Chair of Saint Peter

Portable chair preserved at the Vatican and believed to be a chair used by Saint Peter, the extant testimony referring to it dating from the 2nd century. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome has been celebrated from the early days of the Christian era on 18 January, in commemoration of the day when Saint Peter held his first service in Rome. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch, commemorating his foundation of the See of Antioch, has also been long celebrated at Rome, on 22 February. At each place a chair (cathedra) was venerated which the Apostle had used while presiding at Mass. One of the chairs is referred to about 600 by an Abbot Johannes who had been commissioned by Pope Gregory the Great to collect in oil from the lamps which burned at the graves of the Roman martyrs. One of these phials, preserved in the cathedral treasury of Monza, Italy, had a label reading, "oleo de sede ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus" (oils from the chair where Saint Peter first sat). The Mass for both feast days is the same; the Collect is as follows:

"Oh, God, who, together with the power of the keys of the kingdom of heaven, didst bestow on blessed Peter Thy Apostle the pontificate of binding and loosing, grant that by the aid of his intercession we may be released from the yoke of our sins."

Saint Quote: Saint Antony the Abbot

The devil dreads fasting, prayer, humility, and good works: he is not able even to stop my mouth who speak against him. The illusions of the devil soon vanish, especially if a man arms himself with the Sign of the Cross. The devils tremble at the Sign of the Cross of our Lord, by which He triumphed over and disarmed them.

--Saint Antony the Abbot

Saint Quote: Saint John Vianney

We must always choose the most perfect. Two good works present themselves to be done, one in favour of a person we love, the other in favour of a person who has done us some harm. Well, we must give preference to the latter.

--Saint John Vianney

Saint Quote: Saint Leopold Bogdan Mandic

We have in heaven the heart of a mother, The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross suffered as much as possible for a human creature, understands our troubles and consoles us.

--Saint Leopold Bogdan Mandic

Saint Quote: Blessed Peter Donders

After I had spent about ten months in the city of Paramaribo, his Lordship the Bishop sent me, along with two other Fathers, to work from then on in Batavia. During this time it pleased God to offer to the till now neglected Indians—the Arrowaks and the Warros as well as the Caribs—the possibility of knowing and loving Him. But, sadly, expectations were not fulfilled, except among the Arrowaks. Even there, progress was moderate; because of the lack of sufficient instruction, it was not what it could have been... But God is all-powerful; Mary, the refuge of sinners, is also their mother; we must pray and do penance and hope in God and his Holy Mother; for the saints say: From the day on which Christ died souls must be bought by blood. If only, by sacrificing my own life, I could bring all people to know and love God as he deserves. But let God's holy will be done in all things. The Holy Will of God and perfect obedience in all things have always been my consolation, and I hope that it may still be so at the hour of my death. Amen.

--Blessed Peter Donders

Saint Quote: Venerable Pope Pius XII

Whoever exalts race, or the people, or the State, a particular form of State, or the repositories of power, or any other fundamental value of the worldly community... whoever raises these notions above their standard value and divinizes them to an idolatrous level, distorts and perverts an order of the world planned and created by God.

--Venerable Pope Pius XII

Saint Quote: Pope Saint Gregory VII

Now, my dearest brothers, listen carefully to what I tell you. All those throughout the world who are numbered as Christian and who truly acknowledge the Christian faith know and believe that the blessed Peter, the prince of the apostles, is the father of all Christians and, after Christ, the first shepherd, and that the holy Roman Church is the mother and teacher of all the churches. Therefore, if you believe this and hold to it without hesitation, I ask you and enjoin upon you by Almighty God - I your brother and unworthy teacher as I am - to support and assist your father and your mother if you wish to have, through them, the remission of all your sins, along with blessings and grace in this world and in the life to come.

May almighty God, from whom all good things come, continually enlighten your minds and fill them with love for him and for your neighbor, so that by your devotion you may deserve to make this father and mother of whom I have spoken your debtors and enter without shame into their company. Amen.

from a letter by Pope Saint Gregory VII