Petros III Mongos

Petros III Mongos († 490 ) was a late antique patriarch of Alexandria and the first Coptic Pope after the split of the Coptic Church from the Roman Imperial Church . He is a saint of the Coptic Church but has been excommunicated from the Roman Church .

Petros was ordained a deacon by Patriarch Dioskur of Alexandria . After the death of the Monophysite Pope Timothy II Eluros , Petros was elected patriarch by the Monophysites , while the other potential candidate, the Orthodox Timothy III. Salophakiolus had withdrawn into a monastery and did not dare to show himself in public.

Emperor Zenon had Petros driven out of Alexandria as a Monophysite and reinstalled Timotheus. After the death of Timotheus in 482, Joannes I Talaia was elected patriarch, but exiled by Zenon at the instigation of the patriarch Akakios of Constantinople . Zenon now installed Petros as patriarch after he, unlike Joannes, had accepted the Henoticon .

Petros first tried to enforce the Henoticon, but encountered massive resistance from influential bishops and Egyptian monks, so he condemned the Council of Chalcedon and replaced Proterius and Timotheus III in the diptychs . Salophakiolos through Dioskur I. and Timotheos II. Eluros. This statement made Petros the hero of the anti-Chalcedonian party and the villain of the Chalcedonian party. Upon request, Akakios received a rather evasive letter, on the basis of which he kept communion.

Joannes Talaia had fled to Rome and the Roman patriarch Pope Simplicius took his side. In the following correspondence, carried out sharply, Akakios declared himself in communion with Petros. Simplicius' successor Felix II sent two bishops, Vitalis and Misenus, to Constantinople and demanded that Petros be expelled from Alexandria and that Akakios come to Rome to explain his behavior. Threats and promises led the legates to expressly read out the name of Peter in the diptychs. When this became known in Rome, Felix convened a synod in the Lateran basilica, at which Akakios, Petros and the legates were excommunicated.

Aided by the emperor, Akakios ignored the excommunication and in turn removed Felix's name from the diptychs and remained in communion with Petros.

literature

• Hans-Georg Opitz : Petros 3 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume XIX, 2, Stuttgart 1938, Col. 1294 f.

Web links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: "Peter Mongus" (English)

predecessor	Office	successor
Timothy II Eluros	Coptic Pope 477–489	Athanasios II. Keletes