Adoration of the Sacred Chain of the Holy and Glorious Apostle Peter
Date of celebration: 16/01
On this day we worship the chain of honor of the Holy Apostle Peter, with which Herod the tetrarch bound him and threw him into prison, according to the account of the Evangelist Luke in the Acts of the Apostles (12th chapter of the Acts).
Herod had the Jews arrest the Apostle Peter during the days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. And when he caught him, he put him in prison. On the night before the day on which Herod was to present him to the people, the Apostle Peter slept between two soldiers and guards kept watch in front of his cell. Suddenly an Angel of the Lord came and light shone in the cell. After striking Peter’s side, he woke him up and said, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell from his hands.
Some pious Christians preserved this chain successively from generation to generation, until they took it to Constantinople and deposited it in the church of St. Peter, which is located in the great Church, where the Council of the Apostle was also held.
