Hierarch
Hierarch Peter of Pavia
? — 735
Also known as: Пётр I Павийский
Saint Peter of Pavia — bishop of Pavia in Lombard Italy, nephew of King Liutprand, who ransomed the relics of Blessed Augustine of Hippo from Saracen hands in Sardinia and translated them to Pavia, where they remain to this day.
DATE CORRECTION: the previous date "May 3" was not confirmed by any source — every source checked unanimously gives May 7. HONEST CAVEAT: no dedicated article about this saint was found on pravenc.ru, azbyka.ru, or drevo-info.ru — he is known only through Western (Catholic) hagiographic compendia and the crowd-sourced OrthodoxWiki catalog; this is materially weaker attestation than usual for admitting pre-schism Western saints into the Orthodox calendar.
Peter of Pavia (Peter I; d. 735) was bishop of Pavia (ancient Ticinum), capital of the Lombard Kingdom in northern Italy. He was a nephew (in some accounts, a relative) of the Lombard king Liutprand, under whose reign he held the see.
His chief recorded act concerns the relics of Blessed Augustine of Hippo: according to the Venerable Bede, after Augustine's relics had been carried by African bishops to Sardinia and later fell under threat from Saracen raiders, Bishop Peter ransomed them for sixty thousand gold solidi and had them transported via Genoa to Pavia, where around 720 they were enshrined in the Basilica of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro — the same church later embellished by King Liutprand, who was himself buried there.
No further biographical details about his birth or early life survive.