Among the earliest followers of Jesus Christ, who became the founders of His Ecumenical Church, there are two apostles, called the supreme. This is the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul. In earthly life they were completely different people, not only in their social position, but also in the way of thinking, and in their perception of the world. Their faith in the resurrection of the Son of God, who opened the gates to Eternal Life, united them.
Fisherman from Lake Hennisareth
We know about the holy Apostle Peter that he hails from the city of Bethsaida, located in the north of Lake Hennisaret. His father Jonah came from the tribe of Naphtali. Before meeting with Jesus Christ, the apostle Peter was called Simon. He lived in Capernaum with his wife and mother-in-law. Simon was a simple and modest fisherman. Together with his brother Andrei, the future apostle Andrew the First-Called, he labored with his hard work for his bread, did not think about the secrets of the universe, and all his interests were reduced to the concerns of the day.
At the very beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus, calling both brothers to Himself, gave Simon a new name - Peter, which means “stone”. The words spoken by Jesus that He would build a church on this “stone” that is impregnable for hell, testify to the special role that He assigned to this person. And Peter from the very beginning wholeheartedly believed his Master. There was no room for doubt in his simple and open soul. Leaving everything that connected him with his former life, he, without hesitation, followed Christ.
Epiphany of the Apostle Paul
The apostle Paul seems to us completely different. He was born in the city of Tarsus, in the family of a Jew who had Roman citizenship, which legally provided him with a privileged position. Initially, he bore the name of Saul and was a fanatical adherent of the Jewish Law. In Jerusalem, joining the Pharisees, he received a brilliant education under the guidance of one of the most famous rabbis at that time. This made him an even greater zealot of Judaism and a persecutor of Christians.
But the Lord was pleased to enlighten his mind with the light of true faith. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul with all the fervor of his heart began to preach a doctrine in the synagogues, which he had denounced yesterday as false, and whose supporters he accused of crimes against the Law. He was an educated man, and this gave his sermons a special power. Having embarked on this new path of life for him, Saul became known as Paul, which is deeply symbolic - a change of name meant a change in all life.
The martyrdom of the holy apostles
According to Holy Tradition, the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul after their many years of service died at the hands of the Jews on the same day - July 12 (n.). He became the day of their memory. Every year on this day a holiday is celebrated - the Day of Peter and Paul. Emperor Nero put the death of the apostle Peter after he became aware that Peter, by his sermon, had significantly increased the number of converts of Christians. The apostle was condemned to be crucified, like his great Master, but he begged the executioners to nail him upside down, because he considered himself unworthy to repeat the death of Christ crucified while standing.
The apostle Paul was a Roman citizen, and, according to the law, he could not be crucified, since such an execution was considered shameful, and only fugitive slaves and those who belonged to the lowest strata of society were subjected to it. By order of the emperor, he was taken outside of Rome and decapitated on the Ostian road with a sword. Tradition says that in the place where the head of the holy apostle fell, a miraculous source was thrown from the ground.
In the period of early Christianity, the veneration of these saints immediately followed their martyrdom, and the burial place was one of the greatest shrines. Then they began to celebrate the holiday - the Day of Peter and Paul. It is known that when in the 4th century under Emperor Constantine the Great Christianity finally received official status and became the state religion, churches in honor of these apostles were built in Rome and Constantinople.
The Adoration of the Russians to the Holy Apostles
From the first days of the adoption of Christianity in Russia, the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul became one of the most revered and beloved saints by Russians. The Baptist of Rus - Prince Vladimir, having returned from Korsun, brought to Kiev an icon with their image. Subsequently, it was donated to Novgorod, where for a long time it was stored in St. Sophia Cathedral. Later it was lost, but even today, under the arches of this temple you can see an old fresco of the 11th century, representing the holy Apostle Peter.
The centuries-old tradition of veneration of the supreme apostles in Russia is evidenced by the murals of the St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev, dating from the 11th-12th centuries. They also depict the apostle Peter and the apostle Paul. Two ancient Russian monasteries in honor of these saints were founded at the beginning of the XII century, one in Novgorod on Sinichaya Gora, and the other in Rostov. A century later, the Peter and Paul Monastery appeared in Bryansk. During this period, many liturgical texts were written, including the akathist Peter and Paul.
