Saint Peter of Verona is considered the second saint of the Order of Preachers (Dominicans). He was a leading preacher who accomplished his mission so much that he gave his life in martyrdom. His preaching was devoted to combating the heresy of the Cathars or Albigensians, who in the 13th century had spread their “Christian Manichaeism” with relative success across Western Europe, including central and northern Italy, from where this saint was originally.
Saint Peter the Martyr, as he is also called, was born in Verona, Lombardy (Italy) in 1205. Although his parents were associated with Catharism, Peter renounced this teaching through his stay at the University of Bologna. After studying on the said academic campus, he received the Dominican habit from Santo Domingo de Guzmán himself.
According to Blessed Santiago de la Vorágine, Saint Peter was a great connoisseur of the Holy Scriptures and an example of purity, austerity and constancy in defense of the faith. It is precisely this hagiographer that emphasizes that Pedro de Verona, even if he belonged to a family “darkened by error,” knew how to keep himself “immune” to bad teachings. Proof of this was his early entry into the Order of Preachers while Santo Domingo de Guzmán, the founder of the Order, was still alive.
After he completed his ecclesiastical education, he was ordained a priest. His evangelizing work led him to teach proper Christian doctrine and combat heresies in Vercelli, Rome, Florence, and other cities in northern Italy. He founded the so-called “Associations of Faith” and the “Brotherhood for the Praise of the Virgin Mary” in Milan, Florence and Perugia.
In 1248 he was appointed prior of the Asti Monastery and one year after that of Piacenza. In 1251 Pope Innocent IV appointed him Inquisitor of Lombardy and Prior of Como. As his fame spread, his enemies made plans to get rid of him.
The plot against him was carried out on April 6, 1252, when the saint returned from Milan to the monastery of Como, very close to the city of Barlassina. Saint Peter of Verona was attacked by Carino de Balsamo, who hit him twice in the head with an ax with the intention of murdering him. Pedro, bleeding and with the last strength he had, wrote with his bloody finger on the ground, “I believe in God.”
On March 9, 1253, just a year after his death, he was canonized by Pope Innocent IV. His body was later transferred to Milan and his remains rest today in the church of San Eustorgio. His feast is celebrated every year on April 6.
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