ST. PETER IN CHAINS CHURCH

So I didn't know about this church before studying up on Rome in preparation for this trip- but there is a church, not far from the Colosseum called, "St. Peter in Chains Church". It pays homage obviously to the man Jesus chose as his right hand man and bestowed the keys to when he said, "You are Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth, will be loosed in heaven."

So anyway- in his older years Peter traveled to Rome, knowing it seems that he was going to face his own death from an earlier statement made by Christ, "You will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go" This basically foretold Peter that he would someday suffer a death similar to Christs.

When he arrived in Rome, Nero had him thrown into Mamertine Prison where he is said to have converted his other jailers and baptized them. We unfortunately didn't get to see the prison because it was closed HOWEVER- the chains in which Peter was held were saved and are part of the altar of this church. Check out this sobering picture I took today.