By Fr. George Dorbarakis
On this day we celebrate the Veneration of the Honorable Chain of Saint Peter, which the tetrarch Herod put upon him when he imprisoned him, as the Apostle Luke relates in the Acts of the Apostles. This chain, which was loosed by the appearance of an Angel, was found by some of the faithful and preserved in succession. It was later transferred by the pious to Constantinople and placed in the temple of Saint Peter within the Great Church.
On the occasion of the Honorable Chain of the Apostle Peter, the hymnography of the Church today sets forth two things: first, the very existence of the chain itself and the interpretation of its veneration; and second, the honor shown by the Church to the sacred person of the Apostle Peter. And this is natural: this Chain of the Apostle is understood in the same way as icons in the Church — as means of reference to the saints. “The honor passes to the prototype.” The same is true of the Chain: through it we are led to him who was the first among the Apostles, “he who, being wholly united to the most pure light, Christ, through divine participation in Him, appeared as a second light, illuminating also our souls.”
The Hymnographer records this ascent to the Apostle through the Chain in various ways, as also in the following exhortation: “Come, all of us, embracing the chain, let us crown the Apostle with hymns of praise.”
The hymnography of the feast moves with great flexibility and divine inspiration in order to discover the various edifying and soul-profiting dimensions given by the veneration of the Chain — for example, that the Chain which was loosed by the Angel may, through the power of the Apostle, become for the faithful who venerate it a means by which our own sins may also be loosed (“Break the bonds of our sin, O Apostle, for us who venerate with faith your divine chain.”); or that the Apostle who wore the Chain while he was a prisoner, by that very chain bound the tyrant devil (“The honorable chain which you wore as a prisoner out of love, O blessed one, bound the tyrant.”).
Yet where our Hymnographers place their greatest emphasis is on the interpretation of the veneration of the Chain. They are concerned to clarify the theological foundation of honoring the Chain, evidently so as not to leave any suspicion of an “idolatrous” approach to it. And the explanation they offer is most clear: the Chain of the Apostle Peter is not honored in and of itself — this, as we said, would be clear idolatry — but it is honored because it was worn by a man who was filled with the Holy Spirit, especially after holy Pentecost, when the sanctification of his body was transmitted also to the objects with which he came into contact.
“From your divine and all-revered body, O Apostle, the chains that partook of grace by touching you sanctify all who venerate them.”
This is a theological truth that highlights the participation of inanimate nature in the grace of God, something repeatedly grounded in the revelation of Christ — for example, in the event of His Transfiguration, when even the Lord’s garments shone and “became white as snow.” For this reason, in our Church we see how much the material element is used as a participant in the sanctifying power of the Spirit of God. In other words, through such events and phenomena the “materialism” of Christianity is vividly demonstrated — or rather, the spiritualization of matter — since the grace of God transforms not only the human soul, but also the body, and further still, the whole of physical creation. It is therefore not accidental that our Church always speaks of the salvation of the whole human being — that is, of both soul and body — and consequently of material creation itself, in the person of the human being reborn in Christ.
And beyond this: the Hymnographer, taking occasion from the Honorable Chain of Saint Peter, perceives a balancing of his grace between East and West. It is not only Rome that boasts because it possesses the Apostle’s divine body; it is also the New Rome, Constantinople, which is likewise illumined by possessing the Honorable Chain.
“You sanctify Rome, Peter, by the laying to rest there of your divine body, and you illumine the New Rome, which with faith possesses your honorable chain.”
This points to the coming and abiding of the Apostle Peter in the East, without his abandoning the West. Through his Chain the Apostle came and remained in Constantinople, so that the one who venerates it has boldness toward him, that he may intercede with the Lord for mercy on behalf of the faithful.
“Without leaving Rome, you came to us through the honorable chains which you wore, O First-Throned of the Apostles; and as we venerate them with faith, we beseech you, by your intercessions to God, grant us the great mercy.”
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
