Peter of Goulaion ( Greek: Πέτρος τοῦ Γουλαίου or ὁ Γουλαιάτης, romanized: Petros tou Goulaiou/ho Goulaiates) was a Byzantine abbot of the early 9th century, who was used by Emperor Nikephoros I as envoy.

He was abbot ( hegumenos) of the monastery of Goulaion, whose exact location and identity are not known. ^[1] He is commonly identified with the Petrus abbas who was one of the leaders (along with Michahel episcopus, identified with Michael of Synnada) of an embassy sent by Nikephoros I to Charlemagne in 802/3. ^[2] In 806, during the invasion of Asia Minor by the Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid, Peter and Michael, along with Gregory, the steward of Amastris, were sent to the Caliph to propose negotiate a peace. ^[2]

He may also be identifiable with the unnamed abbot of Goulaion, who according to Theodore Stoudites abandoned the veneration of icons in c. 816, but later ( c. 824/6) returned to an iconophile position. ^[2]

References

Sources

• Janin, Raymond (1975). Les églises et les monastères des grands centres byzantins: Bithynie, Hellespont, Latros, Galèsios, Trébizonde, Athènes, Thessalonique. Géographie ecclésiastique de l'Empire byzantin, Vol. 2 (in French). Paris: Institut français d'études byzantines. ISBN  978-90-429-3119-0.
• Lilie, Ralph-Johannes; Ludwig, Claudia; Pratsch, Thomas; Zielke, Beate (2013). Prosopographie der mittelbyzantinischen Zeit Online. Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Nach Vorarbeiten F. Winkelmanns erstellt (in German). Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter.