St. Peter ad Vincula
St. Peter ad Vincula (German St. Peter in chains or Petri chain celebration ; French Saint-Pierre-ès-Liens , Spanish San Pedro ad Vincula ) is a liturgical feast on August 1 (in the general calendar of the Roman rite, commemorative day until 1960), Orthodox and Armenian January 16 .
To the Acts of the Apostles
After Pontius Pilate was deposed as governor of Judea ( Acts 36 EU ), the Jewish king Herod Agrippa I ( Acts 41-44 EU ) persecuted the early Jerusalem community and had one of its apostles, James the Elder , beheaded. Peter was also arrested and chained between two guards in a prison cell. But an angel miraculously freed him so that he could continue his mission outside of Jerusalem ( Acts 12 : 1–19 EU ).
In the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, the alleged chains of Peter are on display.
Adoration
The feast of “St. Peter in Chains “was one of the most important feast days in the church's annual cycle in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period in all of Central and Southern Europe. However, in 1960 it was deleted from the Calendarium Romanum Generale .