Although the barrenness of speech seems to counsel me to silence, yet the urgency and the holiness of him who commands compel me to speak. It is more excellent to bring forth an unskilled discourse than to refuse a dutiful word. Who then would decline to praise so great a man, to whom there fell from heaven both the title of the Apostle and the privilege of the supreme priesthood? For it is not to be believed that it was without divine judgment that his first, raw infancy of living attained the dignity of so great a name. Whom must we suppose to have been present then, save God Himself, when parents unaware were judging concerning future merits? For to be called Peter is in others the mere naming of a name, but in him it is the prerogative of virtue.
Truly blessed Peter, the immovable foundation of salvation, shows himself in the priesthood such as those wish to appear who covet the priesthood. How therefore does he, imbued with monastic disciplines, practise the rule of holiness? His face grows pale with fasting, leanness thins his body, almsgiving pleads for his sins, tears baptize his faults. But lest perhaps the crowd of the devout people should marvel at this, Peter is wont to weep when Christ looks upon him (Matt. 26). Nor let anyone accuse in the Apostle the shower of watering grief. Pleasant are the tears which have earned the joy of immortality (Mark 16). He himself, then, is the guardian of the faith, the rock of the Church, and the doorkeeper of the heavens.
He himself is the chosen apostolic fisherman, who by the hook of holiness invites to himself the crowds sunk in the waves of error, and by the net of his teaching gathers to the faith a multitude copious in men (Luke 5). He is also that most blessed and apostolic fowler, who with the reed of the divine word reaches the souls of the young flying through the air. Rightly therefore the venerable priest of God, who of old obtained the name of the Apostle and now has attained his merit also, sows among the peoples the precepts of righteousness, and with manifest light unlocks the mystical questions of the sacred volumes; and so great is his mastery in heavenly disciplines that whoever is converted owes his absolution to him, while whoever is not corrected owes his guilt to himself.
From every side the crowd runs together to him out of the diverse regions of the lands, in eagerness to see him. Whoever dwelt in the pathless solitudes or in the hidden lurking-places of the desert come rather to see the wondrous Peter than the world. It has been granted them at last to learn — a harder thing indeed, but more glorious — to struggle in the present world, and to draw up, as it were, a certain battle-line of holiness against the arrayed hosts of transgressors. For how great is the palm for those set in the world after their contest, if to those established in solitude, without a struggle, crowns are owed? Wherefore, brethren, since most blessed Peter instructs you by the preaching of his teaching in all things that belong to divine virtue,
and likewise teaches you by his examples, let us entreat the Lord our God, that for the longest of ages He may gladden you with the word of heavenly teaching.