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In catenas sancti Petri

A sermon on the veneration of the precious chain of the holy and chief of the apostles, Peter.

1 All you who, possessed by the divine love of the chief of the apostles, have been eager to celebrate him; all you who, caught in his spiritual nets, have been illuminated by the light of his theology, having established a common festival today, let us direct our tongue to the same praise.

2 For many reasons, indeed, one might find his memory a worthy subject for a festival and for praise, and not least because of his apostolic dignity and the course of his preaching and the teaching of the gospel, and his admonition and exhortation by letters to those among the nations from the diaspora of the Jews, for whom he had greater care and concern, as one who was born and came from them; all of which, being judged and taken as occasions for praise, will surely exalt him who is being praised and raise him to the very height of eulogy, for it is at once holy and just, and because He who came for our salvation is reflected in the letter of the law, that the apostle be magnified with fitting honors; and not less also because of the theophany of the Only-Begotten Son of God Himself, which appeared to him in the last of times, who spoke to him directly and made him an eyewitness and initiate of His own incarnation.

Upon which He also declared He would build His church as a prize for his God-befitting confession, and He promised the keys of heaven as a pledge of the faith concerning Him, and that the completion of what was bound and loosed by him on earth would be decreed in heaven. Yea, and also as one who obediently hearkened to his brother's call, and as one who came to Christ with that same call, and who received the name Cephas like some sign and seal of the faith placed in him, and as one who from that moment was wholly mingled with and, as it were, molded by the teacher, and for this reason showed his fervor in many things many times, as no other of the apostles.

3 Although these things by their great magnitude overcome human minds, and appear greater than the power of words, it will not in every way proceed to what is entirely unattainable and impracticable. For he who is superior to all the apostles will condescend even to our lowliness, not only through the sympathy which, exercising before all else, he imparts to us his kinsmen, but also through his imitation of the teacher, who, having condescended even to the form of a servant, taught his own disciples to be of a modest mind and to humble themselves with the humble.

4 For the festival of his perfection is also bright and illumined by the great light of the Spirit; being fixed to a cross, a willing ascent to Him, hands stretched out and depicting the Lord's passion, a form of crucifixion not upright but inverted, an emblem of his reverence for the teacher; with the chief always through reverence yielding the first place to Him and setting his own humility against His loftiness, and for this reason choosing and preferring the last and lower things.

And the festival that has arrived today is in no way lacking in such splendor, [φ. 157 ῃο] both foreshadowing the causes of the things at the end and of his exaltation on the cross, no less proclaiming the sufferings, on account of which the cross was sweeter to him and more lovely than all things; for of his precious chains

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In catenas sancti Petri

Λόγος εἰς τὴν προσκύνησιν τῆς τιμίας ἁλύσεως τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ κορυφαίου τῶν ἀποστόλων Πέτρου.

1 Ὅσοι τῷ τοῦ κορυφαίου τῶν ἀποστόλων θείῳ ἔρωτι γενόμενοι κάτοχοι,

πανηγυρίζειν αὐτῷ προτεθύμηστε· ὅσοι τοῖς αὐτοῦ πνευματικοῖς ζωγρηθέντες δικτύοις τῷ τῆς ἐκείνου θεολογίας φωτὶ κατελάμφθητε, κοινὴν πανήγυριν συστησάμενοι σήμερον, πρὸς τὴν αὐτὴν εὐφημίαν τὴν γλῶτταν ἰθύνωμεν.

2 ∆ιὰ πολλὰς μὲν ἄν τις τὰς αἰτίας εἰς ἑορτῆς ὑπόθεσιν, τὴν ἐκείνου μνήμην εὕροι ἀξίαν πρὸς ἔπαινον, οὐχ ἥκιστα δὲ κἂν διὰ τὸ ἀποστολικὸν ἀξίωμα καὶ τὸν τοῦ κηρύγματος δρόμον καὶ τὴν τοῦ εὐαγγελίου διδασκαλίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν ἐκ διασπορᾶς τῶν Ἰουδαίων δι' ἐπιστολῶν νουθεσίαν τε καὶ παραίνεσιν, ὧν πλέον ἦν αὐτῷ μέριμνα καὶ φροντὶς ὡς ἐξ ἐκείνων καὶ φύντι καὶ γενομένῳ· ἃ πάντα εἰς ἀφορμὴν ἐπαίνων κρινόμενά τε καὶ λαμβανόμενα ἀνυψώσει πάντως τὸν εὐφημούμενον, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸ τὸ ἄκρον ἀναβιβάσει τῆς εὐφημίας, ὅσιον γὰρ ὁμοῦ καὶ δίκαιον, καὶ διὰ τὸ ἐκ τοῦ νομικοῦ γράμματος τὸν ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ ἡμῶν ἐληλυθότα, ἐνοπτρίζεσθαι ταῖς πρεπούσαις τιμαῖς μεγαλύνεσθαι τὸν ἀπόστολον· οὐχ ἧττον δὲ καὶ διὰ τὴν ἐπ' ἐσχάτων τῶν χρόνων ὀφθεῖσαν αὐτῷ θεοφάνειαν αὐτοῦ τοῦ Μονογενοῦς Υἱοῦ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀμέσως αὐτῷ προσομιλήσαντος καὶ τῆς οἰκείας σαρκώσεως αὐτόπτην καὶ μύ στην ποιησαμένου.

