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From Jerusalem, St. Peter went to Caesaria of Palestine. He healed many in Sidon and consecrated a bishop there, he went to Beirut, and there also consecrated a bishop. Afterwards, he went to Byblus, and from there to Tripolis of Phoenicia, where he sojourned with a certain learned man named Marco, whom he also consecrated bishop for the faithful of that city. From Tripolis, he went on to Orthosia, then to Antrada and the island of Aratos, and on to Balanaea, Paltos, Gavalla and Laodicea. In the latter, he healed many of the infirm, expelled the demons from the possessed, and gathered the faithful into a church, consecrating a bishop for them. From Laodicea, St.Peter went on to Antioch, the principal city of Syria, where the holy Apostle Peter healed many who were sick, and after preaching the One God in three Persons, he consecrated bishops: Marcian for Syracuse in Sicily, and Pancratius for Taormina. Saint Peter then left Antioch for Tyana of Cappadocia, and from there went to Ancyra of Galata, where he resurrected a dead man and built a church, having catechized and baptized many and appointed a bishop for them. On leaving Ancyra, he set out for Sinope of Pontus. It was here that his brother, the Apostle Andrew hastened to meet him; and together they taught the people of Sinope. Afterwards, Peter passed on to Amastris, in the midst of the province of Pontus. Later, having sojourned in Gangra of Paphlagonia, Claudiopolis of Pontus and Bithynia, and Nicomedia, the holy Apostle paused for a time in Nicaea. Intending to return to Jerusalem for the feast of the passover, he turned back, passing through Pessinus, Cappadocia, and Syria. Having visited Antioch again, he finally reached Jerusalem. While he was abiding there, the holy Apostle Paul came to him, it being three years since his own conversion to Christ, as he himself mentions in his Epistle to the Galatians.At that time, all of the Apostles set down the 85 Canons of ecclesiastical regulations. After this time, St. Paul went forth to the work to which he had been called; and the holy Apostle Peter again visited Antioch, where he consecrated Evodius, one of the Seventy, bishop. He then betook himself to Synnada, a city of Phrygia, and from thence again to Nicomedia; there he consecrated as bishop Prochorus, who even after receiving the episcopal rank followed after St. John the Theologian. Arriving from Nicomedia in Ilium, a city near the Hellespont, the holy apostle consecrated as bishop for that place Cornelius the Centurion before returning to Jerusalem. There the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to St. Peter in a vision, saying: "Arise, Peter, and go to the West: the time hath come for it to be enlightened by thy preaching. I shall remain with thee forever." There was also Simon Magus the sorcerer who began to fight against the Apostle Peter. The story of how Peter stopped him from drawing the people away from God is told in detail in The book called "THE LIVES OF THE HOLY APOSTLES" translated by the Holy Apostles Convent in Buena Vista, Colorado. The Apostle Peter raised the dead and many other amazing miracles. A direct quote from Marcellus the Roman, who at first was a disciple of simon Magus, but later was enlightened by the Apostle Peter with the holy faith and holy baptism. In his epistle to the holy martyrs Nerion and Archillius, Marcellus speaks of a youth raised from the dead by the holy Apostle: "The youth, falling at St. Peter's feet, cried out, 'I beheld the Lord Jesus, who commanded His angels to return me, at thine entreaty, to my widowed mother!' Then the whole crowd began to exclaim, 'There is on God, and none other than He whom Peter confesses!'" According to Orthodox Tradition, St. Peter consecrated Linus as Bishop of Rome. He departed for Tarraco, in Spain, where he consecrated Epaphrodites bishop. He went to Sermium and consecrated Epenetus as bishop. Then he travelled to Carthage, in Africa, where he ordained Crescens as bishop. On reaching Egypt, he also consecrated Rufus for Thebes. Then, receiving a revelation, he went to Jerusalem to be present at the dormition of the all pure Theotokos Ever-virgin Mary, which took place eleven years after the Lord's ascension. After this he returned again to Rome and Milan, and finally to Photice, where he ordained priests and bishops. Journeying to Britain, he abode there for some time, bringing many to the Christian Faith. In Britain, the holy Apostlle Peter had a vision of an angel, who said to him, "O Peter, Apostle of Christ! The time for thy departure from this life is come. You must go to Rome, where having endured crucifixion, you will receive a fitting reward from Christ the Lord." Giving thanks to God, St. Peter remained in Britain for a few days after this revelation, making the churches steadfast in the Faith, and ordaining bishops, presbytery, and deacons. In the twelfth year of Nero's reign, he arrived in Rome for the third time. He consecrated Clement as bishop. Nero initiated a search for St. Peter, intending to have him put to death. The faithful pleaded with him, for the sake of their common good, to hide himself and depart from Rome. The Apostle would in no wise consent to do so, desiring rather to suffer and die for Christ; but with tears the faithful entreated the Apostle to save his life, which was so necessary for the holy Church, which was tempest-tossed amid the waves of tribulations caused by the ungodly. Yielding to this tearful plea of his reason-endowed flock, St. Peter promised to hide himself outside the city. On