Simon, Do You Love Me?
A Monolgue by Roberto Benigni - This is our tribute to Roberto Benigni’s masterpiece on Saint Peter.
We have taken his live Italian television performance and transformed it into this English text. It was a labor of love: we transcribed and translated every line, doing our absolute best to capture the unmistakable "Benigni style"—his passion, his wit, and his heart—making his voice accessible to an English-speaking audience.
Benigni: Good evening, good evening everyone! Greetings to all of you and thank you, thank you for this applause. It is a beautiful thing, alright, thank you!
I greet each and every one of you, one by one. I embrace you with all my affection, I give you all my happiness, and I ask you to accept, to let yourselves be truly overwhelmed by the flood of my gratitude for being here. Thank you, really.
Look, you are about to witness one of the most beautiful things there can be. Believe me, beautiful!
You might say: «Roberto, are you just telling yourself that?» No, I know, I realize it, but I can’t help it. I have to tell you because this story of Peter is just so beautiful.
I thought about how Peter is Jesus' best friend, his dearest friend. Do you remember at school, in middle school, when they gave us that essay topic: Your Best Friend? Well, if Jesus had gone to middle school, he would have written: «My best friend is Peter.»
And now he has become my best friend too, because I’ve fallen in love with him. In love with Peter? Yes, because he is truly beautiful.
Aside from the fact that everything is beautiful tonight: the evening, the location... Do you see it? Do you know where we are? We are here as if it were nothing, but we are in a unique place in the world, where no one has ever been to perform a show. Usually, only the Popes are here. Here where we are, we are right in the "Secret Gardens." They are called that because only the Popes can come here to walk. Half an hour ago, Leo was probably here... the fourteenth Pope Leo, picking flowers. Most likely he comes here every day to water, to arrange the flowers.
And look at St. Peter's Basilica. You say: «I've already seen it.» No! As you see it from here, you have never seen it. This is The Dark Side of the Moon. Here we are on the dark side of the Basilica, the hidden side. What you see now from this angle, no one has ever seen, only the Popes. So tonight, we will also see the dark side of Peter: Peter the Saint, the man. We will see him as no one has ever seen him; we will see his hidden side too. You will be astonished, I am sure of it.
Jokes aside, it was truly beautiful to retrace the entire life of Saint Peter, to sit there and reread all the Gospels. What an emotion! The Gospel, guys! You can take any sacred text, profane text, theology, wisdom, any book in the world... but when you get to the Gospel, you have to stop. There is no discussion. Because when you read the Gospel, something incredible, beautiful, extraordinary happens: after reading it, you no longer look at people with distraction, but as chests containing a mystery, depositaries of an immense destiny.
Reading the Gospel, you even start to think—listen to this—you start to think that life has a meaning. Can you believe it? Life! This is what the Gospel tells us: that we are alive. It makes us feel the ever-present miracle of existing, the stupefaction of this fact, this "grandiose joke" of being in the world. And not only that: it tells us that the facts of the world are not the end of the matter, that life does not end here, that there is life beyond life. Incredible.
Then I, who love life... look, I love life so much that I am sure that even when I’m dead, I will always remember when I was alive! I don’t like dying at all. In fact, I’ll tell you right here: dying will be the last thing I do, I promise you!
Okay, now you’ll say: «But Benigni, why are you talking about death?» You’re right. But I say: if each of us doesn't think for a moment about destiny, existence, eternity, the afterlife... well, what kind of life is that? And tonight, we are dealing with precisely these things. And we are doing it by talking about Peter. Not the Basilica, but Peter the Saint. Actually, not even that: Peter the Man. The man of flesh and bone. The fisherman, the Apostle. Him.
And speaking of bones... did you know that Peter is here with us tonight? I mean right here! I don’t mean in spirit. It’s not that Peter is here "in our hearts." No, he is physically here, materially, right here under the foundations of the Basilica.
Here lies Jesus' friend, the one Jesus chose, the first of them all, the one to whom he said: «To you, I entrust my community.» My followers, we would say today.
Under St. Peter's Basilica is Peter's tomb. And in the tomb, there are his remains. They are down there, in a marvelous necropolis ancient by two thousand years. So you see, it’s not a figure of speech: Peter is truly the foundation of the Church, in the sense that the Basilica stands right on top of him, it is founded on Peter's bones. That is why they built the basilica over him—first Constantine’s basilica, the Roman emperor, and then Michelangelo’s in the 1500s: because they knew the tomb was there.
We, however, have known this with certainty only for a short time. Until eighty years ago, it was still a mystery. All traces of the tomb had been lost, lost in the succession of centuries. It was known to be there, but where?
By doing research, digging in the necropolis, a tomb was discovered that was thought to be Peter's. They hypothesized. But a hypothesis isn't enough. What can you do with a hypothesis? Nothing.
So the Pope at the time, Paul VI, was worried. He said: «What do we do? Do we close everything up? And then what do we say? That maybe we found it?» No, that won't do. So they asked for help, and someone suggested turning to a woman, an archaeologist: Margherita Guarducci.
