CONCERNING S. PETER THE EGYPTIAN, ANCHORITE IN SYRIA.
Around the year 400.
CommentaryPeter the Egyptian, anchorite in Syria (S.)
[1] Theodoret, bk. 4 of his Ecclesiastical History, ch. 26, after naming various illustrious athletes of the monastic life who flourished under Valens, adds as follows: "Likewise the mountain which overlooks that most ample city (Antioch) is beautifully clad with such meadow flowers. For on it there lived, with great renown, Peter the Galatian, Where Peter lived and one of the same nation (in Greek, homonymos, 'of the same name'), the Egyptian, as well as Romanus, Severus, Zeno, Moses, Malchus, and very many others, unknown indeed to the world, but fully known and recognized by God." Nicephorus has the same, bk. 11, ch. 41. Of these, Peter the Galatian is venerated on 1 February, Peter the Egyptian on this 27 January, Romanus on 27 November, Zeno on 10 February, Malchus on 21 October; but Severus and Moses we have not yet read in the sacred calendar, or at least we have not yet been able to distinguish them from others of the same name. The same Theodoret, in his Philotheus, ch. 14, says: "We know indeed that very many other lights of piety and true religion shone forth also in the city of Antioch (Alberic Longus says 'near Antioch,' and more correctly)--the great Severus, and Peter the Egyptian, Eutyches, and Cyril, and Moses, and Malchus, and very many others who entered upon the same path (as SS. Romanus, Zeno, Peter the Galatian, Theodosius, and Macedonius Critophagus, whom he had treated previously)--but if we should attempt to write the deeds accomplished in life by all of them, all the time available would not suffice, especially since the reading of very many things about very many persons brings satiety. Therefore, from those who have been written about, let them form a conjecture about the life of those who have been passed over, and let them pursue them with praises and imitate them, and derive benefit." We treated of S. Macedonius on the 24th, and of S. Theodosius on 11 January. Cyril and Eutyches we have not yet read as enrolled in the calendar.
[2] Concerning Peter the Egyptian, this is handed down for this day in the Menaea: "On the same day, S. Peter the Egyptian, greatly advanced in age, his name in the sacred Calendar rests in peace."
"As ripe grain is brought into the barn, So heavy with years, Peter, you are carried to the tomb."
Maximus Cythereus also records the same. A different Peter, a certain Egyptian, reported to have been expelled from Bethlehem by S. Jerome, is recorded by Palladius, ch. 80 of the Lausiac History; he is wrongly confused with this Saint in the Index of Heribert Rosweyde to the Lives of the Fathers and by Rader.