the following night, after praying with his spiritual children, he bade farewell to all and departed alone. But when he was beyond the city gates, he saw the Lord Jesus Christ coming toward him. Bowing low before Him, the Holy Peter said, "Where are you going, Lord?" "I go to Rome to be crucified anew!" The Lord said in answer, and then vanished. Astonished, the Apostle understood that Christ, who suffers in His servants as in His own members, also desired to suffer in his body. He returned and was arrested. St. Peter was not taken alone, but with a multitude of the faithful, among whom were Clement, Herodion and Olympus. He ordered St. Peter to be crucified. Clement, as a kinsman of the Emperor, they took pity on and set free; but Herodion and Olympus, they beheaded, together with a multitude of the faithful. The Apostle requested that he be crucified head-downwards saying, "I am not worthy to be crucified as my Christ, upright; for thus He was crucified, so as to look to the earth, where He would descend into hades to deliver the souls therein. Crucify me head down, that I may look to heaven, whither I will go." |
DID YOU KNOW??? 50% of children will lose their faith in college. 3 times more people will become an atheist than will find any faith whatsoever. Join us in our journey restoring faith in Jesus Christ to lost souls. There is a war being fought spiritually speaking. Our mission is to restore people to faith in Jesus Christ, but also equally important, a true understanding of ancient Christian belief and practice. The True God IS TRINITY. This is the truth expressed by the apostles, and it is the truth that we too will express. JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN ††† Many times we wonder to ourselves, "Is Jesus really alive?" We question our faith because the world tries to tear us down by telling us that Jesus was a mere man. Is that true? If we examine the history, we shall see and be convinced of the TRUTH. This is the gospel. Jesus Christ is Risen from the dead. It can be historically proven that the Christians were being tortured and killed as early as 49AD. 500 Christians claimed to have seen Christ risen from the dead all at once. Thousands were seeing the miracles. People being raised from the dead, healings by as little as touching Peter's shadow, Handkerchiefs from Paul worked mighty miracles, and prophecy was witnessed in its fulfillment. The early Christians were in a place to know if they were lying. Why would thousands of people make up and lie about Jesus being risen from the dead then get tortured for their lie. They were thrown to lions, they were crucified, they were burned alive, they were skinned alive, and just about every other imaginable torture. Only one conclusion. Jesus Christ is risen from the dead. The TALMUD is an ancient writing that was written by the Jews who put Jesus on trial and sought to kill Him. They hated Jesus, and had no reason to make Him sound better. In this ancient document they accused Jesus of deceiving the people with sorceries. They could not deny His miracles, but had to come up with another explanation because EVERYONE saw and knew He performed miracles. There is no solid basis for denying Jesus was in fact a miracle worker. Even Josephus who was a Jewish historian during that time wrote about Jesus and His miracles. He was writing to please the Romans and He would not have included it if it were not true, because the Romans would not have been pleased with it at all. JOSH MCDOWELL also has an interesting story. He had actually tried to disprove the bible. When he was in law school some Christians challenged him to disprove the bible. He thought it would be a piece of cake. He was so serious about disproving the scriptures, that he quit school and went to Europe to study in the libraries enriched with material. He even felt that if he could disprove one point the whole thing would be disproven. Needless to say, he was addament and he would not give up easy. Then to everyone's amazement he came back a Christian. What he said was that the historical evidence would prove in the court of law that Jesus Christ is Resurrected from the dead. He has now written many books on the topic and he explains what convinced him. On of the most shocking discoveries he made was that the scriptures were actually written in the first century by the Apostles. He more thoroughly explains this in his book "EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT." (Click the link if you would like to purchase his book: it will be in the Christian books section) He said that if you were to destroy every single Christian New Testament including the ancient manuscripts you could still reconstruct the New Testament using early Church Father quotes of the New Testament except for 11 verses. The fact is that the New Testament is preserved authentically as it is supposed to be. It is not perfect, but close to it. He quotes all of the experts on this subject, and even the liberals have to admit that they could not have been written later than the 2nd century. Yet, even if they were written in the second century, I will explain why they are still accurate. However, Many experts do say that they could not possibly date beyond the first century. Namely because people that were alive in the first century quote the New Testament. Also after studying the book of Acts, they said that Luke was so detailed that when one studies they will find that the book of Acts simply won't fit in a second century setting, only in the first century. |
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