Page:Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature (1911).djvu/856

 bp. of Jerusalem, by whom, in defiance of the canonical rights of the old metropolitan chair of Caesarea, the new see was created, and Peter appointed its first bishop (Vit. S. Euthym. c. 39; Cotel. p. 231). Tillemont gives reasons for placing this event before 428 (Mém. eccl. xv. 196). Peter attended the council of Ephesus in 431. His name appears among those subscribing the deposition of Nestorius and the decrees of the council (Labbe, iii. 541, 692). Peter's death must be placed before 451, when his second successor John attended the council of Chalcedon, his immediate successor Auxolaus, a Eutychian, having had a very brief episcopate Le Quien, ''Or. Christ.'' iii. 767; Tillem. ''Mém. eccl.'' xiv. 378, 392, 432, 451; xv. 196 203.

[E.V.]

Petrus (41), bp. of Sebaste, the youngest brother of Basil the Great and Gregory Nyssen, and the last of the ten children of Basil the elder and Emmelia. His father died almost immediately after his birth, which must be placed before 349 (Greg. Nys. de Vit. S. Macr. ii. 185). His sister Macrina, more than 20 years his senior, adopted her infant brother as her special charge, proving herself, in Gregory Nyssen's words; "not only his sister, but his father, mother, tutor, and warder" (παιδαγωγός). When Macrina and her mother retired to their religious retreat on the banks of the Iris, Peter accompanied them, where, according to his brother, he proved all in all to them, working with them towards the angelical life. He shared the high physical and mental endowments of the family. His acquirements were very varied, and he had a natural gift for handicrafts, in which, without any direct instruction, he excelled as much as in intellectual pursuits (ib. 186). He assisted by manual labour to support his mother and sister, and the large crowds attracted in time of scarcity by their reputation for charity. For some years his brother Basil was his near neighbour on the other side of the Iris, where he had established a monastery for male ascetics, in the presidency of which Peter succeeded him when in 365 he was finally recalled to Caesarea by bp. Eusebius. He was ordained presbyter by Basil, c. 370 (ib. 187). He was present with Macrina at their mother's death-bed, 373, and was offered by her as her tenth to God (ib. 186). He continued to reside in his monastery till after Basil and Macrina died in 379. In 380 he was ordained bishop, probably of Sebaste in Lesser Armenia, on the death or deposition of Eustathius. That Peter was bp. of Sebaste is accepted without question by Tillemont (Mém. eccl. ix. 574). Nicephorus, however, a somewhat untrustworthy authority, is the first writer who names his see (H. E. xi. 19). Theodoret (H. E. v. 8) and Suidas (sub voc. Βασίλειος, i. 539) simply style him a bishop, without naming his diocese. He took part in the council of Constantinople, 381 (Theod. u.s.). Olympias, the deaconess, the friend of Chrysostom, entrusted large funds to him for distribution to the poor (Pallad. p. 166). Tillemont places his death between 391 and 394. The genius of Peter seems to have been rather practical than literary. Rufinus, instituting a comparison between the three brothers, says that the two younger combined equalled Basil; Gregory in word and doctrine, and Peter in the works of faith (Rufin. ii. 9). Theodoret remarks that, though Peter had not received such a training in classical literature as his brothers, τῆς θύραθεν παιδείας οὐ μετειληχὼς σὺν ἐκείνοις, he was equally conspicuous in the splendour of his life (H. E. iv. 30). But though undistinguished in theological literature himself, several of his brother Gregory's most important works were written at his instigation; e.g. as we learn from the proems, the two treatises supplementary to his brother Basil's Hexaemeron, the Explicatio Apologetica and the de Hominis Opificio (Greg. Nys. Opp. i. 1, 44). The latter treatise was sent to Peter as an Easter gift. Gregory's great doctrinal work against Eunomius was due to his brother's entreaties that he would employ his theological knowledge to refute that heretic, and disprove the charges brought by him against Basil (ib. ii. 265, 266). Gregory's original intention was to limit his refutation to the first of Eunomius's two books. But Peter wrote a letter to him, his only extant literary production (ib. 168), entreating him to strike with the zeal of a Phinehas both the heretical books with the same spiritual sword, which he knew so well how to wield. The language and style of this letter shew Peter as not intellectually inferior to the more celebrated members of his family (Tillem. Mém. eccl. ix. 572–580).

[E.V.]

Petrus (64), a solitary commemorated by Theodoret in his Religiosa Historia. By birth a Galatian, he embraced a monastic life when 7 years old, and lived to the age of 99. After visiting the holy places at Jerusalem and Palestine, he settled at Antioch, living in an empty tomb on bread and water, and keeping a strict fast every other day. His companion and attendant, named Daniel, he had delivered from an evil spirit. Theodoret relates that his mother, when a beautiful young woman of 23, failing to obtain relief from a malady in her eye from any oculist, was induced by one of her female servants to apply to Peter. Going to him dressed richly and resplendent with gold ornaments and gems, the solitary upbraided her for presuming to attempt to improve on the handiwork of her Maker, and having thus cured her of the malady of vanity and love of dress, signed her eye with the cross and she was speedily healed. Other members of her household he cured in a similar manner. When, seven years after, she became the mother of Theodoret and was given up by the physicians, Peter, having been summoned, prayed over her with her attendants and she speedily revived. She was accustomed to bring her child once every week to receive the old man's blessing. Peter made the young Theodoret a present of half his linen girdle, which was believed to have the miraculous property of relieving pain and curing sickness. The amulet was frequently lent, till kept by one of its borrowers, and so lost to the family. Theod. ''Hist. Rel.'' c. ix.; Tillem. ''Mém. Eccl.'' xv. 209–213.

[E.V.]

Petrus (72), first abbat of the monastery of SS. Peter and Paul, commonly called St. Augustine's, Canterbury. He was probably