Pope Peter I of Alexandria

Pope Peter of Alexandria
Vision of Peter of Alexandria (Russian icon)
Hieromartyr
Born	3rd century Alexandria, Egypt
Died	25 November 311 Alexandria, Egypt
Venerated in	Oriental Orthodoxy, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism
Feast	25 November
Attributes	Vested as a bishop, holding a Gospel Book

Pope Peter I of Alexandria, 17th Pope of Alexandria & Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. He is revered as a saint by the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.

The Coptic Orthodox Church believes that Peter was given by his parents to His Holiness Theonas to be brought up as a priest, similarly to the story of Samuel in the Old Testament. He rose through the ranks of holy orders, first becoming a reader, then a deacon, then a priest. On his death bed, Theonas advised the church leaders to choose Peter as his successor, which they did.

Peter's time as bishop included severe persecution of Christianity from Roman Emperor Diocletian, which began in 303, and continued intermittently over the next ten years.

Accounts of Peter's position during the persecution vary, but one states that he was imprisoned for a time with bishop Meletius of Lycopolis and they fell into an argument over the treatment of Christians who had either offered pagan sacrifice or surrendered scriptures to the authorities to save their lives during the persecution. Peter urged leniency while Meletius held firmly that the lapsed had abandoned their faith and needed to be rebaptised. Their argument became heated, and was ended when Peter hung a curtain between him and Meletius. One of Meletius' followers was a priest named Arius (modern scholarship differs on whether this was the same Arius as became involved with the Arian controversy a few years later). According to Severus of Ashmumeen, Arius tried in vain to receive absolution from the Patriarch before Peter was executed, and before dying Peter issued a prophecy against Arius.