Peter and Paul are revered as the two most influential leaders of the early Christian church. It is believed that both were martyred in Rome in or shortly after 64 AD under the persecution of Emperor Nero, and tradition recalls that date as on or near June 29. The church holds these two apostles together because of their witness to belief in salvation by Christ. However, records indicate that they disagreed with each other on important issues. They have come to represent two different expressions of the church: Peter maintaining the tradition and Paul stepping toward the future, Peter at the altar and Paul in the pulpit. The church needs them both. Like most of the saints, we admire and revere them so much that we often overlook that they were ordinary and flawed humans just like us, and yet God called them to be disciples and apostles. Might then God also be calling each of us?
image: Monastery of Saint John the Theologian. Patmos, Greece