X.
FEB. 22. CHAIR OF SAINT PETER.
We commemorate in the calendar 'Cathedra Sancti Petri'
seven days before the month which we call March,
Now there are some men who know not what this name signifieth.
Cathedra is interpreted 'Bishop's throne' in English;
and Saint Peter was raised on that day
to his bishop's throne in the city of Antioch.
This throne he occupied fully seven years;
and afterwards went by God's command
to the great city of Rome, and dwelt therein
five and twenty years, and shewed many miracles
to the Roman people, until he converted them to the faith.
He left Antioch because he was an Apostle,
and had to go everywhere and establish Christianity.
Then he occupied in Rome his second episcopal see,
until the wicked Nero hung him on a rood.
Now will we tell you some of Peter's miracles
to his honour, and your edification;
but it is not our task to tell all his miracles.
We said erewhile how his shadow healed
all the sick over whom it glided,
wheresoever he went, and they all rose up
sound before him, who aforetime lay in the mire.
Now will we also tell you how on a certain day he went
to God's temple with the evangelist John.
Then lay there a cripple, lame from childhood,
who was daily carried to the 'Beautiful' Gate,
that he might receive alms from those entering.
Then looked he towards Peter, desiring an alms,
and Peter said, 'I have neither silver nor gold,
I give thee that I have: arise, in the Lord's name,
whole on thy feet,' and took his right hand
and lifted him up; and he leapt up immediately,
trying his power of motion, whether he could walk.
Then went he joyfully into the temple,
with the holy apostles, praising the Saviour.
Then all who knew him before recognised him,
and greatly marvelled at the poor man's healing.
Again, on another occasion, as Peter journeyed
to visit the faithful, he came to Lydda,
desiring to speak with the brethren who dwelt in that city.
There he found a bedridden man within the walls,
called AEneas, lame for eight years.
Then said the blessed Peter to the poor bedridden,
'The Lord Christ make thee whole, arise and make thyself ready.'
Then arose the bedridden, loosed by Peter,
he who hath the power to unloose
the fast knots of olden sins
in those that with repentance earnestly beseech him
to intercede for them to the Saviour Christ.
Then believed the men of the city, through the healing of the bed-ridden,
in the true God, and submitted to baptism,
and those of Saron did likewise.
There was a city hight Joppa, nigh at hand to Lydda,
wherein was a widow, a very true believer,
called Tabitha, very diligent in alms-deeds,
and adorned exceedingly with good works;
she became sick at that same time,
departed from life, and lay in an upper chamber.
When the faithful who surrounded the body,
learnt that Peter was at Lydda, so nigh to that place,
then sent they two men to meet him,
praying that he would visit them without delay.
Then arose the apostle, and quickly came thither.
went to the upper-chamber, and behold, there stood about him
weeping widows and destitute poor,
showing him the garments and the embroidered tunics,
which Tabitha had made for them, before she departed.
Then bade the holy Peter, that they should clear the house for him,
and bowed his knees, praying for her life;
then turned he to the body, and cried aloud,
'Tabitha, arise,' and she straightway revived,
beheld Peter, and sat up.
Then Peter took her feeble hand,
and raised her up whole from the bed.
Then the miracle was blazed abroad throughout all that region,
and many believed in the living God.
Then Peter dwelt, after that widow's raising,
many days in Joppa with a believing man,
named Simon; his house stood by the sea.
Then desired the apostle to pray apart,
and went up outside the house-top about mid-day,
was also an-hungered, and desired to remain there.
Then was shown to him a wondrous vision,
he saw the heavens open, and a vessel came to him
four-cornered and broad, and within it there were
all living creatures, creeping and walking.
A voice came to him, thus crying thrice,
'arise now, Peter, and slay these savage beasts,
make for thee meat, that thou mayst satisfy thyself.'
Then said the holy man, 'let it not be so, dear Lord,
for I have never tasted anything that is unclean.'
Then came to him again the voice, thus crying from Heaven,
'that which God hath cleansed, say not thou that it is foul.'
Thrice was it thus cried to him, and straightway the vessel
was drawn up to Heaven again, together with the beasts.
We will now tell you shortly the interpretation.
