(Πέτρος), literary and ecclesiastical.
1. Of ALEXANDRIA (1). Petrus or Peter, the first of that name in the st of the bishops of Alexandria, succeeded Theonas in that see sometime between Easter and the latter part of November, A. D. 300, according to Tillemont's calculation ; and exercised his episcopal functions more than eleven (Eusebius says for twelve) years. Of the time and place of his birth we have no account. Cave considers that he was probably born at Alexandria, and that he was there "trained alike to virtue and to sacred literature by his predecessor Theonas ;" but we do not know that these statements ments are more than inferences from his being chosen to succeed Theonas. He had not occupied the see quite three years when the persecution commenced by the emperor Diocletian [DIOCLETIANUS] and continued by his successors, broke out A. D. 304. During its long continuance Peter was obliged to flee from one hiding-place to another. The monk Ammonius (De Caede SS. Patrum in Monte Syna et in Solitudine Raithu, apud Valesium, Not. ad Euseb. H. E. 7.32) attests this; and Peter himself, if confidence may be placed in a discourse said to have been delivered by him in prison and given in certain Acta Petri Alexandrini (apud Valesium, ibid.) states that he found shelter at different times in Mesopotamia, in Phoenicia, in Palestine, and in various islands; but if these Acta are the same that were published by Coméfis in his Selecti Martyrum Triumphi, 8vo. Paris, 1660, their authority is materially lessened by the inter-polations of Symeon Metaphrastes. Cave conjectures that he was imprisoned during the reign of Diocletian or Maximian Galerius [MAXIMIANUS II.], and if there is truth in the account given by Epiphanius (Haeres. 68.1-5) of the origin of the schism in the Egyptian churches, occasioned by Meletius of Lycopolis [MELETIUS, literary and ecclesiastical, No. 3], the conjecture is probably correct; and if so, Peter must have obtained his release, as this imprisonment must have been antecedent to the deposition of Meletius by Petrus, and the commencement of the Meletian schism. In the ninth year of the persecution Peter was, suddenly and contrary to all expectation, again arrested and was beheaded, by order of Maximin Daza [MAXIMINUS II.], without any distinct charge being brought against him. Eusebius speaks with the highest admiration of his piety and his attainments in sacred literature, and he is revered as a saint and martyr both in the Eastern and Western Churches. His martyrdom is placed by an ancient Oriental chronicle of the bishops of Alexandria, translated by Abraham Echellensis (Paris, 1651), on the 29th of the month Athur or Athyr, which corresponds sometimes to the 25th, and sometimes to the 26th November. His memory is now cele 26th, except in Russia, where the more ancient computation, which placed it on the 25th, is still followed. An account of the martyrdom (Acta Martyrii) of Peter, in the Latin version of Anastasi Bibliothecarius, is given by Surius, De Probatis Sanctorum Vitis, a. d. 25 Nov.; and the Greek Acta of Symeon Metaphrastes are given, with a Latin version, in the Selecti Martyrum Triumphi of Combéfis already cited.