Anchoring the Rock: The Latin Liturgical Cult of St Peter in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

Abstract

The liturgical cult of Peter, key apostle and one of the most prominent saints on the Latin calendar, is a complex development due to the multiple feasts that came into existence in the earliest centuries of Christianity, the many regions in which these feasts were celebrated in different ways, and, not in the least, the plurality of sources that inspired and influenced the liturgical material of prayers and chants. The aim of this study is to analyse the main Latin liturgical traditions around Peter as they originated in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. A special focus will be on the sources that were used to give expression to Peter’s key role in the foundation of the Church in Rome and the West. From a fisherman with origins in the Galilean hinterland to the founding saint of the Latin Church firmly seated in the urban setting of Rome itself is a long way. To establish this transition the liturgical composition of Peter’s cult could not rely on biblical sources alone. A variety of sources and themes inspired the portrait of Peter as Rome’s patron saint. Together with Paul, Peter represented the Christian answer to Rome’s veneration of its traditional founders, Romulus and Remus. Together with the other apostles, Peter represented the source from which the Gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire.