A priest of Alexandria martyred around 310 in the closing years of the Diocletianic persecution of Christians in Egypt.

Peleusius of Alexandria was a priest martyred at Alexandria, Egypt, around the year 310, during the final and most severe phase of the persecution of Christians begun under the Emperor Diocletian and continued in the East under Maximinus Daia.

Quick Facts

• Died: 310, Alexandria, Egypt
• Venerated as: Priest and martyr
• Canonization: no formal process recorded; venerated through ancient local cult

Who Was Saint Peleusius of Alexandria?

Peleusius of Alexandria was a priest of the great Egyptian church of Alexandria, put to death around 310 as the persecution under Maximinus Daia intensified in the Eastern provinces. No further detail beyond his priestly office, city, and approximate date of death survives in the record used for this page.

Historical Setting

Alexandria was one of the leading sees of the early Church and suffered severely under the final phase of the persecution, when the local governor pursued Christian clergy with particular zeal even as the persecution was beginning to weaken elsewhere in the empire under mounting political pressure that would soon lead to the Edict of Milan in 313.

Why the Church Remembers Saint Peleusius of Alexandria

Peleusius is remembered as one of the Alexandrian clergy who did not live to see the persecution’s end, dying only a few years before Constantine’s toleration of Christianity would transform the Church’s legal standing across the empire.

Canonization and Feast Day

No formal canonisation process is recorded for Peleusius of Alexandria. His veneration rests on the ancient and immemorial local cult of the Alexandrian martyrs, preserved through the Church’s liturgical memory.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

Peleusius’s death so close to the persecution’s end is a hard reminder that suffering does not always end just before relief arrives — and a call to sustain hope and fidelity precisely when an ordeal seems it might finally be closing.

A Prayer to Saint Peleusius of Alexandria

Saint Peleusius of Alexandria, priest who did not live to see the persecution’s end, pray for those enduring hardship today who cannot know how near their own relief may be. Amen.

Sources

• Roman Martyrology
• New Advent, Catholic Encyclopedia, “Alexandria” and “Diocletian”