Peter, St (lived 1st century)

Christian martyr, the author of two Epistles in the New Testament and leader of the apostles. Peter is regarded as the first bishop of Rome, whose position the pope inherits directly through apostolic succession. His real name was Simon, but he was renamed Peter (from the Greek petros ‘rock’) after Jesus nicknamed him Kephas, the rock upon which he would build his church. His emblem is two keys, as he is said to hold the keys to heaven. His feast day is 29 June.

Originally a fisherman of Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee, Peter may have been a follower of John the Baptist, until called to be a disciple by Jesus. He was the first to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. After Jesus' arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Gospels say that Peter denied knowing him three times, but later repented. Tradition has it that he later settled in Rome, and was martyred during the reign of the emperor Nero, perhaps by crucifixion. Bones excavated from under the Basilica of St Peter's in the Vatican in 1968 were accepted as those of St Peter by Pope Paul VI.