Peter of Constantinople

Holy Martyr Peter of Constantinople is commemorated on 22 August with the martyrs Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Photius, Leontius, the martyr Maria the patrician, the protospatharios Gregory and others, who suffered for the holy icons in the year 730, in the time of the iconoclast emperor Leo the Isaurian (717-741). The emperor overthrew Saint Patriarch Germanus (715-730) from the patriarchal throne, sent him into exile and placed on the throne, unlawfully, the iconoclast Anastasius (730-753). By edict all icons were to be removed from churches and houses and destroyed. At Constantinople, above the so-⁠called Bronze Gate, since the time of Saint Constantine the Great, a wonderworking icon of the Saviour made of bronze was fixed. The emperor and Patriarch Anastasius ordered it taken down. A soldier set up a ladder and climbed up to take it down. The gathered people rose in anger at this sacrilege. Among the crowd was the patrician Maria, a woman of noble family; she, and after her many others, ran to the ladder and pulled it from the wall, to keep the soldier from touching the icon. The ladder collapsed, and the soldier fell and died. It was 19 January 730. Also taking part in the defence of the icon were the protospatharios Gregory and the virgin and venerable martyr Theodosia (commemorated on 29 May). Learning of it, the emperor put to death a multitude of Orthodox, whose names and number only God knows. The protospatharios Gregory also received martyrdom.

But some Orthodox of the high society, among them Julian, Marcian, John, James, Alexis, Demetrius, Leontius, Photius and Peter, were shut in prison for almost eight months and received daily five hundred blows; by Christ's power they stayed alive and endured manfully. By the emperor's command their faces were burned with red-⁠hot iron and their heads cut off. Saint Maria the patrician, who had not been imprisoned, learning of the execution, willingly accepted martyrdom. The bodies of the martyrs were buried in the place called Pelagiou, near the church of the holy Martyr Theodore, and were found incorrupt after a hundred and thirty-⁠nine years.

Saint Peter is commemorated on 22 August, in the new style.