Gospel Roundup

 GOSPEL ROUNDUP By Aaron Ipisani - THE GRAVE OF ST. PETER

Simon was a fisherman. And when Jesus beheld him, he said "Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas" (John 1:42) means "a rock". Thus he became one of the first of Jesus' disciples.

    After the death of Jesus, he was the first apostle to convert pagans (Acts 10). And was the leader of the first Christians community in Jerusalem and Judea, later extended beyond Palestine. His letters to the Christians of Asia Minor remind us of this. In St. John's gospel there is a dialogue between Jesus and Peter which refers to the kind of death he would die at an advanced age.

   "When thou wasnt young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee withether thou wouldest not. This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God" (John 21:18-19).

   Legend and church tradition, in story and writing, connect up with this meagre NT utterance concerning Peter. They tell of his martyr's death in Rome, they specify the place where his bones were to be laid to rest: Under the high altar in the Basilica of St. Peter.

   On what is now the broad piazza in front of St. Peter's church there could be heard in the days of the first Christians the cracking of whips, the thunder of horses' hooves on the trembling ground, and the roar of thousands of throats filing the air. The emperor Caligula had built a chariot race-course of which the only evidence now is the tall slender obelisk on the piazza which Caligula had brought by sea from Egypt.

   In July 64, Rome was ablaze. Rumor  whispered that Nero was responsible. But at the time the emperor was away from Rome at Antium. He hurried back to the city and made the fires put out. It was a slow business, however, and he looked around to see at whose door the blame could be laid for this base act of incendiarism. The Christians, "men with a new and dangerous superstition", in Suetonius' words, the "sect" which through the people's ignorance and hatred of what they did not understand was accused of all possible crimes, became the victims.

   From then on the race-course beheld a scene of horror. On the sand of the arena adherents of Christians were tortured. Hosts of devout believers had tar poured over them and were set alight like touches, or were nailed tk a cross, among them was Peter. He was crucified.

   On the night of his death on thd cross Peter's followers buried his body among many other graves. St. Anacletus erected the first shrine over the grave of the apostle. He was ordained priest by St. Peter and became the third bishop of Rome.

   "Go therefore to the Vatican  and to the Ostian way and you will see the memorial of the founder of the Church of Rome," wrote Gaius the priest in the 3rd century. Although it was not safe to be found there the Christians chose the grave of the apostle as their meeting place from the start. Later pilgrims from other countries came secretly to Rome, like St. Marcius with his wife and sons from distant Persia in 269 and St. Maurus from Africa in 284. See pics.-Source: The Bible as a History p367, chapter 42.