# Saint Peter the Presbyter

Source: https://coptic-lore-forge.lovable.app/wiki/saint-peter-the-presbyter — Coptic Orthodox Wiki (updated 2026-10-03)

Saint Peter the Presbyter is a holy man of Upper Egypt commemorated on 5 Baramhat. He is known only through a brief notice in the Upper Egyptian Copt-Arabic Synaxarion, which mentions healing with specially blessed water and oil but supplies no dates or precise location for his life.

## Overview

**Saint Peter the Presbyter** is a holy man of Upper Egypt whose feast falls on **5 Baramhat**. The principal account supplied for him is René-Georges Coquin’s entry in *The Coptic Encyclopedia*, which states that he is known only from a notice in the Upper Egyptian Copt-Arabic Coptic Synaxarion.[^1]

The surviving information is exceptionally limited: the notice gives no chronological or geographical information about his life. The general association with Upper Egypt therefore does not establish a particular birthplace, residence, or period of activity.[^1]

## Sources and historical knowledge

Coquin identifies the source as the Copt-Arabic Synaxarion from Upper Egypt and cites Basset, page 201, and Forget, text and translation, page 10. These references locate the notice on which the encyclopedia’s account depends; Coquin does not supply a separate narrative of Peter’s life.[^2]

He characterizes the notice as “very commonplace,” while suggesting that it appears ancient because it describes healing with water and oil blessed specifically for that purpose. This assessment concerns the apparent antiquity of the notice rather than an established date for Peter himself: the same entry explicitly emphasizes the absence of chronological information.[^3]

### Possible identification with Peter the Elder

Coquin proposes that Peter the Presbyter may be **Peter the Elder**, whose tomb is at the church of Qift. He describes Peter the Elder as the initiator of hermit life in that region, but places that activity at an unknown period.[^4]

The identification remains tentative. Accordingly, the tomb at Qift and the role in the beginnings of regional hermit life belong to the proposed identification, not to an independently established biography of Peter the Presbyter.[^4]

## Healing and practical religious use

The distinctive practice preserved in the notice is healing through **water and oil specially blessed for this purpose**. Coquin singles out this detail when discussing the possible antiquity of the account.[^3]

The wording links the blessing of these materials specifically to healing. The supplied entry, however, does not reproduce a blessing prayer, describe its performance, or recount an individual cure; its evidence is a brief description of the practice rather than a detailed ritual account.[^3]

## Feast and calendar commemoration

The feast date of **5 Baramhat** is consistently recorded in the biographical entry, the encyclopedia’s list of saints, and its calendar. The calendar names him explicitly as “Saint Peter the Presbyter.”[^1][^5][^6]

In the supplied calendar table, 5 Baramhat is paired with 1 March. The same day also lists Anba Sarapamon, presbyter of Dayr Abu Yuhannis, and the martyrdom of Saint Eudoxia; these are separate commemorations under the same date.[^6]

## Names and distinction from other saints

The principal entry uses **“Peter the Presbyter, Saint,”** while the list of saints prints **“Peter of the Presbyter.”** Both associate the saint with Upper Egypt and give his feast as 5 Baramhat.[^1][^5]

Peter of Scetis has a separate encyclopedia entry identifying him as a sixth-century tax collector who became a monk at Scetis, with a feast on 25 Tubah. That dated conversion narrative is not the account supplied for Peter the Presbyter, whose chronology remains unspecified.[^7][^1]

## Frequently asked questions

**Who was Saint Peter the Presbyter?**
He was a holy man of Upper Egypt known only from a brief notice in the Upper Egyptian Copt-Arabic Synaxarion. The notice gives no chronological or precise geographical information about his life.

**When is Saint Peter the Presbyter's feast day?**
His feast day is 5 Baramhat. Both his biographical entry and the calendar in The Coptic Encyclopedia record this date.

**What healing practice is associated with Saint Peter the Presbyter?**
His synaxarial notice speaks of healing with water and oil specially blessed for that purpose. The supplied account does not describe particular cures or give the wording of the blessings.

**Was Saint Peter the Presbyter the same person as Peter the Elder of Qift?**
René-Georges Coquin suggests this identification as a possibility, not a certainty. Peter the Elder is described as having his tomb at the church of Qift and as having initiated hermit life in that region at an unknown date.

## Sources
[^1]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 630)
[^2]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 630)
[^3]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 630)
[^4]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 630)
[^5]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 133)
[^6]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 7, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 365)
[^7]: The Coptic Encyclopedia, Volume 6, Aziz S. Atiya (Editor in Chief) (p. 631)