Chair of Saint Peter
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Chair of Saint Peter is a relic conserved in St. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican, the headquarters of the Roman Catholic Church. The relic is a wooden throne that was long believed to have been used by the Apostle Saint Peter, the leader of the Early Christians in Rome and traditionally regarded by Catholicas as the first Pope. In fact, the Vatican recognises that the chair was a gift from Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Bald to Pope John VIII in 875.
The wooden throne is enclosed in a sculpted gilt bronze casing designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini and executed between 1647 and 1653.
The Chair is the cathedra of St. Peter's Basilica, cathedra being Latin that originally means "chair" or "throne" but now means the chair or seat of a bishop (hence the term cathedral for the main church in an episcopal see). The Chair was once used by the popes.
