The liberation of the apostle Peter is an event described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12 in which the apostle Peter is rescued from prison by an angel. Although described in a short textual passage, the tale has given rise to theological discussions and has been the subject of a number of artworks.
Acts 12:3–19 says that Peter was put into prison by King Herod, but the night before his trial an angel appeared to him, and told him to leave. Peter's chains fell off, and he followed the angel out of prison, thinking it was a vision (verse 9). The prison doors opened of their own accord, and the angel led Peter into the city.
When the angel suddenly left him, Peter came to himself and returned to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark. A servant girl called Rhoda came to answer the door, and when she heard Peter's voice she was so overjoyed that she rushed to tell the others, and forgot to open the door for Peter (verse 14). Eventually Peter is let in and describes "how the Lord had brought him out of prison" (verse 17). When his escape is discovered, Herod orders the guards put to death. [1]
F. F. Bruce argues that "direct divine intervention is strongly indicated" in this narrative. He contrasts the story of Peter to that of James the Great, who was reported in verse 2 as having been executed by Herod, and notes that why "James should die while Peter should escape" is a "mystery of divine providence." [2]
James B. Jordan suggests that this incident is portrayed as being a type of resurrection for Peter. Noting that one of the major themes of the Book of Acts is that "Christ's servants follow in His footsteps", Jordan argues that the events of the chapter "recapitulate the resurrection of Jesus." [3] Amy-Jill Levine and Marianne Blickenstaff, like Jordan, relate the disbelief of Rhoda's message to Luke 24:1–12, where most of the disciples refuse to believe the news of the resurrection brought by a group of women. [4]
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The following artists have depicted this event:
A number of churches are named after "St Peter in Chains" (Latin St Peter ad Vincula, Italian San Pietro in Vincoli), including in Rome (which claims to house the very chains that fell from Peter's hands [5] ), in Pisa, in London, Birżebbuġa (Malta), Tollard Royal (UK), in Cincinnati, and in Wheelersburg, OH.
The relic of the Chains of St. Peter were kept in Jerusalem, where they were venerated by Christian pilgrims. In the fourth century, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, St. Juvenal, presented them to Eudocia, wife of Emperor Theodosius the Younger, and she took them to Constantinople.
Later, Eudocia sent a portion of the chains to Rome with her daughter Licinia Eudoxia, the wife of Valentinian III. Licinia Eudoxia built the church of S. Petrus ad Vincula on the Esquiline Hill to house the relic. Also in Rome was the relic of the chains with which Peter was bound when he was imprisoned by Nero. These latter chains were placed in the same church as the chains from Jerusalem.
The traditional festival of "St Peter in Chains" was on 1 August, and had the collect:
O God, who didst deliver thy holy Apostle Saint Peter from his bonds and suffer him to depart unhurt:
vouchsafe, we pray thee; to deliver us from the bonds of our sins, and of thy mercy preserve us from all evil. [6]
It was included in the pre-1962 General Calendar of the Roman Rite (see the Tridentine calendar, the General Roman Calendar as in 1954 and the General Roman Calendar of Pope Pius XII). Traditional Roman Catholics continue to celebrate the feast day of "St Peter's Chains" either as a Greater-Double or a Double Major feast. In the Orthodox Church this feast is celebrated on January 16. [7]
Acts 12:7 is referred to in Charles Wesley's hymn And Can It Be : [8]
Long my imprisoned spirit lay,
Fast bound in sin and nature's night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray;
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
Theodosius II was Roman emperor from 402 to 450. He was proclaimed augustus as an infant and ruled as the Eastern Empire's sole emperor after the death of his father, Arcadius, in 408. His reign was marked by the promulgation of the Theodosian law code and the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople. He also presided over the outbreak of two great Christological controversies, Nestorianism and Eutychianism.
Aelia Eudocia Augusta, also called Saint Eudocia, was an Eastern Roman empress by marriage to Emperor Theodosius II, and a prominent Greek historical figure in understanding the rise of Christianity during the beginning of the Byzantine Empire. Eudocia lived in a world where Greek paganism and Christianity existed side by side with both pagans and non-orthodox Christians being persecuted. Although Eudocia's work has been mostly ignored by modern scholars, her poetry and literary work are great examples of how her Christian faith and Greek heritage and upbringing were intertwined, exemplifying a legacy that the Roman Empire left behind on the Christian world.
Philip the Apostle was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Later Christian traditions describe Philip as the apostle who preached in Greece, Syria, and Asia-Minor.
James the Great was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was the second of the apostles to die, and the first to be martyred. Saint James is the patron saint of Spain and, according to tradition, his remains are held in Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
Gamaliel the Elder, or Rabban Gamaliel I, was a leading authority in the Sanhedrin in the early first century CE. He was the son of Simeon ben Hillel and grandson of the great Jewish teacher Hillel the Elder. He fathered Simeon ben Gamliel, who was named for Gamaliel's father, and a daughter, who married a priest named Simon ben Nathanael.
