Replies

Continued: Christian martyrs of Rome
Martrydom of Peter and Paul

Quo vadis, Domine? Late in the persecution, the apostles Peter and Paul, were martyred. An unquestioned tradition among early Christian communities -- affirmed today by many historians and archeologists -- says that Peter met his death at Nero's circus on the Vatican and Paul was beheaded along the Via Ostia near the place where Constantine later built a church in his honor. Details of their martyrdom are unknown, but like others they must have been arrested, put in chains, questioned, and sentenced before being executed.

There are later legends, of course. One says they were imprisoned in the Mamertime Prison, near the Capitoline Hill, where they converted and baptized their jailers. Peter escaped and fled along the Via Appia until he reached the place where the chapel, Domine, Quo Vadis? now stands. There he met Jesus coming into the city. "Where are you going, Lord?" Peter asked. When Jesus told him he was going to join those suffering, the apostle turned to embrace the same fate.

The Ordeal of a Frightened Church

Legends like these have dubious historical value, but do they suggest something about the early persecution?

The Christians of Rome, considered part of the city's Jewish community in the middle of the 1st century, enjoyed the extensive privileges bestowed on the Jews by the Romans at that time; they must have felt safe and secure, until Nero's arbitrary attack. Their troubles with Claudius around 49 were only minor. How shocking Nero's sudden blow! Certainly brave martyrs emerged in the persecution, but in those chaotic days how many wavered or fell?

One wonders if the story of a frightened Peter, fleeing in fear, then regaining strength for his ordeal, was a lesson in hope for Christians who, taken by surprise, wavered, fled in terror, denied and betrayed?

next: words for a persecuted Church

Continued: Christian martyrs of Rome
Words for a Persecuted Church: The Gospel of Mark

Christ, crucified Many scholars believe the Gospel of Mark was finally formulated in Rome during the turbulent years of Nero's persecution, before the fall of Jerusalem in 70. Most likely it was written for Rome's Christians, reeling from persecution and wondering what new troubles lay ahead.

Central to Mark's Gospel is his story of the Passion of Jesus, in which the Lord experiences a stark, brutal martyrdom that cannot be explained. How appropriate for a church wrestling with the mystery of absurd, unmerited suffering caused by a mad, capricious emperor. More than other Gospels do, Mark portrays Peter in weakness, a disciple who fails his Master and then awaits his mercy. Does he remind the Christians of Rome that their church is not made up of the strong, but the weak and the fallen as well?

For hard times, Mark's Gospel proclaims the hard, uncompromising message of Jesus Crucified, who calls his disciples to follow him to the Cross.

The First Letter of Peter

Other contemporary New Testament writings offer a similar message to the Roman community and Christians of the wider church. Like Mark's Gospel, the 1st Letter of Peter, written in Rome and perhaps sent to Jewish Christians in Asia Minor threatened with persecution, calls for standing firm in suffering, even unjust, absurd suffering.

"Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his footsteps. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. When he suffered he did not threaten; instead he handed himself over to the one who judges justly." (1 Peter 2, 21-23)

In the letter there is no thought that those who follow Jesus abandon the place where they are when suffering comes. Whether slave, or wife or husband, they are not to flee -- always a temptation for those who have been hurt. Rather, they are to stay where they are and "maintain good conduct among the Gentiles," (1 Peter 2:12) "give honor to all, love the community, honor the king."(1 Peter 2:17)

In the years following the persecution, Jewish Christians fled from Jerusalem before advancing Roman legions, and Christians elsewhere, seeing Nero's reign as a sign of the last times, washed their hands of this world and waited for the end.

But the Christians of Rome stayed in their city and built their church. Where many of them suffered, they and their neighbors worked to rebuild the city's burnt-out structures. Here they toiled for the coming of the Kingdom of God.

We celebrate the memory of these, our ancestors in faith, on June 30th, following the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul.

next: are they Peter's chains?