Peter I of Alexandria

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Saint

Pope Peter of Alexandria
Seal of the Martyrs
Vision of Peter of Alexandria (Russian icon)
ChurchChurch of Alexandria
ArchdioceseAlexandria
SeeAlexandria
PredecessorTheonas of Alexandria
SuccessorAchillas of Alexandira
Personal details
Born3rd century
Died25 November 311
Alexandria, Egypt
Sainthood
Feast day
  • 25 November
  • 29 Hathor (Coptic church)
Venerated in
Vested as a bishop, holding a Gospel Book

Pope Peter I of Alexandria (

Coptic Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Catholic Church.[2]

Life

Peter was born and raised in Alexandria. The Coptic Orthodox Church believes that Peter was given by his parents to

Samuel in the Old Testament. He rose through the ranks of holy orders, first becoming a reader, then a deacon, then a priest. Highly educated, Peter became head of the school of Alexandria.[3]

In early 300, while on his death bed, Theonas advised the church leaders to choose Peter as his successor, which they did. Peter's time as bishop included the Diocletianic Persecution, which began in 303, and continued intermittently over the next ten years. Forced into exile from the city during the anti-Christian persecutions, Peter traveled through many lands, encouraging his flock by letter, before returning to his city to guide the Alexandrian Church personally during this period. He secretly visited those imprisoned, assisted widows and orphans, and conducted clandestine services.[3]

Accounts of Peter's position during the persecution vary,

Severus of Ashmumeen, Arius tried in vain to receive absolution from the Patriarch before Peter was executed, and before dying Peter anathematized Arius as a heretic and excommunicated him.[3]

The execution of the patriarch Peter of Alexandria under the emperor Maximinus Daia, depicted in the Menologion of Basil II, an illuminated manuscript prepared for the emperor Basil II in c. 1000.

Martyrdom

The tenth-century historian

Severus of Ashmumeen gives us an account of how during the Diocletianic Persecution
the Patriarch was seized and thrown in prison. When the emperor was informed about this, he ordered Peter to be beheaded. This was hindered by a large number of Christians who gathered at the prison willing to die for their Patriarch. The soldiers delayed the execution because they neither wanted to massacre the crowd nor create a riot.

The Patriarch, fearing for the life of his people, advised the soldiers with a plan to smuggle him out of jail by breaking a hole in a certain wall which he would point out. He could then be smuggled out and receive his sentence.

Severus of Ashmumeen describes the moment when the Patriarch was martyred:

And he took off his

Hatur.[6]

Hatur is a month in the

AD
 311.

Feast day

Traditionally, in

).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "البابا بطرس الأول خاتم الشهداء - البطريرك رقم 17 | St-Takla.org". st-takla.org. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  2. ^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "St. Peter of Alexandria" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^ a b c Dumitraşcu, Iulian. "Hieromartyr Clement, pope of Rome; Hieromartyr Peter, archbishop of Alexandria", Basilica.Ro., November 24, 2017
  4. ^ Philip Schaff's History of the Christian Church provides several differing sources on the subject. Volume II: Ante-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 100-325.
  5. ^ Rubenstein, Richard E. (1999). When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome, Harcourt. The text links the current suggestions of only one Arius being involved, rather than two people of that name, to the work of W. H. C. Frend in Rise of Christianity, p. 493; see p. 245.
  6. ^ a b Severus of Al'Ashmunein (Hermopolis). "History of the Patriarchs of the Coptic church of Alexandria, Part 2, Chap. 6: Peter I, the seventeenth patriarch (300-311)". Patrologia Orientalis (1904). 1: 383–518 (pp.119–256 of text). Retrieved 2007-12-08.

References

  • "Petros I (300–311)". Official web site of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa. Retrieved 2011-02-08.

External links

Titles of the Great Christian Church
Preceded by Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria
300—311
Succeeded by