The popularity of the apostles Peter and Paul is also indicated by the wide distribution that their names received among the Orthodox inhabitants of our country. It is enough to recall the vast host of ancient Russian saints. Among them, many at baptism, and some at monastic tonsure or the adoption of the Great Schema were called the names of the supreme apostles. This list can be continued with the names of people who left their mark on Russian history, as well as those innumerable Peters and Pavels who lived their age in the vast expanses of Russia.
The oldest images of the supreme apostles
Speaking about the development of the iconography of these images, it should be noted that the holy apostles Peter and Paul were depicted as the first Christians on the walls of the catacombs, where they performed their services. At that time, such wall paintings represented a definite danger to the adherents of the new faith, and for this reason they often resorted to the help of symbols. However, individual frescoes belonging to this period are known, on which the apostles are given well-defined, similar portrait features, which allows researchers to admit their real similarity with historical prototypes. It should be noted that in the literary monuments that have come down to us from those distant times, the same tendency is noted: some of them contain completely similar descriptions of the appearance of the apostles.
Apostles Peter and Paul in Russian icon painting
With the establishment of Orthodoxy St. Peter and Paul became the saints whose image was certainly among the sacred images of each temple. As a rule, the compositions of the New Testament were the basis of their compositions, but scenes from the Holy Tradition are also known. One of them is the widespread icon of Peter and Paul hugging, looking into each other's eyes. She shows the audience the moment the apostles met in Rome shortly before the execution. A similar image in the belt version is widespread.
However, icons from which the apostles Peter and Paul are represented standing full-length, slightly facing each other have received great fame since the time of Ancient Rus. One of them is the oldest icon that has come down to us, which is stored today in the St. Sophia Cathedral of Novgorod. This is the same icon brought, according to legend, by Prince Vladimir from Korsun, which was mentioned above.
The growing importance of apostolic images
Over time, the significance of the images of Saints Peter and Paul has grown so much that they have become an integral part of the deesis of each iconostasis. It has become a tradition to place the image of the Apostle Peter to the left of the central icon of Jesus Christ, immediately after the images of the Virgin and Archangel Michael, and the icon of the Apostle Paul - to the right, immediately after the icon of John the Baptist and the image of Archangel Gabriel. The most famous of these images are the works of Andrei Rublev, preserved to this day in the Assumption Cathedral of Vladimir.
Since the end of the 17th century, the influence of Western European schools has intensified in Russian icon painting. This explains the appearance of topics related to the martyrdom of the apostles. In the old days, their traditional attributes were: Peter - the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, and Paul - the scroll - a symbol of wisdom. Now, in the hands of the apostles, we see the instruments of their martyrdom - Peter has the cross, and Paul has the sword. Even icons are known, in the background of which scenes of execution are depicted.
Over the years, the established order of consecrated church services. The texts of the chants accompanying them relate mainly to the 7th-8th centuries. Their authorship is attributed to such pillars of the Christian church as Patriarch Herman of Constantinople and St. Andrew of Crete, whose penitential canon is read annually during Lent. In addition to them, the names of St. John of Damascus and Cosmas of Mayum are mentioned. The services are always performed by an akathist to Peter and Paul, as well as solemn stichera.
Names of saints immortalized in architecture
The names of the holy apostles Peter and Paul are forever immortalized in temple architecture. This applies equally to Russia and to Western countries. It is enough to recall the main Catholic church - St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The greatest artists and architects worked on the creation of this largest historical Christian church. Among them are the following: Michelangelo, Raphael, Bramante, Bernini and many others.
In Orthodox Russia, the tradition of erecting churches in honor of the supreme apostles Peter and Paul has its roots in the time of St. Prince Vladimir. It is known that during the period of his reign, the first church of the apostles Peter and Paul appeared on the Dnieper banks, and after it temples dedicated to these two great ascetics were built in large numbers in cities, villages and even completely deaf villages.
