Chair of Saint Peter
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The chair of a bishop is a cathedra. The Cathedra Petri (Latin) or Chair of Saint Peter is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome, enclosed in a gilt bronze casing that was designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed 1647-53. Symbolically, the chair Bernini designed had no earthly counterpart in actual contemporary furnishings: it is formed entirely of scrolling members, enclosing a coved panel where the upholstery pattern is rendered as a low relief of Christ giving the keys to Peter. Nearly life-size angelic figures flank an openwork panel beneath a high realistic bronze seat cushion, vividly empty: the relic is encased within.[1] The cathedra is lofted on splayed scrolling bars that appear to be effortlessly supported by four over-lifesize bronze Doctors of the Church. The cathedra appears to hover over the altar in the basilica's apse, lit by a central tinted window through which early morning light streams (illustration, right), illuminating the gilded glory of sunrays and sculpted clouds that surrounds the window. Like Bernini's Ecstasy of St Theresa, this is a definitive Gesamtkunstwerk of the Baroque, unifying sculpture and richly polychrome architecture and manipulating effects of light.
Two feast days listed in the Martyrologium Hieronymianum honor the Chair of Peter, the emblem of the superiority of the Bishop of Rome as the Vicar of Christ and the successor of Saint Peter: see Petrine supremacy. Roman Catholics believe that Saint Peter became the first pope when Jesus said after the Resurrection, "You are Peter, and upon this Rock, I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. To you have I entrusted the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven."
The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Rome is celebrated on January 18. The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter at Antioch is celebrated on February 22. The Apostle Saint Paul is also commemorated in the liturgies of both feasts.
[edit] Notes
- ^ In late seventeenth-century Venice, Andrea Brustolon constructed a few grandiose armchairs that employ similar sculptural figures doing duty as front legs and armrest supports.
