Peter of Verona

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For other people called Peter Martyr, see Peter Martyr (disambiguation).
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Peter of Verona (1205 – April 6, 1252), also known as Saint Peter Martyr and Saint Peter of Verona, was a 13th-century

priest. He was a Dominican friar and a celebrated preacher. He served as Inquisitor in Lombardy, was killed by an assassin, and was canonized as a Catholic saint
11 months after his death, making this the fastest canonization in history.

Biography

Thomas Agni of Leontino, Dominican archbishop of Cosenza, and later patriarch of Jerusalem, was the first to write a biography of Peter of Verona. He lived for many years with Peter of Verona and had been his superior.[1]

Peter was born in the city of

Order of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) and became a celebrated preacher throughout northern and central Italy.[2]

From the 1230s on, Peter preached against heresy, and especially Catharism, which had many adherents in thirteenth-century Northern Italy. Pope Gregory IX appointed him General Inquisitor for northern Italy in 1234 and Peter evangelized nearly the whole of Italy, preaching in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, and Como.[2] He is credited with founding, around 1240, the Venerabile Arciconfraternita della Misericordia di Firenze.

In 1243 he recommended the new Servite foundation to the pope for approval. In 1251, Pope Innocent IV recognized Peter's virtues (severity of life and doctrine, talent for preaching, and zeal for the orthodox Catholic faith), and appointed him Inquisitor in Lombardy. He spent about six months in that office and it is unclear whether he was ever involved in any trials. His one recorded act was a declaration of clemency for those confessing heresy or sympathy to heresy.

In his sermons he denounced heresy and also those Catholics who professed the Faith by words, but acted contrary to it in deeds. Crowds came to meet him and followed him; conversions were numerous,[2] including many Cathars who returned to the Catholic church.

Because of this, a group of Milanese Cathars conspired to kill him. They hired an assassin, Carino of Balsamo. Carino's accomplice was Manfredo Clitoro of Giussano. On April 6, 1252, when Peter was returning from Como to Milan, the two assassins followed Peter to a lonely spot near Barlassina, and there killed him and mortally wounded his companion, a fellow friar named Domenico.[3]

Carino struck Peter's head with an axe and then attacked Domenico. Peter rose to his knees, and recited the first article of the Apostles' Creed). Offering his blood as a sacrifice to God, according to legend, he dipped his fingers in it and wrote on the ground: Credo in Deum,[2] the first words of the creed. The blow that killed him cut off the top of his head, but the testimony given at the inquest into his death confirms that he began reciting the Creed when he was attacked.

Domenico was carried to Meda, where he died five days afterwards.

Baruffini San Pietro Martire

Legends

According to Dominican tradition Peter often conversed with the saints, including the

virgin martyrs Catherine, Agnes and Cecilia.[4]

Once, when preaching to a vast crowd under the burning sun, the heretics challenged him to procure shade for his listeners. As he prayed, a cloud overshadowed the audience.[4]

Veneration

Peter's body was carried to Milan and laid in the Church of

Sant'Eustorgio, where an ornate mausoleum, the work of Balduccio Pisano, was erected to his memory. Since the eighteenth century this has been located in the Portinari Chapel.[3]

Many

martyrdom
.

Peter was canonized by

Easter Triduum.)[9] The Church of Santa Maria Antiqua
in Verona is co-entitled to him.

Carino, the assassin, later repented and confessed his crime. He converted to the Catholic church and eventually became a lay brother in the Dominican convent of Forlì. He is the subject of a local cult as Blessed Carino of Balsamo.

The sculptures on the great door of

S. Anastasia, the Dominican Church in Verona, represent scenes from the life of St. Peter Martyr.[10]

References

  1. ^ "Saint Peter of Verona", Dominican Shrine of St. Jude
  2. ^ a b c d Allaria, Anthony. "St. Peter of Verona." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 6 May 2013
  3. ^ a b Henry Charles Lea, A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (Macmillan, 1887), 215.
  4. ^ a b "St. Peter of Verona", Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Archived 2012-10-25 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Donald Prudlo, The martyred inquisitor: the life and cult of Peter of Verona (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2008), p. 81, esp. note 35.
  6. ISBN 88-209-7210-7
    )
  7. ^ Dominican Ordo, The Dominican Friars of the Province of St. Albert the Great Archived 2004-10-13 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 121
  9. ^ Donald Prudlo, The martyred inquisitor: the life and cult of Peter of Verona (Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing, 2008), p. 84, note 53.
  10. ^ Benigni, Umberto. "Verona." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 6 May 2013

Sources

  • Dondaine, Fr. Antoine, O.P. "Saint Pierre Martyr" Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 23 (1953): 66-162.
  • Prudlo, Donald. The Martyred Inquisitor: The Life and Cult of Peter of Verona (+1252). Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2008.
  • Prudlo, Donald. "The Assassin-Saint: The Life and Cult of Carino of Balsamo", Catholic Historical Review, 94 (2008): 1-21.

External links

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