Peter of Tiberiopolis

Holy Hieromartyr Peter of Tiberiopolis, a priest, is commemorated on 11 December in the synaxis of the sixteen martyrs of Tiberiopolis. In the second half of the fourth century a monastic brotherhood flourished at Tiberiopolis (today Strumica). In the persecution of Julian the Apostate, in the year 361, sixteen members of the brotherhood received death as martyrs for Christ: the bishops Theodore and Timothy, the priests Theodore, John, Nicephorus, Peter and Sergius, the deacons Basil and Thomas, the monks Daniel, Eusebius, Hierotheus, Comasius, Socrates, Chariton and Etimasius.

The local people kept their memory. After the First Balkan War, when Strumica passed to Bulgaria, the Greeks who lived in the city moved in 1913 to Kilkis and other places in Macedonia. They took with them part of the holy relics, the arm of the priest Peter, one of the sixteen martyrs, which since then has been in Kilkis, in the church bearing this martyr's name. The service in his honour was printed three times, in 1741, 1830 and 1930. In 1967 the sixteen martyrs of Tiberiopolis were proclaimed patrons of Kilkis.

Saint Peter is commemorated on 11 December, according to the Greek tradition, in the new style. He is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.