St. Peter of Verona is considered the second saint of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). He was a distinguished preacher who led his mission to the point of surrendering his life to martyrdom. His sermon was devoted to combating the heresy of the Cathars or Albigensians, who, in the thirteenth century, had spread their “Christian Manichaeism” with relative success throughout Western Europe, including central and northern Italy. ‘where this Saint was originally from.
St. Peter the Martyr, as he is also known, was born in Verona, Lombardy (Italy), in 1205. Although his parents were linked to Catharism, Peter took distance from this doctrine thanks to the his stay at the University of Bologna. After studying in this academic enclosure, it received the Dominican habit of hands of the same Santo Domingo de Guzmán.
According to Blessed James of the Vortex, St. Peter was a great connoisseur of the Holy Scriptures and an example of purity, austerity and firmness in defense of the faith. Precisely this hagiographer emphasizes that Peter of Verona, despite having been part of a family “darkened by error,” knew how to “keep immune” to bad doctrine. Proof of this was his early entry into the Order of Preachers in days when Santo Domingo de Guzmán, founder of the Order, was still alive.
After completing his ecclesiastical training, he was ordained a priest. His evangelistic work led him to teach righteous Christian doctrine and combat heresies in Vercelli, Rome, Florence, and other cities in northern Italy. He instituted the so-called “Associations of the Faith” and the “Brotherhood for the Praise of the Virgin” in Milan, Florence and Perugia.
In 1248 was designated prior of the convent of Asti and a year after the one of Piacenza. In 1251, Pope Innocent IV appointed him inquisitor of Lombardy and prior of Com. As his fame spread, his enemies made plans to get rid of him.
The plot against him was executed on April 6, 1252, when the Saint returned from Milan to the monastery of Com, located very close to the town of Barlassina. St. Peter of Verona was attacked by Carinus of Balsam, who struck him twice in the head with the intent to assassinate him. Peter, while bleeding and with the last strength he had left, wrote with his finger full of blood on the ground: “I believe in God.”
On March 9, 1253, just one year after his death, he was canonized by Pope Innocent IV. His body was later moved to Milan and his remains rest today in the church of St. Eustorgio. Its celebration is celebrated every 6 of April.
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