Is there a place on the web that information on Saint Peter of Moscow (13 century)? I am VERY interested in reading some writtings on him. He was well known for having debates with Muslims and triumphed over them (rather the Truth was triumphed).
God Bless!
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles4 ... lims.shtml
Missions of the Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church has a long history of mission work among the Muslims. St. Michael of Kiev (who lived in the 10th century) sent the monk Mark to preach Christ to the Muslim Bulgars, and thanks to his efforts four Bulgar princes were converted and baptized. St. Peter of Moscow (who lived in the 13th century) publicly debated with Muslim preachers and triumphed over them. St. Makary of Moscow (who lived in the 16th century) baptized Ediger-Mohammed, the last khan of Kazan, and preached the Orthodox Faith among the Tatars. Thanks to over four centuries of missionary work a new subgroup developed within the Tatar people, the Krjashens or Orthodox Tatars. According to the 1926 census the Krjashens numbered around 200,000.[11] Today they number nearly 320,000.
Another Turkic people who converted from Islam to Orthodoxy are the Gagauz, their total number today being around 220,000. Since 1994 they have had their own autonomous territory within the Republic of Moldova - the "Gagauz Yeri." The Gagauz descended from the Turkic Oguz, Pechenegs, and Polovzy who adopted Islam as early as the 9th century but later converted to Christianity in the 13th century. A sprinkling of Arabic words and Muslim terms found in everyday Gagauz are the main evidences of their Islamic heritage. In the Russian-Turkish wars at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th the Gagauz fought for the Russians, at the same time settling the depopulated steppes of southern Bessarabia (modern day Moldova).
Missions among the Caucasian peoples of southern Russia have been no less fruitful. During the second half of the 16th century Allah-Verdi of Tsakhur, who had previously converted from Islam and had become a Christian missionary, brought the entire Ingyl Georgian tribe back to Orthodoxy.[12] At the dawn of the 19th century over 47,000 Ossetians converted to Christianity, thus bringing the majority of the Ossetian people out of Islam. By 1823 nearly all Ossetians were Orthodox. Quite a few Abkhazians also returned to Orthodoxy. In August 1759 a Kabardian noble, Kurgoko Konchokin, was baptized with his entire family, taking the name Andrei Ivanov and filing a petition to the mayor of Kizliar town to "assign him a plot for settlement between the hamlets of Mozdok and Mekenem.[13] In 1762 he was given the rank of lieutenant colonel and given the name Konchokin, prince of Cherkasy. It was Ivanov who founded the present town of Mozdok, where many Kabardians settled and voluntarily converted to Orthodoxy. Their descendants number nearly 2,500 and constitute nearly half of the Mozdok Kabardian subgroup.[14] The conversions of well-known and prominent individuals can be found among all the peoples of the Caucasus.
Saints of the Orthodox Church who converted from Islam
The people dealt with here are special cases, for they converted from Islam and subsequently bore so much spiritual fruit that they were glorified by the Church who saw them as worthy of joining the ranks of the Saints who have shone forth in this dark world. Let us briefly look at some of their lives.
On 6 January 786 the Baghdadi Arab, St. Abu of Tbilisi, was baptized. On 14 April 789 the Palestinian Arab, St. Christopher Sabbait, received the martyr's crown by taking the vows and performing ascetic labors in the lavra of St. Sabbas (Mar Saba). On 25 December 799 St. Antony-Ruwah, a Damascene Arab of the Quraish tribe, was beheaded for converting to Christianity.[15] Around 800 St. Pachomy, a nephew of the caliph, was murdered after taking vows at St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai. Around 820 St. Barbar, a North African Arab and soldier in a Muslim army, was baptized in the territory of the Byzantine Empire (6/19 May).[16]
On 1 April 1229 the Bulgar merchant St. Abrahamy was killed for preaching Christianity to the Bulgars.[17] In 1552 Sts. Peter and Stephan, baptized Tatars from Kazan, suffered at the hands of their former coreligionists and were killed (24 March/6 April).[18] In 1555 the Tatar Tursas was baptized. He later became known as Serapion of Kozheozero (27 June/10 July 1611) after founding the Theophany/Epiphany monastery at Kozheozero in northern Russia and raising seven Saints for the Church of Russia.[19] In 1614 St. Hodja Amiris the Soldier, who saw the miracle of the descent of the holy light, was martyred.[20] On 3 May 1682 St. Ahmed the Deftedar, a high-ranking Muslim Turk, was martyred for the Faith.[21] At the beginning of the 19th century St. Constantine Hagarit (2/15 June 1819)[22] and St. John (23 September/6 October 1814), the son of an Albanian sheikh, converted to Christianity and died for Christ.[23] These Saints are the greatest evidence and fruit of the Orthodox Church's missionary labors and its great spiritual (if not statistical) triumph. God, not willing that any should perish, but that all should repent (III Peter 3:9), has gathered together a worthy harvest from the Muslim peoples.