PETER THE APOSTLE, SAINT

died c. AD 64, Rome original name Simeon, or Simon disciple of Jesus Christ, recognized in the early Christian church as the leader of the disciples and by the Roman Catholic church as the first of its unbroken succession of popes. Peter, a fisherman, was called to be a disciple of Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. He received from Jesus the name Cephas (i.e., Rock, hence Peter, from the Latin petra). Additional reading Peter in the New Testament: A Collaborative Assessment by Protestant and Roman Catholic Scholars, ed. by Raymond C. Brown, Karl P. Donfried, and John Reumann (1973), an important study; O. Cullmann, Petrus (1960; Peter: Disciple, Apostle, Martyr, 2nd rev. ed., 1962), a critical discussion of all problems involved in Petrine studies by a Protestant; C. Journet, Primaut de Pierre dans la perspective protestante et dans la perspective catholique (1953; The Primacy of Peter, 1954), and O. Karrer, Peter and the Church (1963), two Roman Catholic appraisals of Cullmann's study; A. Demarco, The Tomb of Saint Peter (1964), an annotated bibliography of the Vatican and San Sebastiano excavations and related questions, compiled by a Roman Catholic scholar; F.J. Foakes-Jackson, Peter: Prince of Apostles (1927), a Protestant study of Peter in the New Testament, apocryphal literature, and later tradition; K. Heussi, Die rmische Petrustradition in kritischer Sicht (1958), a Protestant study that seeks to cast doubt on the residence, martyrdom, and burial of Peter in Rome; D.W. O'Connor, Peter in Rome: The Literary, Liturgical and Archeological Evidence (1969), a Protestant discussion of all the evidence that deals with the residence, martyrdom, and burial of Peter in Rome; N. Afanassieff et al., Der Primat des Petrus in der Orthodoxen Kirche (1961; The Primacy of Peter, 1963), an Orthodox review of several problems in Petrine studies, especially the primacy of Peter; J. Toynbee and J. Ward Perkins, The Shrine of St. Peter and the Vatican Excavations (1956), an excellent Roman Catholic account of the Vatican excavations, dealing at length with the pagan mausolea and the area of the Christian Aedicula; M.M. Winter, Saint Peter and the Popes (1960), a general Roman Catholic review of the various Petrine problems; and J. Lowe, Saint Peter (1956), a brief Protestant summary of the life, martyrdom, and burial of Peter.