Peter of Olympus

Holy Venerable Peter of Olympus, also called Peter the Patrician or Peter of Constantinople, was born toward the end of the eighth century in Constantinople, in a patrician family. In the time of the Byzantine emperor Nicephorus (802-811) he was appointed a military commander and took part in the expeditions of the Greek armies against Bulgaria. In one of the battles the Greeks were defeated; the emperor was mortally wounded, and Peter, with many other soldiers, was taken prisoner.

One night, while he was praying earnestly, the holy Evangelist John the Theologian appeared to him in a vision and freed him from captivity. Returning to Constantinople, Saint Peter left the world, withdrew to a monastery on Mount Olympus in Asia Minor and became a monk. There he spent thirty-⁠four years in ceaseless struggles, under the guidance of the Venerable Joannicius the Great (commemorated on 4 November). Throughout his monastic life he kept a strict fast and constant vigil, wore a prickly hair shirt and went barefoot. The last eight years he lived in Constantinople, where he built a church and monastery in honour of Saint Evander.

The Venerable Peter reposed in the Lord in the seventieth year of his life, in 854, and was buried in his monastery. He is commemorated on 14 July, in the new style. His life is also found in the Lives of the Saints by Saint Dimitry of Rostov.