PROTERIUS, Saint. - Unknown to the Latin Martyrologies, he is commemorated by the Greeks on February 28. He was elected patriarch of Alexandria after the Council of Chalcedon, at which the heretic Dioscorus was deposed (451).

The latter's supporters, however, stirred up continuous disorders in the city, which were suppressed by the emperor Marcian. P. sent to Pope St. Leo the Great in 454 a profession of faith, and in 456 he held a Synod against certain Eutychian bishops, priests and monks. On the death of Marcian (457), Timothy Aelurus, in the absence of the prefect of Alexandria, seized the see and had himself consecrated bishop by two heretics. P. took refuge in the Baptistery, where Timothy's followers reached him and slaughtered him together with six clerics. His body, ignominiously carried around the city, was burned and the ashes scattered.

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: Mansi, VII, coll. 821-30; Acta SS. Februarii, III, Paris 1865, pp. 735-42; Symos. Constantinop., coll. 403-95; Fliche-Martin-Fruta, IV, pp. 275-77.

@incollection{ec10_proterio_santo, author = {Amore, Agostino}, title = {Proterio, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {X}, pages = {167--168}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1953}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/proterio-santo} }

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Proterius, Saint

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