Who he was
- His father (Theodosius) was a priest in Alexandria, and his mother (Sofia) was a pious Christian. She had a vision of St. Peter and St. Paul, on their feast day, promising her a son. On the same day the following year, she gave birth to Peter.
- He grew very close to the Church and was ordained priest at the age of 16; then was selected to become the dean of the School of Alexandria.
- He succeeded Theonas as Pope of Alexandria.
- Eusebius speaks in terms of the highest praise of St. Peter. He refers to him as a divine bishop, both for the sanctity of his life, and also for his diligent study and knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. He also styles him as “that excellent doctor of the Christian religion,” who, indeed, during the whole period of his episcopate, which he held for 12 years, obtained for himself the highest renown.
- He faced persecution as well as heresies and divisions within the Church.
- He had a dispute with Meletius, Bishop of Asyut, who
took a hard-line with repenting Christians who denied the faith, as well as ordaining priests outside his jurisdiction.
- He governed the Church about three years before persecution broke out under Maximin.
- In the ninth year of the persecution (311) he offered himself to martyrdom in secret to spare his people who gathered at the jail from saving him. When offering a prayer requesting the persecution to end, a voice came from heaven and was heard by a saintly virgin who was standing nearby; it said, “Amen. May it be according to your wishes.” After completing his prayer he was beheaded.
- In a fragment of his work on the Paschal Festival St. Peter says it is usual to fast on Wednesday, because of the Jews “taking counsel for the betrayal of the Lord;” and on Friday “because He then suffered for our sake.” “for”, he adds, “we keep the Lord’s day as a day of gladness, because on it He rose again.”
What he wrote
1. Letters
- The Paschal Epistle: St. Peter’s chief work known as the “Canonical Epistle,” contains fourteen penitential canons governing the future of the lapsed. It was written in 306.
- Another Paschal Letter.
- A Letter Concerning Melitius: St. Peter addressed it to his clergy, rebuking Melitius for invading his diocese and performing illegal ordinations.
- A Letter Concerning Persecution and the Celebration of the Eucharist.
- A Letter Written During Persecution.
- A Letter to Diocletian.
- A Letter to Bishop Apollonius of Lycopolis.
- A Letter During Persecution Concerning Heretics.
- A Letter About a Visit to Oxyrhynchus. 2. Homilies
- The Teaching“Didaskalia”.
- A Homily on Riches.
- On the Epiphany. 3. Theological Works
- On The Godhead: The Acts of the Council of Ephesus (431) contain three quotations from this work. It is a defense of the true divinity of Christ and is against Subordinationism.
- On the Advent of Our Savior: He wrote, “All the signs which He showed, and His miracles, prove that He is God made man.”
- On the Soul: Opposing Origen’s views on the pre-existence of souls and reincarnation - On the Resurrection Body: Against Origen’s doctrines. 4. Miscellaneous Fragments
- In Fragment VII from the Writings of St. Peter, he wrote: Wretch that I am! I have not remembered that God observes the mind, and hears the voice of the soul. I turned consciously to sin, saying to myself, God is merciful, and will bear with me; and when I was not instantly smitten, I ceased not, but rather despised His forbearance, and exhausted the long-suffering of God. 27
- The acts of The Martyrdom of St. Peter is extant in Coptic, Greek,Latin and Syriac versions.