Peter of Argos

Saint Peter, bishop of Argos, called the Wonderworker, is the patron saint of the city of Argos in Greece. He was born in Constantinople, into a well-⁠to-⁠do family known for piety and charity, and lived, according to our data, between 852 and 922; the Greek source says that he died at the age of 70. He is commemorated on 3 May, the day on which Peter and Petrina celebrate their name day.

There were five brothers in his family, all lovers of the Christian faith, who together with their parents helped the poor. From them Peter received the call to the monastic life. Patriarch Nicholas Mystikos, valuing the monk's gifts and virtue, wished to ordain him bishop of Corinth, but Peter declined in order to remain a monk, and his brother Paul was ordained instead. During his brother's episcopate Peter lived in a monastery in his territory. After Paul's death he succeeded him on the episcopal throne; according to the English source he became bishop of Argos and Nauplion after the local bishop died.

As bishop he was credited with great holiness and organized relief in famine in times of crop failure, the ransom of captives and the healing of the sick. The supplies of food that he gave for famine relief never ran out, and so he won the name of wonderworker. In 920 he took part in a synod at Constantinople, called by Patriarch Nicholas in the time of the emperor Constantine Porphyrogenitus. He was a man of learning and his work appears in the Patrologia Graeca.

He died at Argos and was buried in the church of the Dormition there. The fame of his miracles continued: his face is said to have been transfigured at his funeral, and his body to have given off the oil of the saints. His relics were later moved to Nauplion and carried abroad by the Venetians, under the Latin bishop Secondo Nani, in 1421 according to the Greek source. In honour of Saint Peter a cathedral was built at Argos, begun in 1859 by Bishop Gerasimos Pagonis and consecrated on 18 April 1865. After long searching, the relics were found in a monastery near Rome and returned to Argos on 19 January 2008, in the time of Metropolitan Jacob II, and now rest in the church of Saint Peter.