Память святого Петра, епископа Севастийского

Saint Peter was the brother of Basil the Great, the tenth and last son of his parents. His elder sister, Macrina, took a great part in the upbringing of Saint Peter. She gave him the most sublime education, exercising his mind from infancy in the study of the word of God. Thanks to Macrina’s care, the young man reached such a height of virtue that, in the words of his brother, Gregory of Nyssa, “in his subsequent life, it seems, he was no less than Basil the Great in superiority of virtues.” When Peter came of age, Basil, having become the bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, ordained him as a presbyter. Subsequently, Saint Peter was made bishop of Sebastia of Armenia 384. As a bishop, he was present at the second Ecumenical Council against Macedonius 385, which took place in Constantinople in 381. Died at the end of the 4th century. Sebastia of Armenia was located in the northeast of Asia Minor. Macedonius was Patriarch of Constantinople from 341–360 with interruptions. He was the founder of a heresy that taught incorrectly about the Holy Spirit. He did not recognize the Holy Spirit as God, but considered Him to be a created being, having no participation in the Divinity and glory of the Father and the Son. The Second Ecumenical Council in 381 condemned this heresy and approved the Orthodox teaching about the Holy Spirit as the True God. Moreover, at this council the Nicene Creed was revised. Having added to it 5 new members (8–12), where the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, the Church and the sacraments, the faith in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the future century was proposed, the council gave it the form in which it has been preserved to this day. You might be interested in: