Saint Peter of Alexandria
- Memorial
- 26 November
- Profile
- Suffered in the persecution of Decius, but survived.
Reknowned for his knowledge of science and the Bible.
Head of the catechetical school at Alexandria, Egypt.
Bishop of Alexandria in 300.
Opposed extreme Origenism.
May have been the first to deal with the Arian heresy.
During the Diocletian persecution Peter fled the area with many of his flock.
Criticized by many for being lenient and forgiving to Christians who had renounced their faith during the persecutions.
However, the Meletian schism, when a rogue bishop usurped Peter's position, broke out in his own clergy, and he had to return and deal with it from hiding.
Peter excommunicated Meletius and convened a synod of bishops to condemn the schism.
His writings were used in the Council of Ephesus and the Council of Chalcedon.
Martyred with Dio, Ammonius, and Faustus, three of his priests, in the persecutions of Gaius Valerius Galerius Maximinus.
The last Christian martyred in Alexandria by civil authorities, the Coptic Church calls him 'the seal and complement of the martyrs".
- Born
- at Alexandria, Egypt
- Died
- martyred in 311 at Alexandria, Egypt;
initially buried in an Alexandria martyr's cemetery;
most relics later enshrined in a church at Grasse, France
- Canonized
- Pre-Congregation
- Representation
-
embracing his executioner;
with Christ appearing to him as a child in rags (from a scene in the Acts of the Martyrdom of Saint Peter)
- Additional Information
-
Open Directory Project
Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban Butler
Pictorial Lives of the Saints
Catholic Encyclopedia, by F J Bacchus
For All the Saints, by Katherine Rabenstein
Saint George Coptic Orthodox Church
New Catholic Dictionary
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