Today the Church honors Pope St. Peter I of Alexandria, Martyr.
Ora pro nobis.
St. Peter was born and raised at Alexandria. He was a highly educated man, and was eventually the head of the famed Catechetical School of Alexandria. In the year AD 300, he became the 17th Pope of the Alexandrian Church, succeeding his teacher and spiritual guide, the holy Pope Theonas.
Forced into exile from the city during the anti-Christian persecutions under the emperors Diocletian and Maximian, Saint Peter traveled through many lands, encouraging his flock by letter. St. Peter returned to his city, in order to guide the Alexandrian Church personally during this dangerous period. The saint secretly visited Christians locked up in prison, encouraging them to be steadfast in faith, assisting the widows and orphans, preaching the Word of God, constantly praying and officiating at the divine services. And the Lord kept him safe from the hands of the persecutors.
During this time of unrest, the heretic Arius, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, began to spread his false teaching. When Arius refused to be corrected and submit to the truth, Saint Peter anathematized the heretic and excommunicated him from the Church. Arius then sent two of Saint Peter’s priests to beg the saint to lift the excommunication from him, pretending that he had repented and given up his false teachings. This was not true, for Arius hoped to succeed Saint Peter as Archbishop of Alexandria. Saint Peter, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, saw through the deceit of Arius, and so he instructed his flock not to believe Arius nor to accept him into communion.
Under the wise nurturing of Saint Peter the Church of Alexandria strengthened and grew in spite of the persecutions. But finally, on orders from the emperor Maximian (AD 305-311), the saint was arrested and sentenced to death. A multitude of people gathered at the entrance of the prison, expressing their outrage. Wanting to avoid bloodshed and a riot by the people, the saint sent a message to the authorities, in which he suggested that they make an opening in the back wall of the prison, so that he might be taken away secretly to execution.
In the dark of the night Saint Peter went with the executioners, who took him beyond the city walls and beheaded him at the same spot where formerly Saint Mark had been executed. This took place in the year AD 311. In the morning, when people learned of the death of their beloved Pope, a crowd gathered at the place of execution. They took up the body and head of the martyr and went to the church, dressing him in his bishop’s vestments, and laid his body to rest.
Saint Peter, a great champion of Orthodoxy, is known also as a profound theologian. Passages from his book, “On the Divinity (of Jesus Christ)”, were consulted at the Councils of Ephesus (AD 431) and Chalcedon (AD 451). Of all his works, the most widely known and highly esteemed by the Church are his “Penitential Canons”.
Almighty God, by whose grace and power your holy martyr Peter triumphed over suffering and was faithful even to death: Grant us, who now remember him in thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to you in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; and may your Church always have faithful and wise pastors to guide it in the true Faith; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen.
