Mass at the Altar of the Chair
St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City
October 6, 2025
Last October, thanks to our Worthy Supreme Knight, a number of us had the privilege of “a sneak preview” of the restoration of Bernini’s Baldacchino and the Altar of the Chair –masterpieces the Order so generously restored to their original glory. To view the almost-complete restoration of the Baldacchino, the Supreme Knight and I rode a lift to the top – some ten stories. There we discovered that the little angels on the top of it are BIG angels, and that intricate architectural details adorn parts of that structure that one can only see at eye level.
Viewing the progress of the restoration of the Altar of the Chair was a different matter. For that, we had to climb up some eight sets of scaffolding, and silly old me was wearing a house cassock. Had officials from OSHA been present, they would have called the whole thing off. But climb was more than worth it, as we came face to face with the outsized statues of Latin and Eastern doctors of the Church directing our gaze to the chair that symbolizes both Peter’s confession of faith as well as his authority: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!” “You are Peter, and on this rock I shall build my Church!”
Yet another wonder awaited us. We were ushered into a nearby sacristy where we were shown the ancient chair of Peter, a wooden chair, given in 875 by the Emperor of the Romans, Charles the Bald, to Pope John VIII. That chair is said to date from the 6th century but it also incorporates fragments that are much older. Compared to Bernini’s chair, it is a humbler creation. Even so, there was something majestic about this ancient Chair of Peter, a chair usually hidden because it is embedded in the grandeur of Bernini’s magnificent creation.
It struck me that Bernini’s chair is Peter’s confession of Christ inside-out! Within the glorious creation of Bernini that bespeaks Christ’s divinity lies hidden a humble chair that could be said to signify the humanity of Christ. In reality, however, it was within Christ’s humanity that the glory of his divinity was both concealed and revealed. Peter’s gaze first fell on Jesus’ human form, the Christ who emptied himself of glory, becoming like us in all things but sin: the Christ “who worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, and loved with a human heart” (GS, 22). Peter was with Jesus when he was hungry, thirsty, and tired, and when he was exasperated with the disciples for their slowness. The small and humble chair, no less authoritative, can be said to symbolize Peter beholding Christ’s humanity and humility.
Overshadowed by the revealing Spirit, however, Peter saw in the humble form of Christ the Eternal Son of God, the Messiah. He saw in Jesus’ humanity, “the King of kings and the Lord of lords,” the “One in whom the fullness of divinity dwells”, he, the Son of God, who shared our humanity so that we might share in his divinity. When asked by Jesus, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” This confession of Christ’s divinity is symbolized by Bernini’s grander chair, the very one our Order was privileged to restore.
Together, both chairs symbolize the fullness of the Catholic faith: the Christ who is “God from God, light from light, true God from true God,” Christ, “the Son of God was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin.” Two chairs symbolic of one mystery–Christ the Son of God and the Son of Mary. It matters little whether our gaze first falls on the Christ of majesty and glory or upon the Christ who embraced the poverty of our humanity. It is in the fullness of this mystery that we place our hope. It is to the summit of this mystery that we journey as pilgrims of hope. It is from these heights that we bring the mystery of Christ in its fullness into the confusion and mischance of daily life, so that Christ might be newly incarnate in us and in our world.
As the family of the Knights of Columbus, we have restored the symbol of Peter’s confession of faith. During this pilgrimage of hope, may the truth and reality of Peter’s confession be fully restored in us, so that it might shine forth daily with the renewed splendor of virtue and holiness. By word and deed, from the depth of our humanity, let us confess in charity, unity, and fraternity: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”