Peter II of Alexandria

Patriarch Peter II of Alexandria was the twenty-⁠first patriarch of Alexandria, from 373 to 381, a disciple of Saint Athanasius the Great, against whom the Arians rose. He died on 27 February 381, according to some sources in 380. He has no day of commemoration in the calendar at hand, but a Serbian source commemorates him on 27 February.

Athanasius appointed him successor before his death, in 373, and the choice was approved by the bishops, clergy and people. He was a staunch defender of Nicene teaching and an enemy of Arianism. The start of his rule coincided with the renewal of the persecution of the Orthodox by the Emperor Valens, who held with the Arians. Shortly after his consecration, the prefect Palladius, on Valens's orders, drove him from the city and installed Lucius, an Arian; according to another source, the pagan prefect Tatian burst into the church of Saint Theonas with a mob during the service and caused a pillage, and according to yet another, Euzoius of Antioch came to Alexandria in 374 with a body of soldiers, drove Peter out and set Lucius up. Pope Damasus I, hearing of this new persecution, sent a deacon with a letter of communion and consolation for Peter, but the messenger was arrested, treated as a criminal, savagely beaten and sent to the mines of Phenne. Peter hid for some time, then found refuge at Rome, where Damasus received him and supported him against the Arians. There he took part in a council that condemned Apollinarism. He wrote against Lucius an accusatory epistle, of which Theodoret of Cyrus quotes a long passage in the Ecclesiastical History.

He returned to Alexandria in the spring or summer of 378 (sources also give 379), after Lucius yielded for fear of the populace, or was driven out by the Alexandrians, and the emperor Valens, the backer of the Arians, had died in the battle of Adrianople in 378. According to one source, in 379 the emperor Theodosius the Great restored him to the see. He was a steadfast defender of Nicene theology, a position endorsed by Theodosius I, who cites Peter of Alexandria in his Edict of Thessalonica; the emperor called him a man of apostolic holiness. A Greek source says that Peter helped the Cynic philosopher Maximus to become bishop at Constantinople, to the detriment of Saint Gregory the Theologian. He died about 380 and was succeeded by his brother Timothy.