He was born into the royal Chosroid dynasty of the Kings of Iberia and was initially named Murvan, Prince of Iberia. His father, King Bosmarios of Iberia, invited noted philosopher Mithradates from Lazica to take part in Murvan's education. For a time, the child was kept hidden so as not to be delivered as a hostage to the Persians. In 423, at the age of about five, the prince was sent as a political hostage to Constantinople to ensure the loyalty of Iberia to the Byzantines rather than to the Persians. Here he received a brilliant education under a personalpatronage of the Roman empressAelia Eudocia, wife of Theodosius II. According to his biographer, John Rufus, Peter refused to write to or receive letters from home lest it undermine his ascetic discipline. When he was about twenty, the young prince, together with his mentor Mithradates, left the palace and escaped to make a pilgrimage to Palestine, where he became a monk at Jerusalem under the name of Peter. In 430, he founded his own monastery at Bethlehem. In 445, he was ordained as a priest. Accompanied by Mithradates, he traveled across several countries of the Near East and finally settled in Majuma near Gaza. In 452, he was consecrated bishop of Majuma by Patriarch Theodosius. He only served for six months before some Christians were banished by the decree of the local ruler. Peter escaped to Egypt, where he found refuge in the Enaton, but returned to Palestine a decade later. He gained numerous followers and disciples. According to the medieval sources, he was an author of several famous religious works. However, none of them survived to be written under the name of Peter. He died at Yavneh-Yam, port of ancient Iamnia, in 491 and was buried in his monastery near Gaza.
Various eastern Churches think that he may have deviated from the Chalcedonian doctrine. These Churches believe that Peter the Iberian was a Miaphysite and an anti-Chaldeonian, whereas this view is not shared by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Although his biographies do not discuss this issue, some of the scholars who side with the Armenian sources accept the idea that he was an anti-Chaldeonian, while others do not. For example, David Marshall Lang believes in the possibility that he was a Monophysite, while Shalva Nutsubidze and Ernest Honingmann believe that he was a Neoplatonic philosopher.
Biographies
Peter's Vita was written by his disciple, John Rufus, later his successor as bishop of Maiuma.
The so-called Syriac version of John Rufus' in Greek original, dates back to the 8th century
The so-called Georgian version originally written by Peter's contemporary, Zacharias Rhetor, bishop of Mytilene, in Greek has been preserved as a manuscript of c. 13th century.
