By Nishant Xavier –
“The Chair of St. Peter – Upon this Rock I will build My Church.” (Mat 16:18)
Bishop St. Augustine of Hippo wrote: “Number the Bishops from the Chair of Peter itself … this is the Rock against which the proud gates of hell shall not prevail”. (Psalmus Contra Partem Donati, A.D. 394).
And the great Monk of Strido, the famed Bible Scholar, St. Jerome – commissioned under Pope St. Damasus to translate the Holy Bible into Latin, the sacred language of Rome, and who produced the great Latin Vulgate in response to that Papal Commission – writes to the same Pope St. Damasus: “I follow no leader but Christ and join in communion with none but your blessedness [Pope Saint Damasus I], that is, with the Chair of Peter. I know that this is the rock on which the Church has been built.” (Letters 15:2 [A.D. 376])
Fr. Dom Prosper Gueranger writes: “The children of the Church have a right to feel a special interest in every solemnity that is kept in memory of St. Peter. The father’s feast is a feast for the whole family; for to him it owes its very life. If there be but one fold, it is because there is but one Shepherd. Let us, then, honour Peter’s divine prerogative, to which Christianity owes its preservation; and let us often reflect upon the obligations we are under to the apostolic see. On the feast of the chair at Rome, we saw how faith is taught, and maintained, and propagated by the mother-Church, which has inherited the promises made to Peter. Today, let us consider the apostolic see as the sole source of the legitimate power, whereby mankind is ruled and governed in all that concerns eternal salvation.”
Our Saviour said to Peter: “To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven,” that is to say, of the Church. He said to him on another occasion: “Feed My lambs, feed My sheep.” So that Peter is prince; for, in the language of the sacred Scriptures, keys denote princely power: he is also pastor, and universal pastor; for the whole flock is comprised under the two terms, lambs and sheep. And yet there are other pastors in every portion of the Christian world. The bishops, whom the Holy Ghost hath placed to rule the Church of God, govern, in his name, their respective dioceses, and are also pastors.
How comes it that the keys, which were given to Peter, are found in other hands than his?
The Catholic Church explains the difficulty to us by her tradition. She says to us, by Tertullian: “Christ gave the keys to Peter, and through him to the Church.” By St. Optatus of Milevum: “For the sake of unity, Peter was made the first among all the apostles, and he alone received the keys, that he might give them to the rest.” By St. Gregory of Nyssa: “It is through Peter that Christ gave to bishops the keys of their heavenly prerogative.” By St. Leo the Great: “If our Lord willed that there should be something common to Peter and the rest of the princes of His Church, it was only on this condition, that whatsoever He gave to the rest, He gave it to them through Peter.”
Yes, the episcopate is most sacred, for it comes from the hands of Jesus Christ through Peter and his successors. Such is the unanimous teaching of Catholic tradition, which is in keeping with the language used by the Roman pontiff’s, from the earliest ages, who have always spoken of the dignity of bishops as consisting in their being ‘ called to a share of their own solicitude.’
Hence St. Cyprian does not hesitate to say that ‘ our Saviour, wishing to establish the episcopal dignity and constitute His Church, says to Peter: “To thee will I give the keys of the kingdom of heaven”; and here we have both the institution of bishops, and the constitution of the Church.’ This same doctrine is clearly stated in a letter written to Pope St. Symmachus by St. Cesarius of Arles,’ who lived in the fifth century:
“The episcopate flows from the blessed apostle Peter; and consequently, it belongs to your holiness to prescribe to the several Churches the rules which they are to follow.” This fundamental principle, which St. Leo the Great has so ably and eloquently developed (as we have seen on the feast of the chair at Rome, January 18), this principle, which is taught us by universal tradition, is laid down with all possible precision in the magnificent letters, still extant, of Pope St. Innocent I., who preceded St. Leo by several years.
Thus he writes to the Council of Carthage, that ‘the episcopate, with all its authority, emanates from the apostolic see’; to the Council of Milevum, that ‘bishops must look upon Peter as the source whence both their name and their dignity are derived ‘; to St. Victricius, bishop of Rouen, that ‘the apostolate and the episcopate both owe their origin to Peter.’
Controversy is not our object. All we aim at by giving these quotations from the fathers on the prerogatives of Peter’s chair, is to excite the faithful to be devoted to it and venerate it. This we have endeavoured to do, by showing them that this chair is the source of the spiritual authority, which, in its several degrees, rules and sanctifies them. All spiritual authority comes from Peter; all comes from the bishop of Rome, in whom Peter will continue to govern the Church to the end of time. Jesus Christ is the founder of the episcopate; it is the Holy Ghost who establishes bishops to rule the Church; but the mission and the institution, which assign the pastor his flock, and the flock its pastor, these are given by Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost through the ministry of Peter and his successors.”
Let our hearts and minds, as devout and faithful traditional Roman Catholics, always give thanks to God for keeping us in His one true Church, in a union of faith and love, with St. Peter and his Successors!
Nishant Xavier is a traditional Catholic from Chennai who loves Jesus and Mary, St. Thomas and India. He is due to begin seminary studies soon in Palyamkottai’s Priory of the Sacred Heart. After his B. Tech, he cracked CAT and graduated with an MBA in Finance from IIM Lucknow. He worked for two years as a Quantitative Analyst in Bank of New York Mellon from 2015-2017 and also has two separate years of Financial Consulting Experience.
Nishant is also very tech and digital savvy and works for the cause of Indian and World Evangelism. And now he considers all else to be but little dust in comparison to the glory of Christ and the splendour of His Church. He wishes to win all for God’s Kingdom”. His passion has always been sacred theology and Jesus and Mary. You can reach out of to him anytime for comments or questions on the articles at [email protected].