Patriarch Peter VII of Alexandria - Definition and Overview

His Beatitude Peter (Petros) VII (September 3, 1949 – September 11, 2004) was the Eastern Orthodox Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa from 1997 to 2004.

Peter was born as Peter Papapetrou in Sichari, Kyrenia, in what is today the self-proclaimed and internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus on the island of Cyprus. He assumed the Patriarchate of Alexandria on March 9, 1997, following his election by the Holy Synod the previous February 21. Before his election, Peter had served as a deacon and a priest, and was consecrated as a bishop in 1983. He had a close rapport with his predecessor, Patriarch Parthenios III of Alexandria and assumed the latter's post after his death in 1996. His tenure was marked by renewed missionary efforts in Kenya, Uganda, Madagascar, Cameroon, and elsewhere across the African continent.

Peter VII died along with 16 others (including three other bishops of the Church of Alexandria: Metropolitan Chrysostomos of Carthage, Metropolitan Irenaios of Pelusium, and Bishop Nectarios of Madagascar) when the helicopter carrying them crashed into the Aegean Sea while en route to the monastic enclave of Mount Athos in Greece. The cause of the crash remains unknown.

A different Peter VII was the Coptic Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria from 1810 to 1854. See: Pope Peter VII of Alexandria.