Peter the Iberian

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Peter the Iberian, or Peter of Iberia, (Georgian: პეტრე იბერი, Petre Iberi) (A.D. ca 411-491) was a prominent Georgian (Iberian) theologian and one of the leaders of anti- Chalcedonian movement in the Eastern Roman Empire. He is thought by some scholars to be the real identity of the Christian neo-Platonic philosopher of the 5th century, who wrote under the assumed identity of Dionysius and is generally known to scholars as "Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite."

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[edit] Life

He was born Murvan (alternatively, Nabarnugios), prince of Iberia. His father, King Bosmarios, invited a noted philosopher Mithradates from Lazica to take part in Murvan’s education. In 423, the prince was sent as a political hostage to Constantinople, where he got a brilliant education under a personal patronage of the Roman empress Aelia Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II.

Eventually, the young prince, together with his mentor Mithradates, left the palace and escaped to make a pilgrimage to Palestine where he became a monk at Jerusalem under the name of Peter. In 430, he founded his own monastery at Bethlehem (later known as the Georgian Monastery of Bethlehem). In 445, he was consecrated priest. Accompanied by Mithridates (now called John), he traveled across several countries of the Near East, and finally settled in Majuma by Gaza. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon formulated the main doctrine of Orthodoxy. Peter became an extremely influential member of an anti-Chalcedonian movement which evolved into an open uprising in Palestine. In 452, he served as bishop of Majuma for six months before all Monophysite leaders were banished by decree. Peter escaped to Egypt, but returned to Palestine a decade later. He was involved in semi-underground Monophysite activities and gained numerous followers and disciples. According to the medieval sources, he was an author of several famous works. However, none of them survived to be written under the name of Peter.

He died in the coastal suburb of Iamnia, 491. Peter was buried in his monastery near Gaza.

[edit] Legacy

The Monophysite Syriac, Coptic and Armenian churches venerated him as an eminent saint and ascetic, while the Eastern Orthodox churches completely neglected his person. So did his native Georgian Orthodox Church until the late 12th-early 13th centuries when Peter was canonized only after his biography had been substantially revised and Peter’s Monophysite deviations were significantly moderated.

[edit] Biographies

  • The so-called Syrian version originally written by Peter’s disciple John Rufus in Greek dates back to the 8th century
  • The so-called Georgian version originally written by Peter’s contemporary, Zacharias Rhetor, bishop of Mytilene, in Greek has preserved as a manuscript of ca 13th century.

Between 1942-1952, professors Shalva Nutsubidze (Georgia, 1888-1969) and Ernest Honingmann (Belgium, 1892-1954) developed a well-known theory identifying Peter the Iberian with Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] Further reading

  • David Marshall Lang. "Peter the Iberian and His Biographers". Journal of Ecclesiastical History, vol. 2 (1951), pp 156-168
  • Jan-Eric Steppa, John Rufus and the World Vision of Anti-Chalcedonian Culture, (Gorgias Press, 2002), xxvii + 199 pp. ISBN 1-931956-09-X
  • Ernest Honigmann, Piere l'iberian et les ecrits du Pseudo-Denys l'Areopagite, Bruxelles, 1952 (French)
  • Petre Iberi. Works, Tbilisi, 1961 (Georgian)
  • Shalva Nutsubidze. Mystery of Pseudo-Dionys Areopagit, Tbilisi, 1942 (Georgian, English summary)
  • Shalva Nutsubidze. Peter the Iberian and problems of Areopagitics. - Proceedings of the Tbilisi State University, vol. 65, Tbilisi, 1957 (Russian)
  • A. Kofsky. "Peter the Iberian and the Question of the Holy Places," Cathedra 91 (1999), pp. 79-96 (Hebrew).
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