Butler tells us of swarthy young Petros (one of a long list of Peters to suffer for the faith), a brainy hunk from an area in present-day Turkey who became a martyr for the faith. This perfect specimen of Christian maleness was dragged before the Asian proconsul Optimus and ordered to sacrifice to the goddess, Venus. In a bitchy way that only Pretty Young Things like our Petros could pull off, this young man retorts that, were Venus a flesh-and-blood citizen, she would be repeatedly arrested for her lewd, lascivious behavior (so lewd, in fact, that modesty forbade Petros to even specify her actions!)–so why in the world should he, Petros, worship her?! To do so would be bad religion AND bad citizenship!
After that verbal slap-down, Optimus ordered Petros to be tied onto a combination wheel/rack, and to have his lithe young body stretched to the point that his bones would gradually break. How does Petros respond? Here’s the quote from Butler: “I praise and thank you, O Lord Jesus Christ, for vouchsafing me patience to overcome this cruel tyrant.” So Optimus, his tunic in a knot, ordered his own boys to chop off Petros’ head. And this is how another Peter was added to the Calendar.
People like Petros of Lampascus (his home town) are vital for us, even now. Such people, like the drag queens at the Stonewall Inn in June 1968 (look them up if you don’t know their story) or the high school students from Parkland, Florida, speak truth to power and boldly refuse to alter their ethics, inclinations, beliefs or dignity to satisfy those who want to control them simply because they believe they can.
Oh, yes–such people are assailed and sometimes even get arrested and/or killed. But the alternative–bowing, scraping, giving in, and going along to get along–is an erosion of the self and soul with too high a cost. Just as the semi-ubiquitous bumper sticker reminds us, “Well-behaved women seldom make history”–the people who allow themselves to be pushed aside from their moral direction by those in positions of authority [sic] cannot save themselves nor can they help anyone else.