Disciple of Jesus; regarded by Catholics as the vicar of Christ on earth; Also called: Saint Peter, St Peter, Saint Peter the Apostle.
St Christian martyr, the author of two epistles in the New Testament and leader of the apostles. He is regarded as the first bishop of Rome, whose mantle the pope inherits. His real name was Simon, but he was nicknamed Kephas (“Peter”, from the Greek for “rock”) by Jesus, as being the rock upon which he would build his church. His emblem is two keys; feast day 29 June.
Originally a fisherman of Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, Peter may have been a follower of John the Baptist, and was the first to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Tradition has it that he later settled in Rome; he was martyred during the reign of the emperor Nero, perhaps by crucifixion. Bones excavated from under the Basilica of St Peter's in the Vatican 1968 were accepted as those of St Peter by Pope Paul VI. + prikaži više