The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul

The Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is the feast on which the Catholic Church honors the two apostles who, according to Christian tradition, were martyred in Rome and whose tombs the city holds. It falls every year on 29 June. In Rome it is a public holiday and the feast of the city's patron saints. At St. Peter's Basilica & Vatican City the day is marked by a papal Mass at the altar above Peter's tomb, during which the pope confers the pallium, a band of white wool, on the archbishops appointed during the past year. The Orthodox churches keep the same feast on the same date, which falls on 12 July for those that follow the older calendar. In the Catholic calendar a solemnity is the highest rank of feast.

About Peter and Paul

Peter was a fisherman from Galilee whom Jesus called as one of his twelve apostles. The Gospels present him as the first among them and record that Jesus gave him the name Peter, meaning rock, and said he would build his church on it. Catholics regard Peter as the first bishop of Rome and the first pope, and every pope since as his successor. Christian tradition holds that Peter came to Rome, led the Christian community there, and was crucified during the persecution under the emperor Nero in the 60s CE, on the Vatican hill, and was buried nearby.

Paul was a Jew from Tarsus, in present-day Turkey, who at first persecuted the followers of Jesus. The New Testament recounts that on the road to Damascus he had a vision of Jesus, became a believer, and spent the rest of his life preaching to non-Jews across the eastern Mediterranean. He is called the apostle to the Gentiles. His letters form a large part of the New Testament. Christian tradition holds that he was brought to Rome as a prisoner, was beheaded on the road to Ostia during the same persecution, and was buried where the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls now stands.

The two apostles are honored together because the Church regards them as the two founders of the Christian community of Rome: one the shepherd of the flock, the other the preacher to the nations. In art Peter carries keys and Paul carries a sword and a book.

The History of the Feast

From the early centuries of Christianity, the church in Rome honored the two apostles together on 29 June. According to Christian tradition, their relics were moved to a safe place on that date in 258 CE, during a time of persecution. In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine built a basilica over Peter’s grave on the Vatican Hill and another over Paul’s grave on the road to Ostia, and the feast was celebrated at both churches. Today’s St. Peter’s Basilica, consecrated in 1626, stands on the site of Constantine’s church, with its main altar directly above the site venerated as Peter’s grave.

The Tomb of Peter

Excavations under the basilica between 1940 and 1949 uncovered a Roman cemetery and, beneath the main altar, a small monument from the second century built over a simple grave. The Church identifies this grave as Peter's, and in 1968 the bones found in a niche of the monument were declared to be his relics. The site is known as the Confession, from an old word for the tomb of a martyr, and the main altar of the basilica is called the Altar of the Confession. The area beneath it is the focus of the feast.

The Celebration in St. Peter's

The feast is prepared by a novena, nine consecutive evenings of prayer held at the Altar of the Chair at the far end of the basilica, from 20 to 27 June. On the evening of 28 June, the eve of the feast, the basilica sings First Vespers, the evening prayer of the Church, made up of psalms, a reading, and hymns. In the evening a torchlight prayer vigil moves through St. Peter's Square in five stations that retrace the two apostles' conversion.

On the morning of 29 June the pope celebrates Mass at the Altar of the Confession. During the Mass he blesses and confers the pallium on the metropolitan archbishops named in the past year. The pallium is a narrow circular band of white wool with two hanging strips, marked with black crosses. It is woven from the wool of lambs blessed in January on the feast of St Agnes, a Roman girl martyred in the early fourth century whom the Church honors as the patron saint of young girls. The pallia rest beside Peter's tomb beneath the altar until the feast. The Church regards the pallium as a sign of the archbishop's bond with the pope and with the church of Rome, and of the shepherd's task of carrying the flock. A delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the senior see of the Orthodox churches, attends the Mass each year. In return a delegation from Rome attends the feast of St Andrew in Istanbul on 30 November. Andrew was Peter's brother and one of the twelve apostles. The Church of Constantinople regards him as its founder.

In the afternoon, Second Vespers, the evening prayer of the feast day itself, closes the feast at the Altar of the Chair. The same day a Mass is celebrated at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls at Paul's tomb.

The Feast in the City

In Rome the day is a civic holiday. The streets around St. Peter's are decorated with flower carpets, and in the evening fireworks are set off over the Castel Sant'Angelo, the fortress on the Tiber that once guarded the approach to the Vatican. Churches named for the two apostles across the Catholic world keep their patronal feast on the same day, and in many Catholic countries 29 June is a holy day on which the faithful attend Mass.