In modern society, chairs are everywhere and they serve the most ordinary functions. We use chairs when eating at our tables, working at a computer, and listening in a classroom.
Chairs are largely seen as a necessary part of everyday life, so it is strange when we hear that the Catholic Church has a separate feast the revolves around "The Chair of St. Peter."
What was so special about St. Peter's chair?
Ceremonial functions
First of all, officials in the Roman Empire sat on chairs when administering judgments or when engaged in official ceremonies. Having arisen within the Roman Empire, this tradition was replicated in the Roman Catholic Church and survives to this day.
Bishops, for example, have a special cathedra (throne-like chair) they sit in for liturgical ceremonies in their cathedral church (the church gets its name from the chair). The chair denotes a bishop’s special authority over a particular region and links him to the successor of St. Peter, the pope. The word sede (meaning seat) gives us the word "see" for the jurisdiction of a bishop. The pope's jurisdiction is the Holy See.
Secondly, it is believed that St. Peter baptized and confirmed the first Christians in Rome from that chair. The Catholic Encyclopedia explains:
According to the manuscript list of these oils preserved in the cathedral treasury of Monza, Italy, one of these vessels had on it the statement: "oleo de sede ubi prius sedit sanctus Petrus" (oils from the chair where St. Peter first sat). Other ancient authorities describe the site as "ubi Petrus baptizabat" (where Peter baptized), or "ad fontes sancti Petri; ad Nymphas sancti Petri" (at the fountain of Saint Peter).
This tradition was kept in the early Church in the Vatican basilica of St. Peter:
While therefore in the apse of the Vatican Basilica there stood a cathedra on which the pope sat amid the Roman clergy during the pontifical Mass, there was also in the same building a second cathedra from which the pope administered to the newly baptized the Sacrament of Confirmation.
The tradition of using a special bishop's chair during confirmation has persisted to this day, though it is no longer a required part of the confirmation ceremony.
This feast, then, recalls the spiritual fatherhood of St. Peter, and every time a bishop sits in his chair at Mass, it spiritually connects him to the Prince of the Apostles.
