St. Peter's Day

On June 29, the Orthodox church celebrates St. Peter’s Day. St. Peter is the most prominent of the 12 disciples of Jesus Christ. In iconography he is represented as an old man, dressed in white, who holds the keys to the Gates of Paradise. He is the one who says whether one's soul should go to Heaven or Hell. His Jewish name was Simon, and the name Peter (which means “stone” in Greek), was given to him by Jesus himself. When Jesus was led to court, only Peter and one of Jesus’s other students walked with him. In court, however, Peter was overcome by pusillanimity of spirit and recanted from Christ three times. When he heard the rooster singing, he remembered Jesus had predicted the rooster would not sing this day until Peter had denied he knew Christ, and repented for what he had done. After Jesus’s death, Peter continued to preach and made a lot of miracles in Palestine, Asia Minor, Greece, and other countries. He went to Rome, where he was sentenced to be crucified. Peter, however, asked to be crucified with his head hanging downwards, for he thought he was not worthy of sharing the same death as Jesus. Later on, a massive temple was built above his tomb. It is one of the biggest temples in the Christian world.