The Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle
Feast
- Feast Day
- February 22
The Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle, observed in the General Roman Calendar on February 22, celebrates not a piece of furniture but the apostolic ministry of teaching and unity entrusted by Christ to Peter and continuing in the bishops of Rome, his successors. The Latin word cathedra denotes the seat from which a bishop teaches authoritatively in his church; it gives its name to the cathedral.
The biblical foundation of the feast is the threefold word of Christ to Peter: the gift of the keys of the Kingdom (Matthew 16:18-19), the confirmation of the brethren (Luke 22:32), and the commission "Feed my sheep" (John 21:15-17). The First Vatican Council in the dogmatic constitution Pastor Aeternus (1870) defined that this Petrine ministry is perpetual in the bishops of Rome and includes infallibility in solemn definitions on faith and morals.
The feast is attested in the Roman Depositio Episcoporum of 354 on February 22 as Natale Petri de Cathedra. A second observance was added on January 18 in the early medieval period (Cathedra Petri at Rome). The reform of the calendar by Pope Saint John XXIII in 1960 retained only the February observance, transferring the older January date to its place in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which now begins on January 18.
The bronze monument by Gian Lorenzo Bernini in the apse of Saint Peter's Basilica (1657-1666) encloses an ancient wooden chair traditionally venerated as the cathedra of Peter and gives sculptural form to the feast.
In 2026 February 22 is the First Sunday of Lent. The Feast of the Chair of Saint Peter yields to the Sunday of the Lord and is not observed liturgically that year.
The feast directs the Church each year to the source of her unity in apostolic teaching. Pope Benedict XVI, in his General Audience of February 22, 2006, on the meaning of the feast, said: "The seat of the Bishop of Rome is the cathedra of the Apostle Peter, which symbolizes the mission entrusted to him by the Lord to confirm his brethren in the faith." The cathedra is therefore not a sign of personal honor but of the service of communion through fidelity to the deposit of faith handed on from the apostles.
Catholic Churches Named After The Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle
4 parishes on Catholic Church Times share The Chair of Saint Peter, Apostle's name. Find their Mass times, confession schedules, and adoration hours:
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