the holy martyr and archpriest
St. Peter was the 17th patriarch of Alexandria according to the bishop lists. He succeeded Theonas around 300. In the time of persecutions under Emperor Diocletian, he fled around 306; he was mild towards those who had fallen away from the faith under this affliction, therefore there was a split in the Alexandrian Church and a counter-patriarch: Melitius of Lycopolis – modern Asyut; he was deposed in 306/307 by a synod in Alexandria. After Emperor Galierus issued the Edict of Toleration in 311, which ended the persecution of Christians and declared Christianity a permitted religion, St. Peter returned to his office. Shortly thereafter, he died in the persecutions under Galierus’ successor Maximinus Daia, being killed in the suburb of Baukalis – the same place as Mark.
St. Peter composed writings On the Deity of Christ, On the Passover/Easter , in addition On the Soul and On the Resurrection, which oppose Origines’ teachings on the preexistence of the soul and the resurrection of the body, according to which the Logos changes the body into new forms. These writings are preserved only fragmentarily in quotations. St. Peter is considered the first bishop to give Mary the epithet Eparthenos – perpetual virgin, writing: Jesus Christ was born after the body of Mary (our glorious Lady, Mother of God [Theotokos], the perpetual virgin [Eparthenos].
Along with St. Peter, Bishop Hesychius and Bishops Pachomius and Theodore, who worked in Egypt, are venerated, as well as many others who died as martyrs in the years from 305 to 311.
The martyr records of the trials against St. Peter were made much later, they are legendary. St. Peter is considered in the Coptic Church as the last victim of the persecutions and therefore called Seal of the Martyrs.
The writings of St. Peter can be read online in English in the Documenta Catholica Omnia.