June 29 + Saints Peter and Paul

Veneration of the two great Apostles, Peter and Paul, has its roots in the very foundations of the Church. They are the solid rock on which Christ's Church was built. They are at the origin of her faith and will forever remain her protectors and her guides. To them Rome owes her true greatness, for it was under God's providential guidance that they were led to make the capital of the Empire, sanctified by their martyrdom, the center of the Christian world whence should radiate the preaching of the Gospel.

Peter, the Church's first pope, suffered martyrdom under Nero, in A.D. 66 or 67. He was buried on the hill of the Vatican where excavations have revealed his tomb on the very site of St. Peter's Basilica.

Paul was beheaded in the Via Ostia on the spot where now stands the basilica bearing his name. Through the centuries, thousands of Christians have gone on pilgrimages to the tombs of these Apostles. In the second and third centuries the Roman Church already stood pre-eminent by reason of her apostolicity, the infallible truth of her teaching and her two great figures, Saints Peter and Paul.