IX. A. PETROS, 17th POPE AND
"SEAL OF THE MARTYRS"
- The School of Alexandria carries on in spite of ....
- Petros, its Dean, the son of fervent prayers.
- His election to the Papacy.
- Eruption of Diocletian's fierce persecutions – and the
designated beginning of the Coptic ‘Era of the
martyrs’.
- Canons for repentance.
- Excommunication of Arius because of his heresy.
- Arrest and martyrdom of bishops, then of Abba
Petros.
- Persecuted and persecutors alike in the Hands of
God.
- ‘Love your enemies’.(Matt 5:44).
- One of the remarkable things about this period of
exceptional stress for Christians of Egypt is that the Fathers
of Alexandria were able to carry on their work at the School.
It continued to be a source of enlightenment, strength, and
spiritual and intellectual food for many. Hence it remained a
bulwark of faith. In charge of it as Dean at this critical time
was a sagacious person by the name of Petros who was to
become the 17th Pope of the Church, and later to seal with
his blood that era of the martyrs by becoming the last to lose
his life for the faith in this fiercest persecution.
- Petros was an only son, who had been born in answer
to his parents' fervent prayers. His father, called Theodosius
was assistant priest in Alexandria. His mother was called
Sophia. Both were God-fearing people who, being childless
kept praying fervently that they may be granted a son.
One day, when the Church was celebrating the
