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The Chains of the Apostle Peter

The Book of Acts tells of the time that Peter was imprisoned by Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great. Herod took Peter into custody, locked him up in prison and chained and guarded him. He intended to keep Peter there until after the feast of the Passover, so that he could win the favor of the Jews by presenting Peter to them as a victim. But the Apostle was saved when he was miraculously set free by an Angel (Acts 12:1-19). As he was set free by the Angel, the chains fell from him. The chains, with which the Apostle was bound, received from his most sacred body the grace of sanctification and healing, which is bestowed upon the faithful who draw near with faith. Christians protected these chains from being confiscated; and they were brought out of hiding 300 years later during the times of Emperor Constantine and Helen, his mother. The Orthodox Catholic Church has learned to show reverence and piety not only to the relics of the bodies of God’s Saints, but also to their clothing. That such sacred treasures work wonders and many healings is witnessed by the divine Scripture, where it speaks concerning Paul, saying that the Christians in Ephesus had such reverence for him, that his handkerchiefs and aprons, taken up with much reverence, healed the sick of their maladies: “So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:12).

St. Athanasius the Great – Of his 47 years as Patriarch, he had spent some seventeen in exiles. Shining from the height of his throne like a radiant evening star, and enlightening the Orthodox with the brilliance of his words, this much-suffering champion took rest from his lengthy sufferings in the year 373. Saint Gregory the Theologian said he was “Angelic in appearance, more angelic in mind; he treated so mildly and gently those who had injured him…rebuking with the tenderness of a father, praising with the dignity of a ruler.”

St. Cyril – He presided over the Third Ecumenical Council of the 200 Holy Fathers in the year 431, and by his wise words he put to shame and convicted the impious doctrine of Nestorius, who, although he was in town, refused to appear before Cyril. Saint Cyril, besides overthrowing the error of Nestorius, left to the Church full commentaries on the Gospels of Luke and John. Having shepherded the Church of Christ for thirty-two years, he reposed in 444.