SAINT PETER OF ALEXANDRIA,
Bishop, Martyr
(† 311)
St. Peter governed the Church of Alexandria during the persecution of Diocletian. The sentence of excommunication that he was the first to pronounce against the schismatics, Melitius and Arius, and which, despite the united efforts of powerful partisans, he strenuously upheld, proves that he possessed as much sagacity as zeal and firmness.
But his most constant care was employed in guarding his flocks from the dangers arising out of persecution. He never ceased repeating to them that, in order not to fear death, it was needful to begin by dying to self, renouncing our will, and detaching ourselves from all things.
St. Peter gave an example of such detachment by undergoing martyrdom in the year 311.
Saint Sylvester
Abbot
(† 1267)
Sylvester, born of a noble family at Osimo, in Picenum, was remarkable, even as a boy, for his keen intelligence and upright conduct. Being duly instructed in sacred learning and made a canon, he benefited his people by his example and his sermons. At the funeral of a relative, who was also a nobleman and a very handsome person, on seeing the disfigured corpse in the open tomb, he said: "What this man was, I am now; and what he is now, I shall be."
He soon retired to a lonely place with the desire for greater perfection, and there spent himself in vigils, payers and fasting. To hide himself better from men, he kept changing his dwelling place. At length, he arrived at Monte Fano, at that time a solitary place, built a church in honor of St. Benedict and laid the foundations of the Congregation of Sylvestrines.
There he strengthened the monks with his wonderful holiness. He shone with the spirit of prophecy, and possessed power over the demons and other gifts, which he always tried to hide with deep humility.
He fell asleep in the Lord in the year of salvation 1267.