Saint Peter

Born Shimon bar Yonah around 1 BC, he worked as a fisherman with his brother Andrew before both became part of the Twelve Apostles. The gospels place him at the center of Jesus's inner circle, and the Gospel of Mark is thought to bear the stamp of his firsthand testimony. After the crucifixion, he emerged as one of the early Church's first leaders, mentioned prominently in Acts and in Paul's letters to the Corinthians and Galatians. Early Church historians—Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius—record that Peter spent his final years in Rome, where he and Paul founded the church and where Peter appoin…