Peter the Tax-Collector

The rich man and the morsel of bread

The account of Peter comes down through the circle of John the Merciful, Patriarch of Alexandria (†c. 620), who used to tell it as he had received it from a man personally acquainted with the saint; from the Patriarch's Life it passed into the synaxaria of the whole Church. Peter was the chief tax-collector (telōnēs) of Africa — the Byzantine province about Carthage — in the days of Justinian, wealthy, powerful, and a byword for hardness: the poor of the city held him a man from whom no alms had ever been won.

One day, besieged at his door by a beggar who would not be silenced, Peter, finding nothing else to hand, snatched a loaf from a servant carrying bread and hurled it at the man's face to be rid of him. Soon afterwards he fell ill, and in a vision saw himself dead, and his deeds weighed before the judgement of God: dark figures heaped one scale with his sins, while the bright angels on the other side stood sorrowing, having nothing to lay in the balance but the one loaf, thrown in anger — and it alone held the scale from sinking. Waking, Peter understood: if a morsel flung in contempt could so avail, what might not deeds of mercy done from the heart obtain.

Conversion and self-emptying

Peter's life turned entirely. He gave alms without stint, fed and clothed the poor, and forgave the debts of those in his power. Meeting one day a shipwrecked man who begged a covering, he gave him his own costly cloak; seeing it soon after hung for sale in the market, he grieved that his gift had been despised — but in a dream he saw Christ himself wearing the cloak, saying, "Why grievest thou, Peter? This thou gavest me." Thereupon he resolved to give not only his goods but himself. He distributed the rest of his substance, and ordered a slave of his own to take him to the Holy City and there sell him as a slave, giving the price to the poor; the slave, in distress, obeyed his master, and Peter was bought by a Christian silversmith, in whose household he laboured for years at the lowest tasks, mocked by his fellow servants and growing all the while in humility and prayer.

Flight and hidden end

At length merchants of Africa who had known the great tax-collector came as guests to the house and recognised the slave who served at table. Peter, overhearing their whispers and fearing the honour that would follow, fled the house that night. The gatekeeper was a slave deaf and mute from birth; Peter commanded him in the name of Jesus Christ to open, and the man's ears and tongue were loosed at once — he ran to his master to tell what had happened, saying that fire had come from the fugitive's mouth and touched his face when the command was spoken. All searched for Peter, but he was not found: he had hidden himself among the unknown poor, and remained hidden until his death.