By Archpriest Steven Rogers (The WORD Magazine.)

There are perhaps no two men more greatly revered yet so seemingly different than Saints Peter & Paul.

Commemorated by the Orthodox Church on June 29, Saints Peter and Paul, "the heads of the Apostles" as described throughout the hymnody of the feast, are especially loved by the Church of Antioch, where Peter served as its first bishop and Paul set forth on his great missionary travels. Peter, who preached on the day of Pentecost when 3,000 were converted to the faith, and Paul, the greatest missionary the world has ever known and author of over half of the New Testament, were two of the most powerful instruments ever raised up by God to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to found This holy Church. Their preaching and the power of God within them literally transformed the world. Both lived completely for Christ and both died a martyr's death in Rome by order of the evil Roman emperor Nero.