Saint Peter of Verona

After his profession, he applied himself to his studies with such zeal that in a short time he became capable of receiving holy orders, of mounting the pulpit, of attacking heretics, and of appearing on the most important occasions for the defense and support of the Church. He conducted himself with such fervor that, in the words of Saint Antoninus, all his actions appeared animated by a very lively faith and a very ardent charity. When he was in the choir, the presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar inflamed him like a seraph; but especially since he saw himself honored with the priesthood; for at the mere thought that he was to celebrate these august mysteries, he would humble himself into nothingness; and he never raised the chalice, in the most holy sacrifice, without urgently asking God for the grace to shed his blood for His glory. He had a particular talent for touching hearts in preaching; which caused his superiors to send him to preach in Tuscany, Romagna, the March of Ancona, the Bolognese, and the Milanese; he succeeded so admirably that heretics detested their errors, the most obstinate sinners in vice did penance, and good people were confirmed in virtue.

The devil, irritated, resolved to thwart him by every imaginable means. Our Saint was preaching in Florence: it was in the old market, because th e church Florence City where Julie served as a maid. es were not vast enough for the great number of people who flocked to hear him; this monster of hell appeared there in the form of a black horse running at full gallop; it seemed ready to break through the crowd and crush all those who would be in its path; but the Saint, making the sign of the cross, dissipated this phantom, and all the people saw it vanish like smoke. After the preaching, Peter would usually go to the confessional to receive penitents: one day, there was one who, touched with regret for his faults, accused himself of having kicked his mother; the holy Confessor gave him a severe reprimand; and, to excite him further to holy contrition, he told him that the foot which had thus struck his mother deserved to be cut off. The penitent cut off his own foot as soon as he returned to his house. The Saint, whom the people were already accusing of imprudence, having learned of this, came to find the penitent, took his foot, reunited it to his leg and, making the sign of the cross, restored it to its former state: this miracle caused even more esteem than ever for his holiness and his very wise conduct.

However, God, who ordinarily tests the virtue of His Saints, wished to test that of Peter. When he was at the convent of Saint John the Baptist in Como, He Côme City of which Abondius is the primary patron saint. favored him with several visits from heaven; thus, the holy virgins and martyrs Catherine, Agnes, and Cecilia appeared to him in his cell and conversed with him so familiarly and in such an intelligible voice that a religious, who was passing through the dormitory, hearing this conversation, imagined that it was indeed women who had entered the monastery and whom he had brought into his room. He took witnesses of what he believed he heard, and all together complained about it in the chapter to the superior: the latter, not examining the matter closely enough, relegated Father Peter to the convent of Iesi, in the March of Ancona, to lead a retired life there, without appearing in public anymore. The Saint, who had not wished to defend himself, for fear of manifesting the grace he had received from heaven, and in order to suffer something for God, endured this confusion for some time with admirable patience; but finally, he let slip a loving complaint to the crucifix, before whom alone he unburdened his heart: 'What is this! My God,' he said to Him, 'You know my innocence, how do You suffer that I remain so long plunged in infamy?' But Our Lord answered him: 'And I, Peter, was I not innocent? Had I deserved the opprobrium and the pains with which I was overwhelmed in the course of My passion? Learn then from Me to suffer with joy the greatest pains, without having committed the crimes for which they are imposed upon you.' These words of Jesus Christ made such an impression on the heart of Saint Peter that he placed from then on all his happiness in suffering, all his honor in humiliation, and all his joy in the cross of Jesus Christ. But when his confusion pleased him thus, God revealed the whole mystery and made known the innocence of His servant: which caused him to be recalled from this banishment to appear with more brilliance than before, according to the practice of Our Lord, which is to raise His servants all the more as they have humbled themselves for His love.

As soon as he was released from his prison, he took up the arms of the word of God to combat heresy. Pope Gregory IX, who pape Grégoire IX Pope who attested to the miracles of Bruno. knew his learning and his zeal, appointed him inquisitor general of the faith in 1232. But what gave the most weight to his preaching were the miracles he performed at all hours to prove the truth of his doctrine. One day, while debating a heretic in a public square, where the entire audience was scorched by the heat of the sun, he obtained from God, in an instant, a cloud that covered the assembly and provided the necessary relief: something that this heretic had challenged him to do. Another time, he struck dumb another heretic, who was a great talker and had proposed many arguments against the truth of our religion. Another feigned illness to surprise the Saint and asked for his healing; but he was well deceived in his pretense, for he became truly so ill that he found himself in a moment at the point of exhaustion and on the verge of death. He recognized his fault, confessed it, and received a perfect healing of both soul and body through the prayers of the servant of God. These wonders took place in Milan, where Saint Peter worked with all his might fo r the Milan Italian city where the saint has an altar and an annual feast. conversion of the heretics. One day, he found them so obstinate in their errors that discouragement took hold of his soul: he was going to renounce this work; nevertheless, he consulted, above all, the Blessed Virgin on this subject, praying on his knees before one of her images. He then heard a voice that said to him: "Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith may never be shaken; continue therefore and persevere in your first work." These words of the most holy Virgin filled his heart inwardly with so much vigor and zeal that he resolved to employ himself in the future only in supporting and defending the faith against its enemies, even if he had to lose his life a hundred times over.

Resuming his former duties with greater ardor, he went from Milan to Cesena, where the sick were brought to him in crowds so that he might heal them. From Cesena he went to Ravenna: upon his arrival, which took place in the evening, a lighted torch appeared on the bell tower of the parish of Saint John, which did not go out, even though there was a strong wind and snow was falling in abundance. He also came to Mantua and Venice, where he healed, by means of holy confession, two women sick unto death.

