Peter’s Grotto
Source: Fides
Catholics and Orthodox are preparing to celebrate the feast of the Apostles Peter and Paul this week, in the city of Antakya – the ancient Antioch on the Orontes in Turkey. The centre of the shared celebrations will once again be Peter’s Grotto, the ancient rock church on Mount Silpius, which reopened in 2015 after many years of restoration.
Capuchin Father Domenico Bertogli, Catholic parish priest of Antakya, said the upcoming celebrations will be an opportunity for Christians of different confessions to walk together, with renewed faith, following the example of the two holy Apostles.
The celebrations began on Tuesday evening 28 June with a Eucharistic liturgy in the Orthodox church of Antakya. On Wednesday, 29 June at 10am, in the garden of the Grotto of St Peter, ecumenical celebrations will begin in the presence of Archbishop Marek Solczyński, Apostolic Nuncio to Turkey, Bishop Paolo Bizzeti, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, and Bishop Kostantin, envoy of Yohanna X Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch.
The celebrations will include readings in Turkish and Arabic from the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, together with brief reflections by Archbishop Solczyński, Bishop Bizzeti and Orthodox Bishop Kostantin, prayers and songs from the various communities. The celebration includes the shared prayers of the Our Father and the Hail Mary in Turkish, the recitation of a prayer for peace, a blessing given by the bishops present and a blessing of the blessed Loaves, with the final song sung by the Orthodox.
After the ceremony, Catholics and Orthodox will share lunch in a restaurant. In the afternoon, the Catholic community will gather in the courtyard of the Catholic Church of Antioch for the solemn Eucharistic concelebration.
The ancient rock church of St Peter still retains the appearance the Crusaders gave it, when they conquered ancient Antioch in 1098. This was the city where the disciples of Jesus were called Christians for the first time and where St Peter was Bishop, before coming to Rome. The Byzantines transformed the place where the first baptized people met during the periods of persecution into a chapel.
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