02Knights Templar - Julian Emperor

EARLY CHRISTIAN SAINTS AND MARTYRS
The Holy Apostles
St Peter
St Peter always appears first in lists of the apostles and has particular
importance in the development of Christianity. He was
a key figure in the life of Christ. His original name was Simon
and he lived in Bethsaida, close to the Sea of Galilee. Like his
brother St Andrew, he made a living as a fisherman. Jesus renamed
him Peter because he had recognised that he was the
messiah. In a key passage from the New Testament Christ addresses
St Peter, saying,‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah!
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father
in heaven.And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail
against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and
whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’
(Matthew 16:19). Interestingly, in the Gospel of St John,
Simon is given the name ‘cephas’, the Aramaic term for
‘rock’, and the Greek equivalent of this is seen in his new
name of Peter. Importantly, Christ predicted that, on the day
that he was arrested, Peter would deny all knowledge of him
three times before the cock crowed at the break of day.
However, although it was St Mary Magdalene who first encountered
Jesus outside the empty tomb in which his body
had been laid, St Peter was the first of the apostles to whom
Christ appeared.
St Peter is, of course, regarded as the first pope of the
Roman Catholic Church. Because St Peter is seen as holding
the keys to the gates of heaven and is commonly depicted in
religious art holding a pair of keys, his patronage as a gate-
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