ON ST. PETER, BISHOP OF SEBASTE IN ARMENIA.
Fourth century.
CommentaryPeter, Bishop of Sebaste in Armenia (St.)
From various sources.
[1] Sebaste, also called Sebastia, was an ancient and distinguished city of Lesser Armenia, whose walls, when they threatened ruin from the deterioration of age, Procopius writes were rebuilt by Justinian, bk. 3. It will often be mentioned elsewhere. It was already celebrated in ancient times with an episcopal see, which at the end of the fourth Christian century The birthday of St. Peter, Bishop of Sebaste St. Peter governed. He was the brother of Saints Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Macrina the Virgin, whom we shall celebrate on June 14, March 9, and July 19, respectively. The Roman Martyrology thus records the birthday of St. Peter on this January 9: "At Sebaste in Armenia, of St. Peter the Bishop, brother of St. Basil." Baronius notes that he is venerated on the same day by the Greeks. But we have not found his name in any of their menologia.
[2] In the Life of St. Macrina, written by St. Gregory of Nyssa, this eulogy of Peter is found: As a boy, he is most holily educated by his sister Macrina "For the attainment of this so excellent goal of perfection, St. Macrina had great assistance from a certain brother, born from the same womb, who was called Peter, with whom their mother's labor pains ended. For he was the last child received from his parents, who was at once born and made an orphan. For at the very time he was being brought into the light, his father departed from life. The one who was the eldest among the children, about whom this account has been written, took him shortly after his birth from the nurse's breast and herself at once nourished him, and educated him with an excellent discipline, instructing him from boyhood in sacred learning to such a degree that she allowed no leisure for him to devote to idle studies. For she showed herself to him as both father and teacher and guardian and mother and counselor in all the best things, and she rendered him such that before he had passed out of boyhood, He imitates her in that tender flower of youth, he had ascended to the lofty degree of philosophy. Indeed, he was of such goodness of talent that he seemed born to master all kinds of arts, even those exercised by hand. Therefore, without any instructor, he attained perfect skill in those things which others learn from teachers with much time and labor. Having spurned the occupations of secular studies, and possessing a talent apt for learning all good disciplines, and always looking to his sister, whom he had set before himself as a goal of every good, he made such progress in virtue that in his remaining life he was judged to be in no way inferior to the great Basil in the excellence of virtue. At that time, however, he was like everything to his sister and mother, and together with them he strove toward that angelic life."
[3] "When at a certain time there was severe want and famine, and many, drawn by the fame of their generosity, He feeds the poor flocked from all sides to that retreat where they lived, he supplied so much food to the poor by his industry that the place, with its throng of visitors, seemed not a solitude but a city. Meanwhile their mother, now very old, dying in the hands of both her children, departed to God. It will not be beside the point to recall what the words of her blessing were, which she directed toward her children. For when she made loving mention of each absent child individually, so that no one would be without her blessing, she especially commended those who were present to God in her prayers. He is blessed by his dying mother together with his sister For as they sat on opposite sides of the bed, she touched each with one hand and addressed God with these last words: 'To You, Lord, I dedicate both the firstfruits and the tithe of the fruits of my womb. For this firstborn daughter has the place of my firstfruits, and this last, my tenth son, has the place of the tithe. Both are owed to You by both laws, and are Your gifts. Let holiness therefore come upon this my firstborn and upon this tenth child' -- designating by clear speech her daughter and son. Thus she set an end at once to her blessing and her life, having first commanded her children to lay her in her father's tomb. After they had carried out her wishes, for the rest of their time they strove toward the summit of wisdom, always struggling against their past lives and striving to surpass their previous good deeds by later ones."
[4] "Meanwhile the illustrious Basil was named Bishop of the great Caesarea, and consecrating his brother in the mystic sacrifices, He is made a Priest he advanced him to the sacred dignity of the priesthood. And at this point their course of life was again directed toward graver and holier things, when the dignity of the priesthood, joined to the study of wisdom, was increased. But after eight years had passed and the ninth had begun, Basil, celebrated throughout the whole world, departed from men to God, providing an occasion of common mourning for both his country and the Church."
