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Saint Peter illustriously occupied the throne of Alexandria for twelve years,
and, as Eusebius says, "was a divine example of a bishop on account of the excellence of his life and
his study of the sacred Scriptures" (see Eusebius, Eccl. Hist., Book VII, 3 2; Book VIII 11, 13; and Book IX, 6).
He excommunicated Arius for his sympathy with the Meletian schism.
When Arius learned that Saint Peter had been imprisoned, he sent many
priests and deacons to him, asking that he receive him back into the
communion of the Church before his martyrdom. When the ambassadors
of Arius, who had not, like Saint Peter, perceived the ruin he would
engender, were astonished at the vehemence with which Saint Peter refused
to receive Arius again, he revealed to them a dread vision he had seen,
in which the Master Christ had appeared to him as a child wearing a
garment torn from head to foot. When Saint Peter asked the Lord who
rent His garment, the Lord answered that it was Arius, and that he
must not be received back into communion. The holy hieromartyr Peter
was beheaded during the reign of Maximinus in the year 312; he is called
the "Seal of the Martyrs," because he was the last Bishop of Alexandria to suffer martyrdom under the pagan
Emperors. His successors to the throne of Alexandria, Saints Alexander
and Athanasius the Great, brought to final victory the battle against
Arius' heresy which Saint Peter had begun.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone:
O divine unshakeable towers of Christ's Church, pillars of true piety
who are most mighty and divine: Clement and Peter, ye all-acclaimed,
by your entreaties, protect and guard all of us.
Source: http://www.goarch.org
Read lives of other Saints - http://www.truechristianity.info/en/saints_en.php
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