Finally, he arrived at the convent of Como, of which he had been named prior: he had already governed, in this same capacity, the convents of Piacenza, Genoa, Aosta, and Jesi, and everywhere he had performed miracles to confirm what he preached to the people; but he performed them particularly in this last convent: for, with a single blessing, he healed several sick and crippled people who were waiting for his return at the city gate. By the same sign of the cross, he restored the use of all her limbs to a nun of the Order of the Humiliati, named Therasia, who had been paralyzed in her whole body for seven years. Two other paralytics also received a similar grace from him. Moreover, he performed these miracles out of the zeal he had for the conversion of heretics, and so that at the sight of these works, which undoubtedly exceed the power of man, they might recognize the falsehood, the reveries, and the superstitions of their sect.

We do not wish to omit what happened to two farmers in the territory of Como, one of whom was a heretic and the other a Catholic. The heretic, when he sowed his grain, commended it to the demon, as to the Lord of visible things; the Catholic prayed to God to bless his own; the holy Prior, being informed of this, predicted to the heretic farmer that, if he did not cease to offer such an impious prayer, his lands would not yield a single ear of corn, and that on the contrary, those of his Catholic neighbor would produce wheat a hundredfold: what he had predicted actually came to pass; but the sterility of the heretic's lands was very fertile for him, since it brought about his conversion and that of many others who learned of this miracle. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Manichaeans, extremely irritated against the Saint, finally resolved to put him to death, and entrusted the execution of this dreadful plot to two assassins. Peter knew in advance, by a supernatural light, the martyrdom that awaited him: he spoke of it from the pulpit, and said that on the very day that Judas had sold the blood of his Master, that is to say, on Wednesday of Holy Week, the heretics had also debated the question of buying his; that the money was already in the hands of the one who was to assassinate him. He even predicted to them what his enemies did not know: that the place where the murder would be carried out was between Como and Milan, and that, moreover, he was prepared to suffer it joyfully. He added that his enemies were greatly mistaken in persuading themselves that after his death he would no longer fight to exterminate their sect; that on the contrary, it would be then that he would wage a more formidable war against them.

Finally, on April 5, Saint Peter, traveling for the affairs of the Inquisition from Como to Milan, was met, two hours after midday, by the assassins in a place called Barlasina, where one of these traitors, named Carino, struck Carino The assassin of Saint Peter, later converted. him on the head with an axe with such violence that he fell to the ground half-dead. The Saint, kneeling as best he could, recited the first article of the Apostles' Creed, and, having offered as a sacrifice to the majesty of God the blood he was shedding for the defense of the faith, he dipped two of his fingers into it and wrote these three words on the earth: Credo in Deum, I believe in God; but the murderer, impatient that he was not yet dead, struck him another blow in the left shoulder that pierced his heart. It was thus that the soul of the Saint took flight toward heaven, to receive there the triple crown of virginity, of the doctorate, and of martyrdom. This assassination took place in the year of Our Lord 1252: Peter was forty-six years old. The religious who was assisting him, called Brother Dominic, did not escape frère Dominique Companion of Pierre, also killed during the attack. the fury of these assassins either: they pierced him with several blows and left him for dead on the spot; and, indeed, he died shortly after.

The body of the holy Martyr was carried solemnly to Milan and deposited in the church of Saint Eustorgius, owned and served by the religious of his Order. The miracles continuing at his tomb verified his prophecy that after his death he would wage a crueler war against the heretics than he had done during his life. The very night he was brought to this church, a great light was seen rising from the earth to the sky. These wonders opened the eyes of a great number of heretics. Nevertheless, one was found so reckless in Florence that, seeing the image of Saint Peter, where he was represented with a dagger in his breast, he uttered this blasphemy: "Oh! Why was I not present when this traitor was murdered? I would have given him another blow!" But the words had barely left his mouth when he became mute, unable to say another word until he had acknowledged his fault and embraced the Catholic faith. Carino himself, his murderer, who had escaped from the hands of justice and taken refuge in Forlì, acknowledging his crime, asked for penance from the Fathers of the Order, took the religious habit there, and wore it holily for the rest of his life.

So many victories obtained by the merits of the blessed Peter over the enemies of the Church, and the countless miracles that took place at his tomb and at the invocation of his name, led Pope Innocent IV to decree his canonization the year after his martyrdom, on March 25; and he ordered that his feast be celebrated on April 29, because the 5th, which was the day of his death, may be occupied by the feasts of Easter. Since then, Pope Sixtus V, by a Bull issued in the year 1586, had the feast of this glorious Martyr inserted into the Roman Breviary.

Since his canonization, he has performed a great number of wonders, for he has restored health to all kinds of sick people, raised the dead, assisted women in their pregnancy or childbirth, restored reason to the insane, cured epileptics, and delivered the possessed. His relics have been distributed in several cities of Italy. Paris possessed, before 1793, at the great convent of the Jacobins, the cutlass that was consecrated by the blood of such an illustrious Martyr, and the two fingers, still covered with their flesh and skin, which he dipped therein to write, while dying, his last confession of faith. The religious of this monastery had authentications for both of these relics.

Saint Peter of Verona is honored in Lombardy and in Palma, in the Grand Canary. He is particularly dear to the Dominicans, of whom he was the first m Dominicains Religious order with which Gregory interacts in Mexico City. artyr: this is why they call him Saint Peter Martyr.

The Lombard school and Fra Angelico of Fiesole have often reproduced this martyrdom and the features of Saint Peter of Verona. He is represented: 1st, kneeling, writing with his blood on the sand: *I believe in God*; 2nd, he bears a gash on his head and a sword pierces his chest; 3rd, he is crowned with the triple crown of virginity, science, and martyrdom; 4th, he holds a crucifix and a lily in his hand.

Acta Sanctorum, Thomas Lentino and Ambrose Taegio, contemporary authors.