54 Facts About St Peter

St Peter appears repeatedly and prominently in all four gospels as well as the Acts of the Apostles.

St Peter is the brother of Saint Andrew, and both were fishermen.

St Peter is mentioned, under either the name Peter or Cephas, in Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians and the Epistle to the Galatians.

St Peter became the first listed apostle ordained by Jesus in the early Church.

St Peter was a Jewish fisherman and clergy in Bethsaida.

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In Luke, Simon St Peter owns the boat that Jesus uses to preach to the multitudes who were pressing on him at the shore of Lake Gennesaret.

Matthew additionally describes St Peter walking on water for a moment but beginning to sink when his faith wavers.

St Peter initially refused to let Jesus wash his feet, but when Jesus told him: "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me", St Peter replied: "Lord, not my feet only, but my hands and my head".

Simon St Peter was twice arraigned, with John, before the Sanhedrin and directly defied them.

Simon St Peter applied the message of the vision on clean animals to the gentiles and follows his meeting with Cornelius the Centurion by claiming that "God shows no partiality".

Acts 12 narrates how St Peter, who was in Jerusalem, was put into prison by Agrippa I, but was rescued by an angel.

St Peter is regarded as the first leader of the early Church, though he was eclipsed in this leadership by James the Just, "the Brother of the Lord".

St Peter is always listed first among the Twelve Apostles in the gospels and in the Book of Acts.

St Peter is frequently mentioned in the gospels as forming with James the Elder and John a special group within the Twelve Apostles, present at incidents at which the others were not present, such as at the Transfiguration of Jesus, at the raising of Jairus' daughter and at the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane.

St Peter is often depicted in the gospels as spokesman of all the Apostles.

St Peter is their spokesman at several events, he conducts the election of Matthias, his opinion in the debate over converting Gentiles was crucial, etc.

In John's gospel, St Peter is the first person to enter the empty tomb, although the women and the beloved disciple see it before him.

In Luke's account, the women's report of the empty tomb is dismissed by the apostles, and St Peter is the only one who goes to check for himself, running to the tomb.

St Peter was considered along with James the Just and John the Apostle as pillars of the Church.

Dunn proposes that St Peter was a "bridge-man" between the opposing views of Paul and James the Just [italics original]:.

St Peter was probably in fact and effect the bridge-man who did more than any other to hold together the diversity of first-century Christianity.

Paul affirms that St Peter had the special charge of being apostle to the Jews, just as he, Paul, was apostle to the Gentiles.

Some argue James the Just was bishop of Jerusalem whilst Peter was bishop of Rome and that this position at times gave James privilege in some situations.

Common view of Peter is provided by Jesuit Father Daniel J Harrington, who suggests that Peter was an unlikely symbol of stability.

The Liber Pontificalis mentions St Peter as having served as bishop of Antioch for seven years, and having potentially left his family in the Greek city before his journey to Rome.

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One is that St Peter had a group of 12 to 16 followers, whom the Clementine writings name.

However, it is said that the institution of the papacy is not dependent on the idea that St Peter was Bishop of Rome or even on his ever having been in Rome.

Eusebius of Caesarea relates that when St Peter confronts Simon Magus at Judea, Simon Magus flees to Rome, where the Romans began to regard him as a god.

Early Church tradition says that St Peter probably died by crucifixion at the time of the Great Fire of Rome in the year 64.

Tradition locates his burial place where the Basilica of Saint St Peter was later built, directly beneath the Basilica's high altar.

Catholic tradition holds that St Peter's inverted crucifixion occurred in the gardens of Nero, with the burial in Saint St Peter's tomb nearby.

The skull of Saint St Peter is claimed to reside in the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran since at least the ninth century, alongside the skull of Saint Paul.

Clement of Rome's First Letter, a document that has been dated from the 90s to the 120s, is one of the earliest sources adduced in support of St Peter's stay in Rome, but Zwierlein questions the text's authenticity and whether it has any knowledge about St Peter's life beyond what is contained in the New Testament Acts of the Apostles.

However, St Peter never bore the title of "Pope" or "Vicar of Christ" in the sense the Catholic Church considers St Peter the first Pope.

St Peter is the light, and yet you are the light: he is the Priest, and yet he maketh Priests: he is the rock, and he made a rock.

St Peter is often depicted in both Western and Eastern Christian art holding a key or a set of keys.

St Peter was instructed by Christ to strengthen his brethren, i e, the apostles.

St Peter greets some fifty people in Rome by name, but not Peter whom he knew.

Oscar Cullmann, a Lutheran theologian and distinguished Church historian, disagrees with Luther and the Protestant reformers who held that by "rock" Christ did not mean St Peter, but meant either himself or the faith of His followers.

St Peter believes the meaning of the original Aramaic is very clear: that "Kepha" was the Aramaic word for "rock", and that it was the name by which Christ called Peter.

Forty-four said, St Peter's faith is the rock, The remainder looked upon the whole body of believers as the rock.

The Orthodox hold that St Peter did not act as leader at the Council of Jerusalem, but as merely one of a number who spoke.

The different orders of liturgies used for sanctification of Church buildings, marriage, ordination, et cetera, reveal that the primacy of St Peter is a part of living faith of the Church.

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints teaches that St Peter was the first leader of the early Christian church after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, recorded in multiple revelations that the resurrected St Peter appeared to him and Oliver Cowdery in 1829, near Harmony Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, in order to bestow the apostleship and keys of the kingdom as part of a restoration of priesthood authority.

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An old tradition, which involves the legend of Habib the Carpenter, mentions that St Peter was one of the three disciples sent to Antioch to preach to the people there.

St Peter appears in the writings of Baha'u'llah, the Prophet-Founder of the Baha'i Faith, often referred to as The Rock:.

Daniel B Wallace writes that, for many scholars, "the issue of authorship is already settled, at least negatively: the apostle Peter did not write this letter" and that "the vast bulk of NT scholars adopts this perspective without much discussion".

Two Epistles attributed to St Peter differ in style, character, and the construction of the words, which proves that according to the exigencies of the moment St Peter made use of different interpreters.

Jerome says that St Peter "wrote two epistles which are called Catholic, the second of which, on account of its difference from the first in style, is considered by many not to be by him".

Fragmentary Gospel of St Peter contains an account of the death of Jesus differing significantly from the canonical gospels.

In traditional iconography, St Peter has been shown very consistently since early Christian art as an oldish, thick-set man with a "slightly combative" face and a short beard, and usually white hair, sometimes balding.

Narrative images of St Peter include several scenes from the Life of Christ where he is mentioned in the gospels, and he is often identifiable in scenes where his presence is not specifically mentioned.

Saint St Peter Attempting to Walk on Water, by Francois Boucher, 1766.