«Margherita Who?», asked the Pope.
«Guarducci, Your Holiness. The good one, the expert in ancient inscriptions.»
I tell you her name because few people know it, and it is an injustice, because this woman gave us one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of all time. Margherita Guarducci went down into the necropolis and began to investigate. She searched, observed, and studied for years. Until, incredibly, she managed to put together all the clues. She even found a piece of graffiti, a writing on a wall next to the tomb, where someone two thousand years ago had etched in Greek: Petros Eni. Which means: «Peter is here.»
Incredible! Basically a label, a street sign. The only thing missing was an arrow. Who wrote it? We will never know. Certainly a pilgrim, a devotee, one of the first Christians who gathered down here in secret, because under the wrong emperor, they could kill you.
Today, if someone writes on a wall, they are a vandal. But from that graffiti came St. Peter's Basilica, the whole Vatican, the Sistine Chapel.
And that’s not all. Guarducci made an even more incredible discovery: she found a small pile of bones that a worker had put away in a box that looked like a shoebox. She examined the bones, had them analyzed, and discovered that they were Peter's bones. She managed to prove it! They were in a shoebox.
Today those bones are back in the tomb. I wanted to bring them here to show you, I asked: «Can you give them to me? I wanted to say 'Ladies and Gentlemen, Peter!'» But they told me: «No, Benigni, now you're exaggerating, behave yourself.» Oh well, Peter is here in Rome anyway, that’s for sure.
Now, though, I ask: what was Peter doing in Rome? He wasn't Roman. Peter was a Jewish fisherman, he came from Galilee, one of the poorest provinces of the Empire.
It is a huge thing. One reads history and says: «Peter goes to Rome,» as if it were nothing. Instead, it is insane! He didn't come for business or to look for a job. Peter came to Rome for an impossible mission: to conquer the Roman Empire. Alone. And not with weapons, but with an idea, the strangest one ever heard: the idea of a God who became man, the lowest of men, who died on a cross to teach us to love.
And with this idea, Peter wants to convince the masters of the world. Is he crazy? Yes, with a particular madness that we call faith. Peter was infected by an absolute faith in that Jesus of Nazareth.
Just think, he didn't even know Latin! He spoke Aramaic and a little Greek for work. It would be as if today a plumber went to New York without knowing English to convince Americans that he met God in person, that God was his carpenter friend who was sentenced to death, and with this argument, he wanted to conquer America.
With one difference: in New York, they put you in an asylum; in Rome, they killed you. Peter was taking a total shot in the dark.
What must a man have heard, what must he have seen to let himself be swept away like that? To leave everything—family, work, home—to throw himself into such a crazy adventure? Where does a wind come from capable of blowing so hard?
The story begins in Capernaum, on the Sea of Galilee. Peter (who is actually named Simon, son of Jonah) is washing his nets. He is almost thirty years old, just like Jesus. They were kids! They often paint him as old, but this is a story of young men.
Simon is tired, he hasn't caught anything. Suddenly he sees his brother Andrew running like a madman: «Simon! Someone has arrived! John the Baptist said he is the Messiah! A carpenter from Nazareth!»
The Messiah, for the Jews, was supposed to be a commander, a general who liberates the people with a sword. And Andrew tells him that the greatest general of all time has arrived... and he is a carpenter. Simon is skeptical, but he follows him. They run to the Jordan River where John the Baptist is.
That day the Baptist, seeing Jesus, had knelt down saying: «I am not worthy to untie your sandals.» A sensational thing, as if today the Pope, during mass at St. Peter's, knelt down in front of a stranger saying: «Here is the Son of God.»
Jesus looks at Simon. He looks straight at him. And he says: «You are Simon, son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas (Peter).»
In one line, He tells him who he was, who he is, and who he will be. He changes his name, and Peter is struck by lightning. It is like love at first sight. The most important things in life are neither learned nor taught: they are encountered.
Some time later, Jesus preaches from Peter's boat. Finished the speech, He tells him: «Put out into deep water and let down the nets.»
Peter replies: «Master, we have worked hard all night and haven't caught anything.» As if to say: «I’ve been a fisherman forever, you don't fish during the day.» But then he adds: «But at your word I will let down the nets.»
And the incredible happens: they catch such a quantity of fish that the nets begin to break. Peter, stunned, falls to his knees: «Lord, depart from me, for I am a sinful man.» He realized he was in front of something mysterious. And Jesus: «Follow me, I will make you a fisher of men.»
And they leave everything.
They went to Peter's house. Here the first miracle of healing takes place: Peter's mother-in-law! Jesus heals her from a fever. One would expect Peter to say: «No, leave it be... let her stay in bed.» Instead, He heals her.
By the way, Peter in the early days is funny, full of gaffes. He can't get one thing right!
In the episode of the storm, he sees Jesus walking on the water. Everyone is terrified: «A ghost!» But Peter, like a kid at a carnival, says: «Lord, if it's you, let me come onto the water too!» Jesus says: «Come!»
