The Coptic Orthodox Church believes that Peter was given by his parents to Theonas to be brought up as a priest, similarly to the story of Samuel in the Old Testament.

Peter urged leniency while Meletius held firmly that the lapsed had abandoned their faith and needed to be rebaptised.

[3] The tenth-century historian Severus of Ashmumeen gives us an account of how during the Diocletianic Persecution the Patriarch was seized and thrown in prison.

The Patriarch, fearing for the life of his people, advised the soldiers with a plan to smuggle him out of jail by breaking a hole in a certain wall which he would point out.

Severus of Ashmumeen describes the moment when the Patriarch was martyred: And he took off his omophorion, and bared his neck, which was pure before the Lord, and said to them: «Do as you have been commanded».

So one of the men went forward, and summoned up his courage, and cut off the head of the holy martyr and patriarch Peter; that day being the 29th of Hatur.