At the General Audience of February 22, 2017, Pope Francis evoked the feast of the “Chair of Saint Peter,” a day of “special communion” with the Bishop of Rome. He asked young people especially to pray for his ministry.
In fact, at the end of the meeting in St. Peter’s Square, the Holy Father addressed a “special thought to young people, the sick and newlyweds.” “Today, we celebrate the feast of the Chair of the Apostle Saint Peter, day of special communion of believers with the Successor of Peter and with the Holy See,” he said to them.
“Dear young people, I encourage you to intensify your prayer for my Petrine ministry; dear sick, I thank you for your testimony of life giving in suffering for the edification of the ecclesial community; and you, dear newlyweds, build your family on the love that binds the Lord Jesus to His Church.”
At the moment of greeting in Portuguese, Pope Francis evoked this feast again: «May your visit today to the See of Saint Peter infuse great courage in your hearts to embrace your cross day after day, and an earnest desire for holiness, so that you are able to fill others’ cross with hope.”
“I entrust myself to your prayers,” added the Pontiff.
The Episcopal Chair, which recalls Peter’s supreme magisterium, has been celebrated at Rome since the 4th century. It has been kept in a of wooden and ivory furniture under the “Glory of Bernini” in Saint Peter’s Basilica since 875. The Chair of Saint Peter is represented carrying four Doctors of the Church, of East and West: Saint Augustine, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Ambrose and Saint Athanasius. Represented on the back of the Chair is the scene when Christ communicates to Saint Peter the power to feed His sheep.
Since 1667, it has been exhibited only once, in 1867, for the 18th centenary of the martyrdom of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul.