[5] After Basil's death, as is added there, in the ninth month or a little more, a council of Bishops was convened at Antioch. This was held after Theodosius was proclaimed Emperor, writes Socrates, bk. 5, ch. 4. Furthermore, Theodosius, as the same relates in ch. 2, was created Augustus on the seventeenth before the Kalends of February, in the consulship of Ausonius and Olybrius, that is, in the year of Christ 379. The death of St. Basil, 379 In that same year, at the beginning, on the Kalends of January, St. Basil died in the ninth year of his episcopate, having been ordained on July 14 of the year of Christ 370. Around the beginning of his episcopate, St. Peter was ordained a Priest. Baronius records all these events one year earlier. Before a year had passed after the Synod of Antioch, a desire came to St. Gregory, as he himself testifies, to visit his sister St. Macrina. And when he was already approaching the house, he asked a certain member of the household first about his brother Peter, whether he was present. When the man replied that he had been gone from there for four days, he understood that Peter had gone to meet him by another road. The death of St. Macrina, 380 Then he inquired about his sister St. Macrina; learning that she was ill, he went to her and on the following day closed the eyes of the dying woman. This was the year of Christ 380, and the day was July 19, on which we said her birthday is celebrated. Hence it is clear that St. Peter did not depart this life in the times of the Emperor Valens, as is asserted in the Notes to the Roman Martyrology, since Valens, fighting at Adrianople and pierced by an arrow and burned alive by Barbarians in the hut to which he had retreated, died on the fifth before the Ides of August, in the year of Christ 378, as Idatius testifies in the Consular Fasts. That St. Peter was not promoted to the episcopal dignity until after the death of St. Macrina is far more probable. Indeed, he was perhaps not yet a Bishop even in the year 381, when the ecumenical synod was held at Constantinople, since he is not found to have subscribed to it.
[6] What his manner of life was before his episcopate is described by the same St. Gregory at the end of the Life of St. Macrina: "A certain illustrious man in military service, The life of St. Peter before the episcopate who was the military commander in the city of Pontus called Augustae, having heard of the calamity and bearing it with difficulty, went out with his subordinates to meet them in a kindly manner. For he was joined to me by both ties of blood and friendship. This man narrated to me the following miracle about her (St. Macrina), and adding this one thing to the story, I shall make an end of writing. For when, having set a measure to our tears, we had begun to converse, he said to me: 'Hear what a great good has departed from life.' And so he began his account: 'Once a great desire came upon my wife and me to see the training-ground of virtue. For thus,' he said, 'I think that place should be called in which that blessed soul dwelt. And with us was a little daughter whose eye had been seized by a calamity from a pestilent disease, so that the membrane spread around the pupil, contracted into a white spot, presented a foul and pitiable spectacle. Having therefore entered that divine house, we were so separated in that place devoted to wisdom that I indeed lodged where the men were, over whom your brother Peter presided; and she went within, where the virgins were, to be with St. Macrina. After we had stayed there a little while, we thought it was time to depart. And as we were preparing to leave, a kind of human force was applied to us from both sides. For your brother urged me to stay and partake of the meal of the studious; The hospitality of Peter and his sister and the blessed woman would not let my wife go, but holding the little girl in her bosom, said she would not give her back until she had prepared a meal and received us with the riches of philosophy. And she kissed the little girl and, bringing her lips to her eyes, when she saw the affected pupil, said: "If you grant me this favor, that you wish to be our guests, I will give you a gift not unworthy of such an honor." "And what is it?" said the little girl's mother. "I have," replied the Great One, "a medicine suited for healing this eye." When this promise was announced to me by someone from the virgins' chamber, we gladly remained, setting aside the urgency of our need to depart. When therefore the banquet which Peter had seasoned with his kindness and grace came to an end, and my wife had been sent back to us from St. Macrina, refreshed with every suitable pleasantness, we set out on our way full of joy and gladness. And as we went along, we each recounted what had happened to us; I indeed related everything I had either seen or heard in the men's quarters. And she in turn, rehearsing each thing as from a story, thought nothing at all should be omitted, however small,'" etc. Thus far from the Life of St. Macrina, which we shall give in full at the proper time; it is extant in Lipomanus, vol. 2 of the Lives of the Saints, and on July 19 in Surius, and in Greek and Latin in the supplement to the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa published by our Jacques Gretser.