Eudoxia, Eudokia or Evdokia is a feminine given name, which originally meant "good fame or judgement" or "she whose fame or judgement is good" in Greek. The Slavic forms of the name are East Slavic: Evdokiya, Yevdokiya ; South Slavic: Evdokija (Евдокија), Jevdokija (Јевдокија). It was mainly popular in late antiquity and during the Middle Ages, particularly in Eastern Europe. It continues to be in use today, usually in honor of various saints.
San Pietro in Vincoli is a Roman Catholic titular church and minor basilica in Rome, Italy, best known for being the home of Michelangelo's statue of Moses, part of the tomb of Pope Julius II. The Titulus S. Petri ad vincula was assigned on 20 November 2010, to Donald Wuerl. The previous Cardinal Priest of the basilica was Pío Laghi, who died on 11 January 2009.
In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the feast of the Resurrection of Jesus, called Pascha (Easter), is the greatest of all holy days and as such it is called the "feast of feasts". Immediately below it in importance, there is a group of Twelve Great Feasts. Together with Pascha, these are the most significant dates on the Orthodox liturgical calendar. Eight of the great feasts are in honor of Jesus Christ, while the other four are dedicated to the Virgin Mary — the Theotokos.
The Chair of Saint Peter, also known as the Throne of Saint Peter, is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City, the sovereign enclave of the Pope inside Rome, Italy. The relic is a wooden throne that tradition claims belonged to the Apostle Saint Peter, the leader of the Early Christians in Rome and first Pope, and which he used as Bishop of Rome. The relic is enclosed in a sculpted gilt bronze casing designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and constructed between 1647 and 1653. In 2012, Pope Benedict XVI described the chair as "a symbol of the special mission of Peter and his Successors to tend Christ's flock, keeping it united in faith and in charity."
The beheading of John the Baptist, also known as the decollation of Saint John the Baptist or the beheading of the Forerunner, is a biblical event commemorated as a holy day by various Christian churches. According to the New Testament, Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he had publicly reproved Herod for divorcing his first wife and unlawfully taking his sister-in-law as his second wife Herodias. He then ordered him to be killed by beheading.
The Pentecostarion is the liturgical book used by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic churches during the Paschal Season which extends from Pascha (Easter) to the Sunday following All Saints Sunday.
John II was bishop of Jerusalem from AD 387 to AD 417. John II succeeded to the episcopal throne of Jerusalem on the death of Cyril in 386. He was the author, according to an increasing number of modern scholars, of the five Mystagogical Catecheses traditionally ascribed to his predecessor Cyril.
Saint Peter ad Vincula alludes to the Bible story of the Liberation of Saint Peter, when the Apostle Peter, imprisoned by King Herod Agrippa, was rescued by an angel. Frequently seen translations are:
The Christian Gospels of Mark and Matthew say that, after the Ascension of Jesus, his Apostles "went out and preached everywhere". This is described in Mark 16 verses 19 and 20, and Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. According to a tradition mentioned by Eusebius, they dispersed to distinct parts of the world. In the Middle Ages a liturgical feast of the Dispersion of the Apostles was celebrated to commemorate their missionary work and their founding the apostolic sees. This annual feast was held on 15 July and ranked as a major double.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Christianity:
Rhoda is a woman mentioned once in the New Testament. She appears only in Acts 12:12–15. Rhoda was the first person to hear Peter after God freed him from prison, but no one believed her account that Peter was at the door because they knew he had been put in prison and couldn't believe that he had actually been freed.
Stephen is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, he was a deacon in the early Church at Jerusalem who angered members of various synagogues by his teachings. Accused of blasphemy at his trial, he made a speech denouncing the Jewish authorities who were sitting in judgment on him and was then stoned to death. Saul of Tarsus, later known as Paul, a Pharisee and Roman citizen who would later become a Christian apostle, participated in Stephen's martyrdom.
Acts 12 is the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the death of the first apostle, James, son of Zebedee, followed by the miraculous escape of Peter from prison, the death of Herod Agrippa I, and the early ministry of Barnabas and Paul of Tarsus. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.
The Liberation of St Peter from Prison is a small tempera on wood panel or predella from a large polyptych or multipanel altarpiece painted in 1370-1371 by Jacopo di Cione for the no-longer extant church of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, Italy. It is now part of the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Monastery of St. Nicodemus is a monastery and church of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, dedicated to Nicodemus. It is in Jerusalem's Muslim Quarter, south of Herod's Gate and 90 metres north of the Via Dolorosa.