Peter steps down, takes two steps, then gets scared and sinks: «Lord, save me!» And Jesus catches him: «O you of little faith, why did you doubt?»
Peter is just like us. Faith at the beginning is full of doubts. He who has no doubts has no faith.
Another time, on Mount Tabor, during the Transfiguration, he sees Jesus shining with light together with Moses and Elijah. And what does Peter do? Does he fall to his knees? No! He proposes setting up three tents! He worries about logistics: «Let's make three tents, it's nice here!» The Gospel says: «He did not know what he was saying.»
And in the Garden of Olives? Jesus is suffering, sweating blood, and asks Peter to stay awake. And Peter? He falls asleep! Jesus returns and finds him sleeping.
When the guards arrive to arrest Jesus, Peter pulls out a sword and cuts off a servant's ear. Jesus has to tell him: «Put your sword back in its sheath!» He can't do anything right.
And finally, the denial. Three times he says: «I don't know him!»
There is a historical theory called the "criterion of embarrassment": if the Evangelists wrote about these embarrassments of Peter, the head of the Church, it is because they really happened. If they had invented the story, they would have made him look like a hero. Instead, they tell the truth. Peter is impulsive, he makes mistakes, he cries, just like us.
And yet, despite the blunders, Peter never gives up. Jesus sees something in him.
The moment of investiture arrives at Caesarea Philippi. Jesus asks: «Who do you say I am?» And Peter answers instinctively: «You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.»
Jesus then tells him: «You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.»
The keys! Imagine the trust. To whom would you give the keys to your house forever? Jesus gives them to Peter, to the one who always makes mistakes.
But then in Jerusalem things change. The hatred of the priests grows because Jesus is a revolution. He overturns the merchants' tables in the Temple. He says that the last shall be first. And above all, He brings a new idea: Love.
Jesus invents love as we understand it today. Before, it didn't exist. He says: «Love your enemy.» It is the highest phrase of human thought. Not guillotines, but love.
This idea changes the world. It erases distinctions: slave and master, man and woman, are all equal.
On the night of the Passion, Peter hits rock bottom. He denies Jesus three times. And just as the rooster crows, Jesus passes by and looks at him. Luke only says that «the Lord turned and looked at Peter.»
Imagine that look. Peter bursts into tears. A weeping that will last a lifetime. Bach composed music on this weeping (Erbarme dich), so beautiful that it makes us cry too.
I confess one thing to you: I would have done the same as Peter. I would have been afraid. I understand him. He is confused, disheartened.
After Jesus' death, Peter seems to have disappeared. He is not under the cross. But the story does not end here.
The risen Jesus appears again on the lake. There is that wonderful scene of the miraculous catch (again!) and lunch on the shore. And there is the sweetest and most terrible dialogue in history.
Jesus asks: «Simon, do you love me?»
Peter replies: «Lord, you know that I love you.»
Three times.
Look, in the Greek text there is a huge difference. Jesus asks Agapas me? (Do you love me with total, divine love?). Peter answers Philo se (I love you like a friend, I have affection for you).
Peter does not dare say "I love you" in that total sense, because that "Love" is an abyss, it is for always. Peter is honest, he knows he betrayed him, he offers his poor human affection.
And the third time, Jesus comes down to Peter's level and asks him: «Do you love me as a friend?» He accepts that affection. And he entrusts his sheep to him.
That wind that took him in Galilee now pushes him to Rome.
Peter arrives in the capital of the world, a chaotic metropolis, full of people, noise, smells, vices, and grandeur. And here he leaves his mark everywhere.
But Christians begin to be feared. Nero blames them for the fire of 64 AD. Atrocious persecutions begin in the Vatican Gardens, right here where we are.
Peter is arrested and locked in the Mamertine Prison. There he converts his jailers, Processus and Martinian (who will become saints). They let him escape to save him.
Peter flees on the Appian Way. And here the final encounter takes place.
He sees a man coming towards him with a cross. It is Jesus.
«Domine, quo vadis?» (Lord, where are you going?).
«I am going to Rome to be crucified again.»
Peter understands. He understands everything. He understands that the force that has pushed him all his life is Love. He understands that Jesus is with him.
He turns back. He gets arrested. He is crucified here, on the Vatican Hill. But he asks to be crucified upside down, because he does not feel worthy to die like his Master.
And I ask myself: what was the last thought of that fisherman, while he was dying upside down, far from his Galilee?
I believe it was still that question: «Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?»
And the answer, finally, was: «Yes, Lord. Now I love you.»
Thank you!
This monolugue has been translated from its original source solely for educational and informational purposes, intending to facilitate understanding and foster knowledge sharing.
Please note that the translator or distributor makes no claims of authorship or intellectual property ownership of this version. All intellectual property rights, including copyright, remain with the original authors and publishers. The original rights holders strictly prohibit any reproduction, redistribution, or adaptation of this material for purposes beyond its intended educational use.
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