St. Peter of Sebaste

Born c. 340, St. Peter was the youngest child of Sts. Basil (the Elder) and Emiliana (Emilia); he may have been a posthumous child. Some say that he was born after his father's death, and others say that the elder Basil died while Peter was an infant. Macrina, his oldest sister, raised him, and he, like his brothers, gave up the study of rhetoric. He became a monk at Basil the Great's monastery on the Iris River; when Basil became bishop in 370, Peter succeeded him as abbot. Basil ordained Peter to the priesthood. During a famine in the Pontus and Cappadocia, Peter did much to alleviate its effects. Peter was named bishop of Sebaste in 380, and he attended the second Council of Nicaea the following year. At the request of his brother, Gregory of Nyssa, Peter completed Basil's Hexæmeron. Peter, who helped to eliminate Arianism in his diocese, died c. 391