Pope Peter III of Alexandria

Pope Peter III of Alexandria (d. 489) also known as Peter Mongus (from the Greek μογγός mongos, "stammerer") was the 27th Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark.

Biography After the Council of Chalcedon, Peter Mongus was an ardent adherent of Miaphysitism and deacon of Timothy Aelurus. After Timothy expelled the Chalcedonian Patriarch Proterius in 457, Mongus took part in the persecution of the Chalcedonians.

When Timothy Aelurus, who had been expelled in 460 and returned in 475, died in 477, his followers elected Mongus to succeed him. However, the Byzantine Emperor Zeno brought Timothy Salophakiolos, a Chalcedonian who had supplanted Aelurus before in 460, back to Alexandria; he also sentenced Mongus to death. Patriarch Acacius of Constantinople entered him into his diptych list as patriarch of Alexandria.

Talaia had meanwhile fled to Rome, where he was welcomed by Pope Simplicius and his successor Pope Felix III, who refused to recognize Mongus and defended Talaia's rights in two letters to Acacius.

Mongus died soon afterwards and was succeeded by Athanasius II.

Works He is said to have written many books, of which however nothing remains. A pretended correspondence between him and Acacius (in Coptic) is proved to be spurious by Amélineau in the "Memoires publiés par les membres de la mission archéologique française au Caire", IV (Paris, 1888), 196–228.

Evagrius has preserved the letter which Mongus wrote to Acacius in 482 - this is the only writing of Mongus still in existence.