Ἐφ' ᾧ καὶ τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ἐκκλησίαν οἰκοδομῆσαι εἰς ἆθλον τῆς θεοπρεποῦς ἀναῤῥήσεως προϋπέφηνε, καὶ τὰς τῶν οὐρανῶν κλεῖς ἀῤῥαβῶνα τῆς περὶ αὐτὸν ὑπέσχετο πίστεως, καὶ τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ δεδεμένων καὶ λελυμένων ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς ἐν οὐρανοῖς ψηφίζεσθαι τὴν περαίωσιν. Ναὶ μὴν καὶ ὡς εὐπειθῶς κεκληκότος τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ καθυπακούσαντα, καὶ ὡς τῷ Χριστῷ σὺν αὐτῇ κλήσει προσεληλυθότα, καὶ τὴν Κηφᾶ προσηγορίαν ὥςπερ τι σημεῖον καὶ σφραγίδα τῆς εἰς αὐτὸν κομισάμενον πίστεως καὶ ὡς αὐτόθεν ὅλον ἀνακραθέντα τῷ διδασκάλῳ καὶ οἷον ἐκτυρωθέντα, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὸ θερμὸν ὡς οὐκ ἄλλος τις τῶν ἀποστόλων ἐν πολλοῖς πολλάκις ἐπιδειξάμενον.

3 Ταῦτα εἰ καὶ πολλῷ τῷ μεγέθει τὰς ἀνθρωπίνας ὑπερνικᾷ διανοίας, καὶ μείζω τῆς τῶν λόγων δυνάμεως καταφαίνεται, οὐ πάντως πρὸς τὸ πάντη ἀνέφικτον χωρήσει καὶ ἄπορον. Συγκαταβήσεται γὰρ καὶ μέχρι τῆς ἡμετέρας ἐσχατιᾶς ὁ πάντων ἀποστόλων ὑπέρτερος, οὐ μόνον διὰ τὸ συμπαθὲς ᾧ πρὸ παντὸς ἄλλου χρώμενος τοῖς ὁμοφυέσιν ἡμῖν μεταδίδωσιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ διὰ τὸ πρὸς τὸν διδάσκαλον μιμητικὸν, ὃς καὶ μέχρι τῆς τοῦ δούλου μορφῆς συγκαταβὰς, τὸ μετριοφρονεῖν καὶ συνταπεινοῦσθαι τοῖς ταπεινοῖς τοὺς ἑαυτοῦ μαθητὰς ἐξεπαίδευσε.

4 Φαιδρὰ μὲν γὰρ καὶ ἡ τῆς τελειώσεως αὐτοῦ ἑορτὴ καὶ πολλῷ φωτὶ καταλαμπομένη τοῦ πνεύματος· σταυρὸν προςπηγνύμενος, ἀνάβασις πρὸς αὐτὸν πρόθυμος, χεῖρες ἐκτάδην προσεφαπλούμεναι καὶ τὸ δεσποτικὸν πάθος ἀπεικονίζουσαι, σχῆμα σταυρώσεως οὐκ ὄρθιον ἀλλ' ἀντίστροφον, εὐλαβείας τῆς πρὸς τὸν διδάσκαλον αἴνιγμα· ἀεὶ τοῦ κορυφαίου δι' αἰδοῦς τὰ πρωτεῖα τούτῳ παραχωροῦντος καὶ τὸ αὐτοῦ ταπεινὸν πρὸς τὸ ἐκείνου ὕψος ἀντιπαρατιθέντος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὰ ἔσχατα καὶ ὑποδεῆ αἰρουμένου τε καὶ προκρίνοντος.

Ἐνδέουσα δὲ οὐδὲν τῆς τοιαύτης φαιδρότητος καὶ ἡ σήμερον ἐπιστᾶσα πανήγυρις [φ. 157 ῃο] καὶ τῶν ἐν τέλει τὰς αἰτίας προϋποφαίνουσα καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ σταυροῦ ὑψώσεως, οὐχ ἧττον τὰ παθήματα διαγγέλλουσα, δι' ἃ καὶ ὁ σταυρὸς ἡδίων ἦν αὐτῷ μᾶλλον καὶ πάντων ἐρασμιώτερος· ἁλύσεων γὰρ αὐτοῦ τῶν τιμίων