Not all Christians celebrate the lives of the saints; this is understandable because few of the people we honor with that title lived saintly lives, but today is the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, who, following Jesus, are the principle founders of the Church. We celebrate them on the anniversary of their martyrdom, on the day they were executed on the charge of atheism, irreligion and for being enemies of the Roman state.
The influence of Peter and Paul on Christian doctrine was more extensive and more enduring than Jesus’ own teaching. Though Jesus was purportedly literate, he read and taught in synagogues and was well-versed in the law, we do not have a single written-word from him who is known to us as the Word of God.
Through his letters to Paul wrote the core articles of Christian doctrine, including the Apostle’s Creed, while Peter was the first bishop of Rome and patriarch of the Latin Church, and the two men did not always see eye to eye
While Jesus’ brother James was the bishop of Jerusalem, Peter carried the rank as chief of the disciples. Paul came from a different place, becoming apostle to the gentiles, founding churches all over the ancient near east, Greece, Asia Minor and throughout the Mediterranean world; though Paul never met Jesus he was a greater teacher than his cohort Peter, and was more responsible for opening Christianity to the world than other person with the possible exception of the man Paul named the Christ..
Note well:
Peter is given credit for founding the church of Rome, and the traditional-lore tells us that he was its first bishop…this is pure mythology. The earliest record we have of a bishop in Rome refers to a man named Linus, tradition now holds that Linus was the bishop following Peter, but no-one called either of them pope (or papa), a title which was not in use during Peter’s day. And while Rome was important in this era, the center of the Christian movement was still in Jerusalem, where it was James who resolved the conflicts catechetical conflicts between SS. Peter and Paul.
Most credible historians believe that Peter is credited with founding the church in Rome because without credit for founding a church (somewhere…anywhere) he would not be able to bear the title of apostle, and so he was credited with founding the churches at Rome and Antioch by way of apology. In the canonical Book of Acts, Paul and his companion Barnabas are credited with its founding…though Peter may have visited once.
It is true that Peter travelled and was an ambassador of the faith, but Paul was a true missionary; he founded churches wherever he went.
It is accepted as true that both men were put to death in Rome, they were martyred there on account of their commitment to the Church and its mission; to feed the hungry, take care of the widow, and the orphan and the poor. They were not put to death, as much for the content of their beliefs, as for leading the kind of secretive society that was generally feared by the emperors of Rome’s.
Paul was a Roman citizen; his letters are the earliest known Christian writings, and though not all of the letters ascribed to him were written by him, Paul’s actual influence on the Christian narrative and its doctrine are immeasurable…there would be no Christianity without him.
A casual observer of history may find the authority he held to be odd, because as mentioned, Paul never met Jesus, did not know him, never heard him speak. Prior to his conversion Paul was the type of man who would punish members of his community if they were not properly observing the traditions of the synagogue; he fulfilled a function similar to that of the Taliban in Afghanistan, or the morality police in Iran…and Christians were his primary target.
After Paul’s conversion to Christianity he opened the way to the masses by sharing the good news that Christ had risen, making it so that a person did not need to become Jewish first in order to join the church as peter would have had it...the two men had different ways, but they were martyred together on this day.
