Venerable Peter the Patrician

Life

This saint was a nobleman and commander of Constantinople in the time of Emperor Nikephoros. In a certain war with the Bulgarians, Emperor Nikephoros was slain, and Peter, together with fifty Greek commanders and princes, was captured and cast into prison. He was miraculously freed from prison by the Holy Apostle John the Theologian. He then despised all worldly glory, left his wife and son, and withdrew to Mount Olympus, where as a monk and disciple of the Venerable Joannicius the Great he labored in asceticism for thirty-four years. After the death of his wife and son, he settled in Constantinople, where he spent a further eight years in fasting and prayer and reposed in the Lord in the year 865, in the seventy-seventh year of his life.