February 22 — In the calendar of Roman catholic church, St. Peter is commemorated three times a year: on June 29th it is celebrated together with St. Paul. The 18th of November is the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of St. Peter. But on this day, 22 February, we celebrate the Chair of St. Peter.

Although he is not the first to be called according to the Synoptics and the book of Acts, St. Peter is still the first among the Twelve. On June 29th we will have the opportunity to take a closer look at Peter's life, but on this February 22nd, let us focus on the mission that Christ entrusted to him and on his place in the Church.

After Peter's profession of faith at Caesarea, which can be considered the first in the Church, Jesus entrusted him with a mission according to the Gospel of Matthew 16,18. 19: "And I say to you, You are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the power of death shall not prevail over it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Here Jesus gives Peter the mission to be at the head of the Church and at the same time He invests him with the power, symbolized by the keys, to forgive sins.

The feast of the Chair of Saint Peter is quite old. In Antioch, the third megalopolis - behind Rome and Alexandria - of the Roman Empire, where Peter began the Evangelization of the Gentiles, it was already celebrated in the 4th century. For the Church of Rome, Pope Paul IV set the date of January 18 in 1557. The Eastern Churches celebrated it on February 22nd. After the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, the celebration was unified on February 22nd for both the Eastern and Western Churches.