CHAIR OF SAINT PETER, Feast of the. - It is not a question of the chair or material see, but of the magisterium of St. Peter. Here "chair" is a synonym of sedes.
The sentence of St. Cyprian is typical, inspired by St. Paul (Eph. 4:5): «Deus unus est et Christus unus et una ecclesia et cathedra una super Petrum Domini voce fundata» (Ep., 43, 5); a concept found again in the anonymous poem Adversus Marcionem (III, 9: PL 2, 1077): «hac cathedra, Petrus qua sederat ipse...»; clearly again in Optatus of Milevis: «in urbe Roma Petro primo cathedram episcopalem esse conlatam, in qua sederit omnium apostolorum caput Petrus, unde and was called Cephas, in which one chair unity might be preserved by all" (De schismate Donatistarum, II, 2: PL 11, 947) and further: "...the one chair which is the first of the [Church's] dowries — Peter sat first, and Linus succeeded him" (ibid., II, 3; likewise ibid., II, 9).
Therefore the cathedra Petri is the chair of the primacy and of the unity of the Church's doctrine.
As for the institution of the feast of the cathedra Petri (Feb. 22), the natale Petri de Cathedra already appears in the "Depositio martyrum" (4th century). This solemnity is explained thus by St. Augustine (d. 430): "the institution of today's solemnity received the name 'chair' from our elders, because the first apostle Peter is said to have received today the chair of the episcopate. Rightly, then, do the churches celebrate the birthday of that see which the Apostle took up for the salvation of the churches" (Serm. 190, 1: PL 39, 2100).
The date of Feb. 22 is therefore that of the beginning of St. Peter's Roman episcopate. Confirmation of this is also found in the catalog De vigiliis et ieiunii of Perpetuus of Tours (460), where one reads: Natale s. Petri Episcopatus (Gregory of Tours, Hist. Franc., X, 31), in canon 22 of the Council of Tours of 567 (Hefele-Leclercq, III, 1, p. 191) and in the marble Calendar of Naples (9th century) which, on the date — note well — of Feb. 12, commemorates the: Dies quo electus est s. Petrus Papa.
In the Hieronymian Martyrology, however, there is a second solemnity of the Cathedra Petri on Jan. 18. This feast is of Gallican origin, and does not seem to be earlier than about the middle of the 6th century. Interesting in this regard is the notice found in the Martyrology of Gellone, cited by Mabillon (PL 72, 181): XV Kol. Febr. secundum Gallos Cathedra s. Petri apostoli.
The text of the Hieronymianum compiled at Auxerre gave the title of Cathedra romana to Jan. 18 and the title of Cathedra Antiochema to Feb. 22; this distinction has no value, whether historical or liturgical.
The introduction of the solemn Lenten stational services and their importance in the Roman liturgy from the 6th century onward caused the feast of Feb. 22 to fall into disuse in Rome, because it almost always fell in Lent, so much so that it is not found in the ancient Gelasian and Gregorian sacramentaries. This feast nevertheless continued to be celebrated in Gaul and in Spain, as attested by the various codices of the 8th-century Gelasian Sacramentary, the Lectionary of Silos, and the Mozarabic Sacramentary. After the year 1000 the commemoration of Feb. 22 reappears also in liturgical books of the Roman type, and it is not rare to find in manuscripts either both (Jan. 18, Feb. 22) or only one or the other. Paul IV, on Jan. 6, 1558, established that both feasts should be celebrated in the universal Church, with double rite (cf. Bullarium Rom., VI, Turin 1860, pp. 531-32). On the two occasions the liturgical formularies are identical, except for the lessons of the second and third Nocturn.