ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with two saints foreign to Palestine, one of them a spiritual master and the other a martyr. Peter the Iberian’s biography was composed by John Rufus, who was intent on the utopia symbolised by the Council of Nicaea (325 CE). The biography of Anastasius the Persian was written by a fellow monk who accompanied him to his death in Persia in 628. Anastasius’s biography is an exposé of the dystopia presented by the Persian religion. The travels of both these saints in their responses to religious conflict are remarkable. Finally, Allen and Simic offer some observations on their cults.
