Stephan Witetschek: Peter the Martyr. Christian Memory under Construction

The story of Peter's violent death has found its iconic shape in the account of the Acts of Peter: Peter crucified upside down. This account can be understood as the result of a development that took almost the entire 2nd century, beginning with rather allusive remarks in John 21.18-19 and 1 Clement 5.4. The aim of this paper is to understand this development as the development of collective memory and to relate it to developments in the understanding of martyrdom and in the memory of Peter in general. The working hypothesis is that, by the end of the 2nd century, the view of Peter as the first bishop of Rome required, among other things, an explicit account of his martyrdom.

• In this workshop, speakers will only give brief summaries of their papers. The draft papers will be circulated in advance to all participants. Please contact the organiser to have the PDFs sent to you by late July/early August.