June 29 is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul. In times past, and in various countries, this was a Holy Day of Obligation. The eve of the apostolic Feast (Saturday this year) was a day of penance and fasting. Given that so many faithless modernists are calling for an end to priestly celibacy – and even for women’s ordination – we do well to reflect upon St. Peter’s apostolic practice, Scripture, and Tradition.
Don’t Be Fooled by Modernist Deceptions
It surprises many Catholics to hear that St. Peter, the first Pope and Vicar of Christ, had been a married man. And yet, this fact is plainly stated in Scripture and affirmed by the Church Fathers. But rather than being an argument against the Church’s discipline of celibacy, Peter’s life actually reinforces its value. The tradition of priestly celibacy, especially in the West, is rooted in apostolic continence and the radical call to leave all things for Christ.
St. Peter’s Marriage in Sacred Scripture
The Gospels are clear that Peter had a wife, as seen in the accounts of Christ healing his mother-in-law: “And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, He saw his wife’s mother lying, and sick of a fever” (Matthew 8:14).
This same event is recorded in Mark 1:30 and Luke 4:38, making it an undisputed fact that Peter had been married.[1] However, it is quite possible that his wife had died by the time Jesus called the Twelve. Note, as soon as Peter’s mother-in-law was healed, she arose and began ministering to Jesus and the Apostles (8:15). One wonders, if Peter’s wife was still alive then why would she be standing idly by and allowing her own older mother, who had just been sick, to perform this service? It would be proper for the younger woman, who was Peter’s wife, to be serving Jesus and His Apostles (and her sickly mother). Social family relations would have dictated that Peter care for his mother-in-law, especially if he was the closest living male relative. This passage implies Peter’s wife is in absentia, and a reasonable conclusion is that she is no longer alive (in those days, women worked in the home and would rarely travel afar without their husband).
St. Paul refers to Peter’s marital status indirectly when defending his own apostolic rights: “Have we not power to carry about a woman, a sister as well as the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?” (1 Corinthians 9:5).
Here, ‘Cephas’ refers to Peter, and the phrase ‘a woman, a sister’ is understood by various scholars to mean a believing wife. The word “sister” could mean she is literally a sister, or it could also mean she is a Christian (believer). The term ‘sister’ could imply that the two, although married, live as “brother and sister” and do not have conjugal relations.
St. Paul’s words suggest that some of the apostles, including Peter, may have traveled with their wives during their missionary journeys. But Scripture never mentions Peter’s wife by name, nor does it indicate that she lived with him during the years of his active apostolic ministry. From this silence and later testimony, the Fathers drew an important conclusion.
Jesus’ Divine Teaching in the New Testament
Catholics know Scripture should never be read out of context and always under the guidance of the Church. Read over the passage in Matthew 19:21-30 of the “rich young man” who went away sad for he would not give up all to follow Jesus: material possessions, wife and family, nor his own will.
This becomes clear from what Our Lord says thereafter. The disciples begin to dispute that this kind of [celibate] life is impossible. They are correct in that it is not possible for human nature alone. It requires the revelation of the Incarnate God and His grace.
Peter boldly adds that they “have left all things” to follow Jesus. This includes conjugal relations.
We know this for Jesus responds: “And every one that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for My name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting.” Jesus’ words meant a great deal to His Apostles, because they had left their jobs, land, homes, families, and wives in order to follow Him. Indeed, their reward in Heaven is great (cf. Matthew 19:28-30).
What the Church Fathers Taught
The Sacred Scriptures infallibly proclaim that Peter had a wife; what is unclear is if she was alive or dead when Christ ordained him. The early Fathers acknowledged his marital status, but they also consistently emphasized that he lived in continence after his call to follow Christ. St. Jerome, a vigorous defender of celibacy, puts it plainly: “Peter had a wife. We do not deny it, for we read it in the Gospel. But once he was chosen as an apostle, he gave up the conjugal life” (Against Jovinianus, Book I).
St. Clement of Alexandria, writing in the second century, preserves a touching account of Peter’s wife being martyred. According to him, Peter encouraged her to remain steadfast in the Faith even as she was led to death: “They say that the blessed Peter, on seeing his wife led to execution, rejoiced because of her call and conveyance home, and called very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name, ‘Remember the Lord.’”
