Orthodox Christians celebrate the two big apostles Peter and Paul

On Saturday, July 11, the fast of the Saint Apostles Peter and Paul ends, and on Sunday, July 12, the Orthodox Christians using the Julian calendar will celebrate the two saints, Info-Prim Neo reports. The Church decided to commemorate them on the same day because they were killed as martyrs by the order of Roman emperor Nero. They cut St. Paul's head with a sword, while St. Peter was crucified. He insisted to be crucified his head downwards, to avoid the resemblance with the crucification of Christ. Apostle Peter followed Jesus leaving his fishing nets and family. “Come, follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” the Savior told Peter and his brother Andrew. (Mt 4,19). Saint Paul was a fanatic pharisee persecuting the first Christians. On his way to Damascus he was blinded by strong light and heard a voice asking him “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” Then he started to preach the new religion of the Christians. Holy Apostles Peter and Paul are especially honored by the Church, being called “heads of the apostles” and “teachers of the world”. They contributed to spread the Gospel word in many parts of the world. The New Testament contains 14 epistles written by St. Paul and 2 by St. Peter, through which they contributed to the foundation of the concepts of the religion with most of adherents on the Globe. Now about 2.1 billion people declare themselves Christians, that is one third of the world's population.