PROTERIO, saint. - Unknown to the Latin Martyrologies, he is commemorated by the Greeks on 28 February. He was elected patriarch of Alexandria after the Council of Chalcedon, at which the heretic Dioscoro was deposed (451).
The supporters of the latter, however, continually stirred up disorders in the city, which were suppressed by the emperor Marciano. P. sent Pope s. Leone Magno a profession of faith in 454, and in 456 held a Synod against certain Eutychian bishops, presbyters, and monks. Upon the death of Marciano (457), Timoteo Eluro, taking advantage of 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 Timoteo’s followers reached him and massacred him together with six clerics. His
body, ignominiously carried about through the city, was burned and its ashes scattered.