Saint Peter the Apostle [The Chains of St. Peter]

St. Peter is commemorated on this day because of the chains with which he was shackled by the lawless Herod and which fell from him during the appearance of an angel in prison (Acts 12:7). The chains were preserved by Christians as much for the memory of this great apostle as for their healing power, for many of the sick were healed by touching them, as was case with the apron of the Apostle Paul (Acts19:12). St. Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, gave these chains as a gift to the Empress Eudocia, the exiled wife of the Emperor Theodosius the Younger. She divided them into two and sent one half to the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople and the other half to Rome, to her daughter, Empress Eudoxia, the wife of Valentian. Eudoxia built the Church of St. Peter and placed these chains in it, together with those chains with which Peter was shackled before his death under Emperor Nero.

Bishop Nicholas Velimirovic