Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/842

 PETER

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PETER

He was assigned by his bishop to the Island of FutviiiM, and landed in Nov., 1837. No Chri.stiiin niisKionaiv had ever .set foot there, and the didicult ics I'cter en- countered amidst tlio.se savage tribes were almost in- credible. Nevertheless, he was licjiinniiif; to see the results of his efforts, when Niuhiki, kinn and also pon- tiff of the island, already jealous of tin- profjress of the new rel)t;ion, was exasperated by the eoiiversion of his son and daushter. At his instigation, one of the min- isters gathered .some of the enemies of Christianity and Peter w;is cruelly assassinated without uttering a word of complaint. Through his death, the venerable martyr obtained what he had so ardently desired and earnestly worked for, the conversion of Futvuia. In 1842, two Marist missionaries resumed his work, and nowhere has the preaching of the Gospel produced more wonderful results. Peter was declared Venerable by Pius IX in 1857, and beatified by Leo XIII on 17 November, 18S9.

BouRDlN. Vie du Vt-n. Serviteur de Dieu Pierre- Marie-Louis Chanel (Lyons, 1867) ; Nicolet, Life of Blessed P. M. L. Chanel (Dublin, 1890): Quelques guerisons et grdces signaUes obtenues par I'intercession du Bienheureux P. M. L. Chanel (Lyons, 1891); Hervier, Les Missions Maristes en Oceanie (Paris." 1902); Life of the Yen. Fr. Colin, Founder and First Superior General of the Society of Mary (St. Louis, 1909). JoSEPH FrerI.

Peter Mong^s (aio776s, "stammerer", or "hoar.se"), intruded Monojihysite patriarch of Alexandria (d. 490). I'lidcr Tiniotliy Ailuros, who was made patriarch by the Egyptian Monophysites after Chalcedon (454- 460), Peter Mongus was an ardent adherent of that party. As Timothy's deacon he took part in the per- secution of the i\ielcliites. Timothy Ailuros was expelled from the put riarchal throne in 460 and the or- thodox Timothy Saldphakiulos was set up by the gov- ernment instead (•lt)U-75). In475 another revolution recalled Ailuros, who held his place till death (477). His party thereupon elected Peter Mongus to succeed him. TheEmjieror Zeno (474-91) sentenced Mongus to death; he escaped by flight, M ean while Salophakio- los returned and reigned till his death (4S1). TheMel- chites chose John Talaia to succeed (481-82: .see John T.\LAi.\). Peter Mongus, alwaj-s claiming to be patri- arch, now comes forward again. John had quarrelled with Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, and refused tosign Zenii's llenoticon (482; see Hexoth'iin); so he was expelled, the emperor changed his attitude, and supported Mongus (482). Talaia fled to Rome, Mongus took possession of the see, and sent notice of his suc- cession to Rome, Antioch, and Constantinople. He had signed the Henoticon and was therefore inserted in Acacius's diptychs as Patriarch of Alexandria. But the pope (Felix II or III, 483-92) defended Talaia's rights in two letters to Acacius.

From this time Mongus became the chief champion of all Monophysites. He held a synod to condemn Chalcedon, and desecrated the tombs of Proterios and Salophakiolos, his Melchite predecessors. He was excommunicated repeatedly by the pope. It was communion with Mongus and the acceptance of the Henotikon that caused the Acacian schism of Con- stantinople (484-519). When Acacius died and was succeeded by Flavitas (or Fravitas, 489-90) Mongus wrote to the new patriarch again condemning Chalce- don and encouraging him in his schism with Rome. He died in 490 and was succeeded by another Mono- phy.site, Athana.sius II (490-96). For a long time after his death the name of Peter Mongus was still a party word. To read it in the diptychs (of the dead) was a kind of profession of Monophysitism; the first condition of reunion with Rome and the Catholic world generally was to erase it, with that of Dioscurus and the other great champions of the heresy. In the line of .'Mexandrine patriarchs Mongus is counted as Peter III. He is said to have written many books, of which however nothing remains. A pretended cor- respomlence between him and Acacius (in Coptic) is proved to be spurious by Amelineau in the "M6-

moires publics par les membres de la mi.ssion anWo.

logi(]ue fran(,'aise au Cairo", 1\' iP:iii>, Isss), 190-228,

MiiimuH titkcs an important |>I i > in ml. In ii.r\ uf Mtmo-

pliv.sitism, !is EvAonms, Chnu,,. /■ ' m /'. (,„ XCII-

I.UIKUATIS. .Sfl_. also GUT8CHMir>, I. . ., '; , /- , I ■,ll runcllfn VOll

Altwandricn in Kleine Schriften, II ll.iiiv.ii;, l.s(UI). :iil.';~,''>25; Hefkle-Leclercq, Histoire des Conciles, II U'ariM. l!)es), 91(5-26; Neale, History of the Holy Eastern Church, II (l,,>nili)n, 1847),

21-24. Adrian Foutescue.

Peter Nolasco, Saint, b. at Mas-des-Saintes- Puelles, near Castelnaudary, France, in 1189 (or 1182); d. at Barcelona, on Christmas Day, 1256 (or 1259). He was of a noble family and from his youUi was noted for his piety, almsgiving, and charity. Having given all his possessions to the jioor, he took a vow of virginity and, to avoid communication with the Albigenses, went to Barcelona.

At that time the Moors were masters of a great part of the Iberian peninsula, and many Christians were detained there and cruelly jjersecuted on account of the Faith. Peter ransomed many of these and in doing so consumed all his patrimony. After mature deliberation, moved also by a heavenly vision, he

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St, Pf.ter Kolasco and St. Raymond of rFN\For(r Francisco Zurbaran, Louvre resolved to found a religious order (1218), similar to that established a few years before by St. John de Matha and St. Felix de Valois, whose chief object would be the redemption of Christian slaves. In this he was encouraged by St. Raymond Penafort and James I, King of Aragon, who, it seems, had Ix'cn favoured with the same inspiration. The institute was called Mercedarians (q. v.) and was solemnly ap- proved by Gregory IX, in 1230. Its members were bound by a special vow to employ all their substance for the redemption of captive Christians, and if nec- essary, to remain in captivity in their stead. At first most of these religious were laymen as was Peter himself. But Clement V decreed that the master gener.al of the order should always be a priest. His feast is celebrated on the thirty-first of January.

Acta SS.: de Vargas, Chronica sancti et militnris nrdinis B, M. de Mercede (Palermo, 1619); Gari y Siumei.i,. Hihliolheca Mrrcedaria (Barcelona, 1875); Mabin, Ilistoire de Vfglise (Paris, 1!I09). A. AlXARIA.

Peter of Alc3,ntara, Saint, b. at Alc;lntara, Spain, 1499; d. 18 Oct., 1562. His father, Peter Gara- vita, was the governor of the place, and his mother ^ w;is of the noble family of Sanabia. After a course of ' grammar and philosophy in his native town, he was