Peter the Iberian

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Peter the Iberian

Peter the Iberian, or Peter of Iberia, (A.D. c. 411-491) is a Georgian Orthodox saint, who was a prominent figure in early Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a Monotheistic religion #Christian view religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus as New Testament view on Jesus' life....
.

Some of his accomplishments are the foundination the first Georgian monastery in Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestine city in the central West Bank, approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism....
and being the bishop of Gaza near Mayuma. In addition to being canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church as a saint, he is also recognized by various eastern Churches, some of which have deviated from the Chalcedonian

Chalcedonian

Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ....
doctrine.

as born into the royal family of the Iberian Kings and was initially named Murvan (alternatively, Nabarnugios), prince of Iberia

Caucasian Iberia

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Encyclopedia

Peter the Iberian, or Peter of Iberia, (A.D. c. 411-491) is a Georgian Orthodox saint, who was a prominent figure in early Christianity

Christianity

Bethlehem

Chalcedonian

Chalcedonian describes churches and theologians which accept the definition given at the Council of Chalcedon of how the divine and human relate in the person of Jesus Christ....
doctrine.

Life

He was born into the royal family of the Iberian Kings and was initially named Murvan (alternatively, Nabarnugios), prince of Iberia

Caucasian Iberia

Iberia , also known as Iveria , was a name given by the ancient Ancient Greece and Roman Empire to the ancient Georgia kingdom of Kartli corresponding roughly to the eastern and southern parts of the present day Georgia....
. His father, King Bosmarios of Iberia, invited a noted philosopher Mithradates from Lazica to take part in Murvan’s education. In 423, the prince was sent as a political hostage to Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the empire capital of the Roman Empire , the Byzantine Empire , the Latin Empire , and the Ottoman Empire . Strategically located between the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara at the point where Europe meets Asia, Byzantine Constantinople had been the capital of a Christendom empire, successor to ancient ancient Greece...
, where he got a brilliant education under a personal patronage of the Roman empress Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia

Aelia Eudocia Augusta , wife of Theodosius II, Byzantine Emperors, was born in Athens.She was the daughter of the sophist Leontius, from whom she received a thorough training in literature and rhetoric....
, wife of Theodosius II

Theodosius II

Flavius Theodosius , called the Calligrapher, known in English as Theodosius II, was an Eastern Roman Empire , mostly known for the law code bearing his name, the Codex Theodosianus, and the Walls of Constantinople#The Theodosian Walls of Constantinople built during his reign....
.

Eventually, the young prince, together with his mentor Mithradates, left the palace and escaped to make a pilgrimage to Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a name which has been widely used since Roman times to refer to the region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It is derived from a name used already much earlier for a narrower geographical region, mainly along the coastal region....
where he became a monk at Jerusalem

Jerusalem

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and its List of Israeli cities in both population and area, with a population of 747,600 residents over an area of if Positions on Jerusalem East Jerusalem is included....
under the name of Peter. In 430, he founded his own monastery at Bethlehem

Bethlehem

Bethlehem is a Palestine city in the central West Bank, approximately south of Jerusalem, with a population of about 30,000 people. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate of the Palestinian National Authority and a hub of Palestinian culture and tourism....
(later known as the Georgian Monastery of Bethlehem). In 445, he was consecrated priest. Accompanied by Mithridates (now called John), he traveled across several countries of the Near East

Near East

Near East today is an ambiguous term that covers different countries for archeologists and historians, on one hand, and for political scientists, economists, and journalists, on the other....
, and finally settled in Majuma near Gaza

Gaza

Gaza is a Palestinian people city in the Gaza Strip, approximately southwest of Jerusalem, with a population of 410,000, making it the largest city under the control of the Palestinian National Authority....
.

In 452, he served as bishop of Majuma for six months before some Christians were banished by the decree of the local ruler. Peter escaped to Egypt

Egypt

Egypt is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Western Asia. Covering an area of about , Egypt borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Red Sea to the east, Sudan to the south and Libya to the west....
, but returned to Palestine a decade later. He gained numerous followers and disciples. According to the medieval sources, he was an author of several famous religious works. However, none of them survived to be written under the name of Peter.

He died in the coastal suburb of Iamnia in 491 was buried in his monastery near Gaza

Gaza

Biographies

The so-called Syriac
Syriac language

Syriac is a dialect of Middle Aramaic that was once spoken across much of the Fertile Crescent. Classical Syriac became a major literary language throughout the Middle East from the 4th to the 8th centuries, the classical language of Edessa, Mesopotamia, preserved in a large body of Syriac literature....
version originally written by Peter’s disciple John Rufus in Greek
Greek language

Greek is an Indo-European languages native to the southern Balkan peninsula, the language of the Greek people. It forms an independent branch within Indo-European....
dates back to the 8th century
The so-called Georgian
Georgian language

Georgian is the official language of Georgia , a country in the Caucasus .Georgian is the primary language of about 3.9 million people in Georgia itself, and of another 500,000 abroad ....
version originally written by Peter’s contemporary, Zacharias Rhetor
Zacharias Rhetor

Zacharias of Mytilene , also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian.The life of Zacharias of Mytilene can be reconstructed only from a few scattered reports in contemporary sources ....
, bishop of Mytilene
Mytilene

Mytilene is the Capital city of Lesbos Island, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, and capital of Lesbos Prefecture and the Northern Aegean region....
, in Greek has preserved as a manuscript of c. 13th century.

Peter the Iberian

Life

Biographies

See also

Further reading