The four-cornered vessel with the foul beasts
had for signification all heathen nations,
who, in the four quarters of the earth, lived foully,
but Christ cleansed them by His coming into the world;
and therefore said the voice, crying to Peter,
that he should feed himself with the fierce beasts,
because they were cleansed through Christ's passion,
and He Was to turn them from the likeness of the serpent
by true doctrine unto reason,
and to the likeness of men from that loathsome form.
Thrice cried the voice from the Holy Trinity,
Who is One Almighty God, ever indivisible.
"While Peter considered what his vision should mean
there cried three men, knocking at the gate,
and asking of the servants, whether the holy Peter
had his dwelling there, desiring to speak with him.
Behold then, the Holy Ghost told him of it and said,
'Three men seek thee from the city of Caesarea,
arise, and go with them, for I have sent them,'
Peter thereupon went quickly to the men, is
enquiring for what cause they asked for him.
They said that Cornelius sent them to him;
'He is a Centurion, and hath the fear of God,
a very righteous man, as all this province knows;
to him came God's angel, and bade that he should
summon thee to him, and hear thy doctrine.'
So, in the early morning, went
the blessed Peter with the messengers
and likewise his brethren together, to the city of Caesarea.
Cornelius invited his dearest friends,
desiring that they should hear the holy doctrine from Peter,
and went to meet him, and humbly bowed himself
down, at his feet, but Peter took him up.
Then went he in with Cornelius, and said to them all,
'Ye know that it befitteth not us Jews to come near
to you heathen men, but God hath showed me
that it is not for us to say that ye are unclean.
I came therefore without any doubt,
I ask the cause wherefore thou calledst for me.'
Then Cornelius said, ' God's angel came to me
[shortly] before now one day about the ninth hour while I was praying alone,
stood in white garments, and said thus to me,
" Thy prayer is heard of the high God,
and thine alms are reckoned in his sight;
send now to Joppa, to Simon Peter,
and call him to thee, that he may speak to thee words of life."
Now have I sent unto thee, and we are ready
to hear all those things which Jesus commanded thee.'
Christianity was not yet known in that city,
neither was this Cornelius baptized into Christ,
but he believed nevertheless in the living God,
and by alms earned the angel's instruction,
and set the heathen a lofty example,
when he submitted to baptism the first of them all.
Then said the blessed Peter, ' I perceive of a truth
that God is the receiver in every nation
of whosoever feareth Him, and doeth righteousness.'
Then began he to teach the true faith
to the heathen officer, concerning the Saviour's life;
how he wrought many miracles in this world,
and afterwards suffered death of His own will for us,
and on the third day arose from the dead uncorrupt.
In the midst of these words was shown a great miracle of God,
so that the Holy Ghost came upon the heathen,
and they all who heard that lore spake
with divers tongues, magnifying God.
Then marvelled the Jews who were there with Peter,
which believed in Christ, that the Holy Ghost came
upon the heathen, and the holy Peter said,
' Who shall forbid water for the baptism of these men
now that they have received the Holy Ghost
even as we ourselves?' and he straightway commanded them
all to be baptized, in the name of the Almighty.
Then prayed they Peter to tarry there
for a few days after their baptism.
After that when Peter came to the Christian congregation
at Jerusalem, then the brethren asked him,
they of the Jewish nation who believed in Christ,
' Why wentest thou to the heathen and didst eat in their house?'
The Jews thought that they alone were
chosen of God, and therefore so spake.
In old days, under Moses' Law,
the Jews would not come near the heathen,
nor eat with them, and very rightly then,
because they themselves believed in the living God,
and the heathen believed in the false gods,
which were not gods but horrible devils.
The Jews wished now to hold their customs S
after their baptism, and to contemn the heathen.
Then began St. Peter to relate to them all
what God had showed him before ho came thither,
and how the Holy Ghost came upon the heathen, and said,
"If God gave them the gift of the Holy Ghost
as unto us at the beginning in fiery tongues,
what manner of man am I, that I could forbid God?
Then the Jews were silent after they had heard this,
and glorified God, in that He willed to grant
to the heathen repentance unto the heavenly life.
There was a great servant of God hight Marcellus,
who followed Simon the shameful sorcerer,
until the blessed Peter drove away the impious man.
