Chair of St. Peter

Chair of Saint Peter | photo by Lawrence OP | flickr.

Mnsr. Moran explained the Chair of St. Peter, this morning.  Peter as the first pope which is what we call the Bishop of Rome his in the catacombs since it was illegal to be Christian.  In Priscilla's catacomb are inscriptions that say:

Hâc cathedrâ, Petrus quâ sederat ipse, locatum 
Maxima Roma Linum primum considere iussit. 

(On this chair, where Peter himself had sat, 
great Rome first placed Linus and bade him sit.) 

Maybe whether the seat was a rock, marble, or wood is debatable. When the Goths invaded Rome it was destroyed.  The next chair was wood and moveable.

By the seventeenth century, the chair was becoming rickety so Pope Alexander VII enclosed the chair much as it is viewed today.  So the chair is an actual relic from way back when early popes sat on it.

But the term "chair of St. Peter," is not referring to that piece of furniture.  No.  It is referencing the authority of the Pope, specifically his teaching authority.