This tradition was repeated by Eusebius of Caesarea in his Ecclesiastical History, showing how deeply it was cherished in the early Church. St. Epiphanius, another fourth-century Father, wrote that although some of the apostles had wives, they refrained from marital relations once Christ called them to the apostolic life and they accepted. “They had wives, but they no longer had relations with them after they were called…” (Panarion 59:4). Even St. John Chrysostom, in his homilies on Matthew, matter-of-factly confirms that Peter had a wife, without seeing it as a contradiction to his apostolic calling.
In short, the patristic consensus is not only that Peter was married, but that he, like many early clerics, embraced perpetual continence after his call – living as a celibate for the sake of the Kingdom. This apostolic witness is extremely powerful if Peter’s wife was alive, but still retains its potency if Peter’s wife had died before Jesus’ public ministry because this sacrifice originates in supernatural motives.[2]
The Discipline of Priestly Celibacy in the Latin Church
The Latin Church’s discipline of priestly celibacy is not a denial of Peter’s marriage. It is, rather, a continuation of the apostolic ideal: that those who serve at the altar be wholly dedicated to the things of God.
Clerical celibacy was practiced from the earliest centuries in the West. The Council of Elvira in Spain (c. 306 AD) stated: “It is decided that bishops, priests, and deacons, and all clerics engaged in the ministry are to abstain from their wives and not to beget children; whoever does so shall be removed from the clerical office” (Canon 33).
This reflects not a late innovation, but the lived tradition of apostolic continence – especially among those who continued in marriage but refrained from marital relations after ordination. Over time, the Latin Church came to require celibacy as a precondition for ordination, to preserve the priest’s singular devotion to Christ and His Church. While the Eastern Churches have maintained a different discipline – allowing married men to be ordained to the priesthood – they also forbid marriage after ordination and reserve the episcopacy to the celibate.[3]
The requirement for priestly celibacy in the West was definitively codified at the First and Second Lateran Councils (1123 and 1139 AD, respectively), which declared that priestly ordination was invalid for those in a conjugal marriage. Yet the theology underpinning this discipline is far older.
Priestly celibacy is not merely practical – it is theological. The priest is an alter Christus, another Christ, who gives himself entirely to the Church, His Bride. The celibate priest witnesses to the reality of the heavenly Kingdom, where ‘they shall neither marry nor be married; but shall be as the angels of God in Heaven’ (Matthew 22:30), and he lives according to this truth of the Faith.
A Witness of Sacrifice and Holiness
The fact that St. Peter was married does not weaken the case for priestly celibacy – it strengthens it. Peter left everything, including the legitimate comforts of family life, to follow Christ: “Behold, we have left all things, and have followed Thee” (Matthew 19:27). His heroic sacrifice became the pattern for countless priests, monks, and bishops in the centuries that followed.
St. John the Evangelist, by contrast, never married at all. Both the celibate and the continent married man testify in different ways to the power of God’s grace. But in the Latin Church, the tradition has remained clear: The celibate priesthood is not only fitting – it is vital. In a world obsessed with pleasure and self-fulfillment, the priest who gives himself entirely to Christ is a prophetic sign of eternal realities.
St. Peter, who left behind his nets, his home, and his wife to become the rock of the Church, remains our model – not just of apostolic authority, but of sacrificial love. Priestly celibacy, far from being opposed to his example, flows directly from it.
ENDNOTES:
[1] It was the norm for men [and women] to marry in the first century Judaic culture. Living a celibate life for religious motives was unheard of. Thus, it is unrealistic that Jesus would have been able to choose twelve men who were all celibate virgins. Tradition holds that St. John was indeed such a man, but he was the youngest of the Twelve, and quite likely still under the normal marrying age when Jesus called him.
[2] A faithful Catholic may believe that St. Peter’s wife had died by the time Our Lord called him or that she remained alive while St. Peter served the Church as Christ’s first Vicar. Both positions are consistent with Scripture and found within tradition. However, his celibacy after Christ’s calling is not something a Catholic should ever deny because the Church Fathers are morally unanimous on this truth.
[3] Monks in the East take a vow of celibacy. Thus, nearly all bishops in the East are selected from amongst their ranks. This discipline and practice has been established for many centuries.