Today the Church commemorates the Holy, Glorious and All-Praised Leaders of the Apostles Peter and Paul.
During His earthly life, Jesus Christ chose Apostles to carry on His work and to lead and guard the new Christian community. Saint Peter was the leader of this band of Apostles. He was an impetuous fisherman who, despite misunderstanding and denying Christ, had nevertheless played a key role in acknowledging who Jesus Christ was and was given the task by the Risen Christ “feed my sheep.” After the Resurrection he preached the Gospel in Judea, Antioch, parts of Asia, and finally in Rome where he was martyred.
Saint Paul had not known Christ during His earthly ministry and had actively persecuted His followers. However, he had such a dramatic encounter with the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus that his whole life turned around and he became one of the most outstanding missionaries of the Church. In the Acts of the Apostles, we read about how he travelled widely throughout the empire, preaching the Gospel especially to the Gentiles.
Both saints were actively involved in spreading the faith and in teaching the early Church, and both were martyred in Rome. By commemorating them together the Church reminds us of how God uses very different people to work together to build up the Church.
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First-throned of the Apostles and teachers of the inhabited world,
intercede with the Master of all things to give peace to the world
and to our souls his great mercy.
Apolytikion for the Apostles Peter and Paul