Peter of Alexandria

Peter became bishop of Alexandria in 300, three years before the Great Persecution began. Eusebius calls him a divine example of a bishop, both for his good conduct and for his knowledge of the Scriptures.

When Diocletian's edicts landed in Egypt they landed hard. Egypt produced more martyrs than any other province, Eusebius, who saw some of it, describes executions running until the axes were blunt and the executioners had to be relieved in shifts. Peter went into hiding and directed the church from concealment, as Cyprian had done in Carthage fifty years before, and was criticized for it as Cyprian had been.

What he did afterward is what he is remembered for. When the pressure eased in 306, the church was full of people who had broken, some who had sacrificed at once, some who had held out under torture for days and then given way, some who had sent slaves to sacrifice in their place, some who had bribed officials for a certificate they never earned. Peter wrote a Canonical Letter of fourteen rules deciding what to do with each case.

The letter is remarkable for its calibration. It does not treat all failure as one sin. A man who endured months of torture and finally broke is not put in the same class as a man who ran to the temple on the first day. The penances are measured in years and graded by circumstance, and there is provision throughout for what the person actually suffered. It reads like a document written by someone who had watched the torture chambers and knew what the human body will do.

Not everyone wanted it that mild. Melitius, bishop of Lycopolis, held out for rigor, and while Peter was in hiding began ordaining clergy in other men's dioceses. The Melitian schism that followed outlived both of them and was still being negotiated at the Council of Nicaea in 325. Tradition also credits Peter with excommunicating Arius, then a presbyter in Alexandria.

In November 311 the emperor Maximinus renewed the persecution. Peter was seized and beheaded, without a hearing, without the formality of a trial, the sources say, on the emperor's direct order. The date given is 25 November 311.

The Egyptian church called him the seal and complement of the martyrs, because he was the last bishop of Alexandria to die at Roman hands. Two years later the edict of toleration went out.

Sources: Eusebius, Church History VII.32, VIII.13, IX.6; Peter of Alexandria, The Canonical Epistle (Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. 6); the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia, article St. Peter of Alexandria.