Peter the New
The Holy Martyr Peter the New, whose feet were cut off
Martyr
Commemorated 14 July — Martyred by the cutting off of his feet
Peter, called the New or the Younger, is a martyr known only from a single line of the Greek synaxarion for July 14, which records that he was perfected by having his feet cut off. Neither his country, his date, nor the authority that condemned him has been handed down. The epithet "the New" was given by the compilers to distinguish him from the Apostle Peter and from the older martyrs of the name, and tells us only that he was felt to be later than they.
The whole surviving record is the notice itself: the holy martyr Peter the New is perfected by the cutting off of his feet. The mutilation of the feet is a punishment that appears in the martyrologies both as a torture meant to break the will and, where the victim was left to bleed, as the means of death; the formula the synaxarion uses — τελειοῦται, "is perfected" — indicates that he died of it. Beyond that, nothing.
Because no date is transmitted, no century can be assigned. The epithet ὁ νέος is the synaxarist's, not his own; in the later Greek books the same word is used of the neomartyrs of the Turkish period, but nothing in this notice suggests so late a date, and the entry sits among the ancient supplementary commemorations of the day.
Feast and commemoration
July 14 (church date; New Calendar civil July 14, Old Calendar civil July 27). The commemoration is carried in the Greek synaxaria of the day; the Slavic calendars and the OCA do not list him, and his memory is recorded here as a Greek commemoration pending fuller witness. There is no proper office; the day's service is that of the Apostle Aquila.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of a martyr)
Thy martyr Peter, O Lord, in his contest received an incorruptible crown from thee our God; for possessing thy strength, he cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By his intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
No identified image exists. Where a martyr known only by name and manner of death is written at all, it is in the general type — a figure in tunic and mantle holding the cross of witness — with the instrument of his passion shown beside him; here that would be the axe or the blade at his feet. No pre-1900 icon has been located for this collection.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with the other Peters of the calendar, and in particular with Peter the Patrician (July 1, †854) — whose Old Calendar civil date is July 14, so that working lists built from civil dates repeatedly place him on this day. Peter the Patrician was a Constantinopolitan nobleman who died a monk in peace; this Peter is a martyr, and the two have nothing in common but the name. Nor is he Peter of Atroa, Peter of Capitolias, or Peter of Monembasia.