Venerable Peter, the Former Patrician (+854)

The Venerable Peter was born at the end of the eighth century in Constantinople. In the reign of the Emperor Nicephorus (802–811) he was appointed a military commander and took part in the campaigns of the Greeks against Bulgaria. In one battle the Greeks were defeated. The emperor was mortally wounded, and Peter, together with many other soldiers, was taken prisoner. Once, at night, during prayer, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him and delivered him from captivity. Having returned to Constantinople, Peter decided to withdraw from the world full of vanity; he went to a monastery on Mount Olympus (Asia Minor) and became a monk. Here he spent thirty-four years under the guidance of Joannicius the Great (commemorated 4 November). The saint fasted strictly, spent whole nights in prayer, wore coarse sackcloth and went barefoot… He spent the last eight years in Constantinople, where he built a church and monastery dedicated to Saint Evander.

The Venerable Peter died at the age of seventy (+854) and was buried in his own monastery.