[7] Other writers also mention this solitary life led by St. Peter: Socrates, bk. 5, ch. 21: "Basil had two brothers, Peter and Gregory: Peter followed the solitary way of life of Basil; Gregory, however, the teaching vocation." His love of solitude Theodoret, bk. 4, ch. 28: "Into the same partnership of praise with them (Nazianzen and Nyssen) came Peter, who was the full brother of Basil and Gregory; and although he was not so well furnished with humane literature as they, he nevertheless excelled greatly in his pious way of life." Nicephorus writes nearly the same, bk. 11, ch. 44: "Peter, born of the same parents as Basil, was not so much imbued with profane letters, but was not inferior to them in the splendor of virtue." And ch. 19: "Basil had brothers, of whom one was Gregory, the light and ornament of the Church of Nyssa," etc. "The second brother of Basil was Peter, who, having first pursued the monastic life together with him, then governed the city of Sebaste as its sacred Bishop. The third was Naucratius, who died young in the ascetic discipline." But from the already cited Life of Macrina it is established that Peter was younger than all his brothers and sisters. Perhaps Nicephorus lists the brothers of St. Basil not in order of birth but by celebrity of name.
[8] Philostorgius, a contemporary of Theodoret, as quoted by Suidas under "Basil," mentions his episcopate: "The great Basil," he says, "had four brothers: Gregory, Bishop of the city of Nyssa, His episcopate Peter, himself also a Bishop, and two others who professed the monastic life." And our Possevinus in the Apparatus Sacer, concerning Basil: "He had two brothers who were Bishops, and these distinguished ones: Gregory of Nyssa and Peter of Sebaste; and two sisters who bade farewell to the world, and other brothers as well." At St. Peter's request, his brother St. Gregory composed his book on the Hexaemeron, which Socrates, cited above, affirms was left unfinished by St. Basil, who was prevented by death. Among the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa there also survives a letter of his to St. Peter his brother, Bishop of Sebaste, about undertaking the refutation of Eunomius, and the response of St. Peter to his brother with this inscription: His letter "Of our holy father Peter, Bishop of Sebasteia, to the holy Gregory of Nyssa, his brother" (tou en hagiois patros hemon Petrou Episkolopou Sebaseias, pros ton hagion Gregorion Nysses ton antou adelphon). It is not worthwhile to give the letter in full here, since it is the only surviving monument of his works, because it exists in Greek and Latin with the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa. The remaining deeds accomplished by St. Peter as Bishop have either not been committed to writing, or indeed still lie hidden.
[9] Baronius in his Notes to the Martyrology supposes that he departed this life before his brother Gregory, because he thinks the same Gregory recalls the anniversary of his birthday in a letter to Flavian the Bishop. His death Gregory's words are these: "At length, when I had celebrated the memorial of the most blessed Peter, which was then first beginning to be observed, among the people of Sebaste, and likewise the memorial of the holy Martyrs who, as they lived at the same time as Peter, so they are customarily celebrated together with him, I turned my journey homeward and was making my way back to my own Church." Thus Gregory; but from these words it is difficult to prove that Peter refers to our St. Peter, and not to some more ancient one. For who are these Martyrs of Sebaste who lived at the same time as him? Gregory indeed died at an advanced age, as in his letter on the Christian profession, in the last chapter of his book on virginity, and elsewhere, he excuses his old age.