Why do Saints Peter and Paul share a feast?

by Gunther Simmermacher · Published September 2, 2024 · Updated September 3, 2024

Question: Why do St Peter and St Paul share a solemnity, June 29, instead of having their own feast days?

Answer: The tradition of celebrating the solemnity of St Peter and St Paul on the same day goes back to at least 258 AD, when, according to tradition, Christians hid the bones of the two apostles together in the catacombs (of St Sebastian) during the Valerian persecution of 257-258.

We do not know the exact date of the martyrdom of either apostle, so there were no particular dates on which to commemorate their respective deaths.

One early legend claims that the two apostles share a feast day because they were executed on the same day, at the command of Emperor Nero. History tells us otherwise. St Peter was crucified (upside down, at his request) in 64 AD, and St Paul was beheaded some time between 64-68 AD. St Peter was buried on Vatican Hill, at the site of today’s St Peter’s basilica; St Paul was buried outside the city; his tomb is under the main altar of the basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls in Rome.

For the early Roman Christians, the two men were inseparable figures. St Irenaeus (130-202 AD) explained that the Church was “founded and organised at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul […] The blessed apostles, then, having founded and built up the Church, committed into the hands of Linus [the second pope] the office of the episcopate.”

In a sermon in the year 395, St Augustine of Hippo said about the June 29 feast: “Both apostles share the same feast day, for these two were one; and even though they suffered on different days, they were as one. Peter went first, and Paul followed. And so we celebrate this day made holy for us by the apostles’ blood. Let us embrace what they believed, their life, their labours, their sufferings, their preaching, and their confession of faith.”

St Paul has a second feast day, marking his conversion, on January 25. The feast of the Chair of St Peter is on February 22. Additionally, the feast of the dedication of the papal basilicas of St Peter’s and St Paul Outside the Walls is jointly celebrated on November 18.

Answered by Editor, Günther Simmermacher in the June 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine