Fabric of Saint Peter in the Vatican – Directorate of Communication
Vatican Basilica, the Cathedra of Saint Peter on display to the faithful
From Sunday 27 October, the wooden throne, symbol of the primacy of Peter, may be venerated and admired at the Altar of the Confessio, at the end of the Synod of Bishops
VATICAN, 25 OCTOBER – The Cathedra of Saint Peter, the wooden throne symbolizing the primacy of Peter, will be displayed to the public in Saint Peter’s Basilica. On Sunday 27 October it will be taken to the Altar of the Confessio of the Vatican Basilica at the end of the Eucharistic celebration at 10.00, presided over by Pope Francis at the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops. It will be the first with the baldachin unveiled following its restoration.
The Cathedra Sancti Petri Apostoli has for centuries been considered the episcopal throne of Peter: a wooden throne decorated with ivory plaques representing the Labours of Hercules and six constellations. The venerated relic was taken out of its monumental gilded bronze “reliquary”, the Bernini monument, to allow it to be restored in the apse of the Basilica as part of the restoration work undertaken by the Fabric of Saint Peter in view of the Jubilee.
For the occasion, it will be subjected to a series of meticulous diagnostic and exploratory investigations carried out in collaboration and synergy with the Vatican Museums' Cabinet for Scientific Research Applied to the Cultural Heritage. Indeed, it was necessary to remove the precious wooden seat in order to assess its state of preservation fifty years after its last removal (1969-1974). The wooden seat is considered by many to have been the throne of the emperor Charles the Bald, King of the Franks, crowned in the ancient Saint Peter’s Basilica at Christmas in the year 875 by Pope John VIII. However, it cannot be ruled out that this ninth-century imperial seat may have later housed the panel with the Labours of Hercules, perhaps referring to an earlier, more ancient papal seat. The wooden Cathedra may be venerated and admired at the Altar of the Confessio until 8 December, feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Last 2 October, in the Ottoboni Sacristy of Saint Peter’s Basilica, before the opening Mass of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, Pope Francis was able to observe closely the ancient and venerated Cathedra of Saint Peter, together with Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, archpriest of the Papal Basilica. The Holy Father then decreed that it would be displayed for veneration by the faithful at the conclusion of the Synod of Bishops.
“The Basilica wishes to celebrate the ancient reliquary as the Cathedra of Love”, explains Cardinal Gambetti. “Indeed, the Good Shepherd, who gives his life for his sheep, knows them one by one and calls them by name, asks Peter: ‘Do you love me more than these?’. It is only by virtue of this love, the first and most important of the commandments, that Jesus invests him with the task of shepherding His sheep, making him de facto His Vicar on earth and the first of the apostles. The ancient Chair of Peter is the chair of love because it shows us how only from exchangeable love can the true Christian community, certainly synodal, be born”.
“Taking us back to the atmosphere that was breathed in the first Christian community”, Gambetti adds, “the Cathedra of Peter speaks to us of the coming together, gathered in assembly, of a Church gathered around its shepherd, where each person is called personally to follow Jesus, but in a journey that is never individualistic but always shared and enlightened by the brothers and sisters”.
“The Cathedra teaches us that life is not power, but service”, affirms Fr. Enzo Fortunato, director of communication of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
THE WOODEN CATHEDRA OF SAINT PETER extract edited by Pietro Zander
Head of the Necropolises and Artistic Heritage section of the Fabric of Saint Peter in the Vatican
The ancient Cathedra of Saint Peter is made up of an external frame made in the 13th century with
beams of chestnut wood, Aleppo pine (corner uprights) and ash (lower back crossbeam). Attached to the uprights are four metal rings used to transport the chair during solemn processions in the basilica. Protected by this covering, the oldest seat is in the form of a throne without armrests with a backrest surmounted by a tympanum in the interior of which three oval openings can be seen for the insertion of a now-lost decoration. Some wooden elements (oak) were covered with a sheet of precious metal (copper and gilded silver) and were decorated on each side with refined ivory friezes carved with geometric and plant motifs, with symbolic figures and with figurative scenes of classical inspiration. Minute scenes of combat, mythological figures, centaurs, exotic and fantastic animals appear among the supple vegetal shoots of the ivory decoration. The sides and back of the throne were decorated with small arches, only partly preserved today, and supported by small pillars with Attic bases and stylized capitals.
