Herald AV Publications

HAVPCD245 – TV ES PETRVS Gregorian Chant from the Vatican

The best and most succinct account of the life of St Peter is that of David Hugh Farmer in the Oxford Book of Saints (OUP, 1978). In his summary of what we know of Peter from the New Testament, he begins: ‘He was called Simon, a native of Bethesaida, near the Sea of Galilee, and a brother of Andrew, who introduced him to Christ, who gave him the name of Cephas (Peter) which means rock.’ Farmer concludes his account by remarking: ‘From very early times Peter was invoked as a universal saint, as the heavenly door-keeper, as the patron of the Church and the papacy, as one who was both powerful and accessible.’