indicated in his {{lang|la|[[motu proprio]] [[Summorum Pontificum]]}}. [[Traditionalist Catholic]]s who use older calendars continue to celebrate both feast days: Saint Peter's Chair at Rome on January 18 and the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch on February 22.

In the new classification of holy days introduced in 1969, the February 22 celebration has the [[Ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite|rank of Feast]].

==See also==
*[[List of works by Gian Lorenzo Bernini]]
*[[Index of Vatican City-related articles]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{Catholic|wstitle=Chair of Peter}}

== External links ==
{{external media|video1 =[http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/berninis-cathedra-petri.html Smarthistory: Bernini's Cathedra Petri (Chair of St. Peter)]}}
*{{Commons-inline}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20200611182450/http://www.stpetersbasilica.info/Altars/Cathedra/Cathedra.htm Altar of the Chair of St. Peter]
*[https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03551e.htm ''Catholic Encyclopedia'': "Chair of St. Peter"] — article contains photograph of the chair of Charles the Bald
*[https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gian-Lorenzo-Bernini ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Online: Gian Lorenzo Bernini]
*[https://is.muni.cz/th/t0ihv/Cathedra_Petri "Masaryk University"]

{{Gian Lorenzo Bernini}}
{{Vatican City topics}}
{{Holy See}}

[[Category:Christian relics]]
[[Category:St. Peter's Basilica]]
[[Category:Christian religious furniture]]
[[Category:1653 works]]
[[Category:Sculptures of angels]]
[[Category:Individual thrones]]