Cathedral on the Neva
The Cathedral of the Apostles Peter and Paul in St. Petersburg occupies a special place among them. It is also called the Peter and Paul Cathedral. Erected by the architect D. Trisini in 1712-1733, he became the tomb of the Russian tsars. The cathedral is located on the territory of the Peter and Paul Fortress, founded in 1703 at the behest of Peter I to protect the mouth of the Neva from the possible invasion of the Swedes.
At first, the wooden church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul appeared. When the construction of the stone temple began in 1712, it was carried out in such a way that the previous construction remained unharmed inside the newly constructed walls, and the services in it did not stop all the time of work. The new cathedral, built in the style of Peter's Baroque, has become one of the masterpieces of architecture that hitherto adorn the city on the Neva.
Temple in Sestroretsk
In 2009, the Peter and Paul Church, built in the suburbs of St. Petersburg, was solemnly consecrated. Sestroretsk is a small resort town near the Northern capital. At the beginning of the XVIII century a wooden church was built here in honor of the supreme apostles. Over time, it was replaced by a stone temple, which became an outstanding achievement of architecture. However, during the years of the atheism, it was destroyed, and only with the advent of democratic reforms began its restoration.
Rebuilt and consecrated, the Peter and Paul Church (Sestroretsk) is a memorial to Russian submariners. The fact is that it was built on the very spot where, in ancient times, the Russian nugget genius, the peasant Yefim Nikonov, demonstrated to Tsar Peter I his invention - the first submarine. This was preserved in the memory of today's sailors, and a memorial memorial to the heroes of the Russian submarine fleet was created on the territory of the temple.
Temples of different cities and different faiths
One can not help but recall two more churches located in St. Petersburg. One of them is the church of the apostles Peter and Paul at the Medical Academy. It is located on Piskaryovskiy Avenue. And the other, which is located in the very center of the city on Gorokhovaya Street, is the house church of the A. Herzen Pedagogical University. Both of them, created before the revolution, were closed during the Soviet period, and today they have again opened their doors to parishioners.
Many cities of the country now have churches in honor of the holy apostles. Among them are Moscow, Smolensk, Sevastopol, Karaganda, Barnaul, Ufa and many others. In addition to Orthodox churches, services to Peter and Paul are regularly performed in the cathedrals of other Christian denominations. Residents of the capital, for example, are well familiar with the restoration of the Lutheran Cathedral of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Starosadsky Lane, restored after atheistic hard times. The majestic Catholic church by the aforementioned saints also rises in Veliky Novgorod. And this list can be continued for a long time.
Cities named after the apostles Peter and Paul
The memory of the holy apostles is immortalized in the names of some cities. The most famous among them is St. Petersburg, bearing the name of its heavenly patron - the Apostle Peter. It was founded in 1703. The name in the name of the holy apostles is the city in the Far East - Petropavlovsk. The prison, which became its cradle, was laid down by the Cossacks in 1697. Over time, a settlement formed around it, from which the city grew.
Another Petropavlovsk is located in the territory that today belongs to Kazakhstan. Initially, it was a military fortress at the crossroads of important trade routes. Over time, it lost its military significance and turned into a large settlement - a junction station of the Trans-Siberian railway.
Distortion of apostolic images in modern culture
Since ancient times, the supreme apostles Peter and Paul have become characters as apocrypha (rejected by the church, and not included in the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments), and folk folklore stories. Traditionally, the apostle Peter was represented in them as a housekeeper at the gates of paradise or as a companion of Jesus Christ when He appeared to people. The Apostle Paul matched the image of a resident or guardian of paradise. He was often credited with patronizing fire and the sun.
Unfortunately, this vulgar interpretation of sacred images, which is characteristic of the lower classes, has unfortunately become widespread today, and it has taken root in many areas of modern culture. This is especially noticeable in cinema and animation. For the reason that both apostles are traditionally portrayed together, and the day of their memory is celebrated at the same time - July 12, Peter and Paul were combined into a single image. For example, in the popular mind, both are considered the patrons of fishermen, despite the fact that only the apostle Peter was engaged in this craft. They also unjustly identify both with the stone on which the church building was erected, since these words of Jesus refer only to the apostle Peter.