BISHOP PETER OF ALEXANDRIA

Peter was the seventeenth bishop of Alexandria, starting with the Apostle Mark, whose successors are historically the Alexandrian primates. Before the IV Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451), Alexandria was the leading see in the entire Orthodox East, and in terms of the number of believers and the strength of theological knowledge it was the most important in all of Christianity.

According to his life, before his election as a bishop, Peter was a theologian and catechist, and in 295–300 he headed the Alexandrian school of theology. The author of several theological treatises, of which only fragments have reached us, Peter also left behind a special message about the “Repentance” of those who fell during persecution, which, in the form of 14 rules, was included in the ancient canonical collections that still guide world Orthodoxy. It is to him that we owe the practice of fasting on Wednesday and Friday; the necessity is stated in the 15th canonical Rule of Peter of Alexandria.

In his “Ecclesiastical History”, Eusebius of Caesarea calls Peter “a model of virtuous life for bishops and a deep knowledge of the Scriptures” (9:6,2). In addition to praising Peter, these words mean that even in that heroic time of the martyrs for the Church, not all bishops were virtuous and knew the word of God.

According to the life, during the Great Persecution of Christians begun by Diocletian, in 306 Peter chose to hide and wandered for several years. His absence gave rise to a schism in the Church, which was headed by Bishop Melitius of Lycopolis (+327). Believing that the end of history was approaching and reproaching the Christians who had fallen during persecution, the latter, together with 28 other bishops, formed the “Church of the Martyrs” in Egypt. According to one version, it was Melitius who at one time ordained Arius as a priest, who later revealed himself as a convinced heresiarch.

Despite the fact that the Ecumenical Council in Nicaea in 325 reconciled Melitius and his supporters with the Church, the latter soon joined the Arians and continued to exist in schism for several more centuries. This example shows how difficult the times of persecution were for the Church and indicates that severity and uncompromisingness in church affairs often went hand in hand with error.

Tradition says that Peter was the first of the theologians of that time who drew attention to the fact that Arius, then still a priest respected by everyone, preached heresy. An important example here is how the lives of saints can serve as an excellent living aid in the study of the history of the Church.

When the emperor Galerius (293–311) stopped the persecution in 311, Peter was able to return to his flock. However, Maximin (305–313) soon resumed the pursuit. Peter was captured and, as Eusebius writes, “beheaded without the slightest delay” in the city district of Baukalis, in the place where the Apostle Mark himself was once killed by the pagans.

The tradition of the Alexandrian Church calls Peter the “seal of the martyrs” because with his death in Egypt the pagan persecution of Christians ceased. It is obvious that Christians of that time believed that persecution for their faith would never resume.