St Peter of Sebaste

Peter of Sebaste was the youngest of an extraordinary Cappadocian family: brother to Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, brother too of St Macrina, whose influence over the whole household remained profound. Yet Peter is not left as a shadow among giants. Formed more in religion than in secular display, he entered the monastic life early, helped govern the communities associated with Basil, and showed practical charity in famine by turning monastic goods into relief for the poor.

In time he was ordained and eventually became bishop of Sebaste, where the wounds left by Arian controversy were deep and patience as necessary as courage. He is a quieter kind of churchman than Basil, but not a lesser one: steady, charitable, orthodox, and pastoral. Peter stands in the light of a holy family, but as a monk and bishop of real substance in his own right.