The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

years bishop of Antioch; not that he resided there all that time, but
only that he had a particular care over that church. If he sat
twenty-five years at Rome, the date of his establishing his church at
Antioch must be within three years after our Saviour's ascension; for in
that supposition he must have gone to Rome in the second year of
Claudius.
The festival of St. Peter's chair in general, Natale Petri de Cathedrâ,
is marked on this day in the most ancient calendar extant, made in the
time of pope Liberius, about the year 354.[7] It also occurs in
Gregory's sacramentary, {443} and in all the martyrologies. It was kept
in France in the sixth century, as appears from the council of Tours,[8]
and from Le Cointo.[9]
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In the first ages it was customary, especially in the East, for every
Christian to keep the anniversary of his baptism, on which he renewed
his baptismal vows, and gave thanks to God for his heavenly adoption:
this they called their spiritual birthday. The bishops in like manner
kept the anniversary of their own consecration, as appears from four
sermons of St. Leo, on the anniversary of his accession or assumption to
the pontifical dignity, and this was frequently continued by the people
after their decease, out of respect to their memory. St. Leo says, we
ought to celebrate the chair of St. Peter with no less joy than the day
of his martyrdom; for as in this he was exalted to a throne of glory in
heaven, so by the former he was installed head of the church on
earth.[10]
On this festival we are especially bound to adore and thank the divine
goodness for the establishment and propagation of his church, and
earnestly to pray that in his mercy he preserve the same, and dilate its
pale, that his name may be glorified by all nations, and by all hearts,
to the boundaries of the earth, for his divine honor and the salvation
of souls, framed to his divine image, and the price of his adorable
blood. The church of Christ is his spiritual kingdom: he is not only the
architect and founder, but continues to govern it, and by his spirit to
animate its members to the end of the world as its invisible head:
though he has left in St. Peter and his successors a vicar, or
lieutenant, as a visible head, with an established hierarchy for its
exterior government. If we love him and desire his honor, if we love men
on so many titles linked with us, can we cease weeping and praying, that
by his sweet omnipotent grace he subdue all the enemies of his church,
converting to it all infidels and apostates? In its very bosom sinners
fight against him. Though these continue his members by faith, they are
dead members, because he lives not in them by his grace and charity,