Peter of Galatia

Venerable Peter of Galatia, called the Silent, died in the year 429 at the age of ninety. At nine years old he left his parents' house secretly out of love for God and went first to Jerusalem, then settled at Antioch. There he took shelter in a cave and gave himself to strict fasting and prayer, taking food only every other day. For his struggle he received from the Lord the gift of working miracles. The Church of Georgia commemorates him on 1 February (old style; 14 February new style) and also on 8 December.

He should not be confused with Peter of Galatia, a former soldier, of the 9th century, commemorated on 9 October: that one, called Leo or Leontius in the world, served at the court of the emperor Theophilus, became a monk at the Daphne monastery, visited the holy places, and toward the end of his life settled, at the urging of the emperor Basil the Macedonian, in the monastery of Saint Phocas.