In all probability, the Cathedra was given by Charles II the Bald to Pope John VIII (872-885), who crowned him in the ancient Saint Peter’s Basilica in the year 875. The bust of the Carolingian emperor with crown and globe is in fact depicted in the centre of the frieze of the horizontal cross-piece of the tympanum. between two angels handing him a crown, followed by two other angels raising a palm.
A panel with a decoration consisting of eighteen panels arranged in three rows with the twelve ‘Labours of Hercules’ and with six images of constellations in the form of fantastic creatures was later affixed to the front of the Cathedra. These are sections belonging to a single panel that have, however, changed their original arrangement. The images are finely engraved and outlined on twelve ivory panels applied to two oak boards. The figure of Hercules and the images of the six lower panels were rendered through recesses filled with chiselled gold leaf. The frames of the individual scenes preserve traces of the refined agemina workmanship, which was achieved by inserting enamel and colours into cavities.
Regarding the date of the panels, different opinions have been expressed: for Karl Weitzmann, the Herculean ivories would have been produced by a workshop in the Rhine valley between the eighth and ninth centuries; for Margherita Guarducci, they would have been produced in Alexandria in Egypt between the third and fourth centuries A.D., and subsequently inserted into the Carolingian throne. This latter scholar hypothesised that the panel with the Labours of Hercules belonged to a throne of the emperor Maximian Herculius (286-305), a throne that would later be used by Roman pontiffs from the fourth century onwards. Today, through specific and targeted scientific laboratory investigations, useful elements for a more precise dating can be acquired.
In Benedict IX’s Bull of November 1037, a distinction is drawn between the practice of “enthronement” and “incathedration”, implicitly attesting to the use of the “Cathedra” by the Roman Pontiffs. Benedetto Canonico, in 1140-1143, refers that during the Mass of the Solemnity of the Cathedra, the Pope sat “in Cattedra”, and it is known that Innocent III used the Cathedra for his episcopal consecration on 22 February 1198. After the year 1000, the custom of requiring and obtaining “reliquaries” (material or by contact) from the Cathedra is affirmed, a clear sign that this papal seat of high symbolic value started to be considered, on the basis of pious devotion, the chair where Saint Peter was seated when he preached the Gospel in Antioch and in Rome.
The Carolingian Cathedra was moved on numerous occasions, documented by historic and archival sources. In the ninth century, it may have been conserved in the Secretarium of the ancient Basilica, a sort of pontifical sacristy located near the present “Arch of the Bells”. It was later moved to the Confessio (thirteenth century), and then to the altar of Saints Simon and Jude to the left of the main nave of the ancient basilica. Shortly before the Jubilee of 1450, it was placed in the tabernacle of Saint Hadrian, erected by Nicholas V (Parentucelli, 1447-1455) in the south arm of the transept. In 1576 it was moved to the so-called “Rotunda of Saint Andrew” or “Saint Mary of the Fever”.
In 1630, Urban VIII (Barberini, 1623-1644) decided to bring the venerated wooden throne back inside the Basilica, and ordered the construction of a small oratory and an altar dedicated to the “Holy Cathedra”. In 1636 this was placed above the altar of the last chapel of the left nave, which had recently been used as a baptistry. A drawing by Domenico Castelli, preserved in the Vatican Apostolic Library (cod. Vat. Barber. Lat. 4409, f. 18) shows the first Berninian monument for the Cathedra of Saint Peter on a high marble plinth, flanked by two angels on a backdrop of clouds dominated by the radiant figure of a dove of the Holy Spirit.