Then Marcellus left the wicked sorcerer,
and followed Peter, and submitted to baptism.
Now this Marcellus hath recorded how St. Peter's daughter,
named Petronilla, departed from the world to Christ.
(Peter had a wife before he was converted
to the family of Christ, but he afterwards renounced
worldly desires, and conjugal intercourse,
because Christ ordained chastity in the world,
and all his followers walked in chastity,
even as Peter indeed said to him,
Ecce nos reliquimus omniay et secuti sumus te; quid ergo erit nobis?
'Behold, we have left all things in the world
and now follow Thee, what wilt thou provide for us?
In the beginning of the world said Almighty God,
'Be ye multiplied, and replenish the earth;'
and Christ desired at His coming to establish chastity,
and preserved His holy household in chastity.
Men had in the beginning their kindred to wife,
and well they might, for the lack of women;
and whosoever doth so now, will not have God's blessing.
Under Moses' law, the bishop was to have
an espoused wife, for the certain succession,
that is, that the son should always succeed to the priesthood,
after his father's death, and no other might do so.
It might well be so then, because they never celebrated mass,
but they offered beasts in their sacrifices to God,
neither was the house consecrated before Jesus came,
and instituted the New Covenant with the Christian people,
and chose the pure for His pure service,
not unto the offering of beasts, but unto His own body;
and bishops are not now chosen according to lineage,
but the holy church loveth the chaste,
and Christ will have those that serve Him in chastity
at the living sacrifice of His body and blood.
We have to speak about the wise Petronilla, .
the blessed Peter's daughter, but this occurred to our mind.)
The aforesaid Marcellus said that she lay
in a palsy even as Peter himself willed it.
Then Titus enquired of the blessed Apostle,
why he suffered her so to lie on a sick bed,
when he healed all other cripples, and she alone lay so?
Then said the holy father, that it was for her profit,
'But, lest any one should think that our word cannot
give her healing, I command her now to arise
and serve us all;' and she immediately arose,
served her father, and his companions, being made whole.
After this attendance the holy Peter commanded
her to go to bed, and be again diseased.
Thus she was perfected in the fear of God, and God healed her again,
so that she might herself heal many others,
through holy prayers, in the Name of Jesus.
With her another maiden was brought up named Felicula [her foster-sister],
perfect in God's fear, and in all goodness;
but Petronilla was very fair of face.
Then came a certain ruler, who was called Flaccus
with a great company to Petronilla the maiden,
and desired to take her to wife for her fair face.
Then said the holy maiden to the heathen man,
'Why hast thou come with weapons, and rude soldiers
unto a maiden powerless for war*?
but if thou wilt have me, bid come unto me
noble matrons, and fair maidens
three days hence, and behold, I will with these
come to thy house,' and he believed her.
So then Petronilla prayed with fasting
to the heavenly king, who had chosen her,
during all that space, and JFelicula with her,
until Nicomedes the mass-priest came
on the third day, and said mass for them,
and the holy Petronilla received the housel,
returned to her bed, and quickly died.
Then came the women as they had agreed,
and swathed her body until she was buried,
as if they had come for the purpose of attending to the woman.
Then Flaccus turned his mind to Felicula,
and thus said to her with a threatening manner,
'Choose thee now quickly one of these two things.
Either be my wife, or bow to our gods,
and offer sacrifice to them;' but she answered him thus,
'I will never be thy wife, because that of my own will
I am dedicated to Christ, neither will I offer sacrifice
to the heathen gods, because I believe in Christ.'
Then commanded the wicked Flaccus to bring the maiden
into a very dark prison, and said, that no man was to
give her any sustenance for seven nights.
Thus she remained seven nights meatless,
and was afterwards tortured for the sake of the true faith,
and for the sake of her virginity, until she was martyred,
and her free soul departed to Heaven.
Then came Nicomedes the aforesaid mass-priest,
and buried her body, to the praise of the Almighty.
Then Flaccus seized the faithful priest,
and, because he would not sacrifice to the foul gods,
commanded him to be scourged until he gave up the ghost.
Thus he departed to Heaven to Jesus Christ,
To Whom is glory and worship world without end. Amen.