I have been waiting all week to write about St. Peter the Martyr (St. Peter of Verona). This week has brought before our attention the lives to two martyrs of what we might well consider to be modern times. Both St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen and St. Peter of Verona were murdered while working to halt the spread of the heresy and to call the erring back to the one Sheepfold of Christ.

The title of this post comes from an antiphon in the Dominican Breviary: “De fumo lumen oritur, et rosae flos de sentibus: doctor et martyr nascitur Petrus de infidelibus.” This antiphon reminds us that St. Peter was born into a family of heretics, a point which I will discuss later in this post. Indeed, what I have done here is to copy material which I posted back on November 5th last year when I came across a wonderful story about St. Peter, the time when he was held guilty of having ladies in his private room.

But before we come to that material, I thought that I would excerpt for you a passage from Dom Gueranger’s commentary on today’s feast. No matter how Rome spins it or the bishops’ conferences lament it, we cannot forget that so-called “religious liberty” in the State is a novel idea, and one condemned repeatedly by the Apostolic See before the Second Vatican Council. I’m sure that we all know the relevant encyclicals. But here, Dom Gueranger explains the point in the context of St. Peter’s death:

Nam cum sanctae Inquisitionis munus gereret, illum Como Mediolanum redeuntem, impius sicarius semel atque iterum in capite gladio vulneravit . . .

Nothing could be more devoid of truth than the accusations brought by the enemies of the Church and their indiscreet abettors against the measures formerly decreed by the public law of Catholic nations, in order to foil the efforts made by evil-minded men to injure the true faith. In those times, no tribunal was so popular as that whose office it was to protect the faith, and to put down all them that attacked it. . . . Far, then, be from us that cowardly truckling to the spirit of the age, which would make us ashamed of the courageous efforts made by our forefathers for the preservation of the faith! Far from us that childish readiness to believe the calumnies of Protestants against an institution which they naturally detest! Far from us that deplorable confusion of ideas which puts truth and error on an equality, and, from the fact that error can have no rights, concludes that truth can claim none!

In Christian ages it would have been deemed not only criminal, but absurd, to grant to error the liberty which is due only to truth; and they that were in authority considered it a duty to keep the weak from danger, by removing from them all occasions of a fall; just as the father of a family keeps his children from coming in contact with wicked companions who could easily impose on their inexperience, and lead them to evil under the name of good. . . .

The love of this holy faith has grown cold in so many hearts; and frequent intercourse with heretics or free-thinkers has made them think and speak of matters of faith in a very loose way. Pray for them, O Peter, that they may recover that fearless love of the truths of religion which should be one of the chief traits of the Christian character. If they be living in a country where the modern system is introduced of treating all religions alike–that is, of giving equal rights to error and to truth–let them be all the more courageous in professing the truth, and detesting the errors opposed to the truth.

From November 5th, 2005:

Tonight, I flipped open at random my new book, St. Dominic’s Family (TAN), and I came across the following biography. The story was so great that I wanted to share it with the rest of you. Now I had read of St. Peter of Verona before, in St. Louis de Montfort’s Secret of the Rosary. St. Louis lays particular emphasis on St. Peter’s final act as he lay dying on the ground. He was so revered for his sanctity that he was canonized one year after his death in 1253.

I think that we also see in Peter some inspiration for those of us who were raised outside of the Faith.

“More remarkable than his death is the record of his life. Born of heretical parents, and surrounded during his whole childhood with the most harmful theories and practices, Peter preserved a purity of faith and morals which was nothing short of miraculous. Continually ridiculed and harangued by his relatives, he remained untarnished in both body and soul.”

Notice how he leaves the world with nary a care for its pomps and vanities; he scorns wealth, marriage, and a worldly career:

“Sent to Bologna to the university at the age of fifteen, he met St. Dominic, and instantly, with no backward glances at the wealth and power he was foregoing, threw himself at the saint’s feet and begged admission to the Order.”

This story has to make the top ten of all time greatest. Look at what happens to him next:

“While still a student, Peter underwent a severe trial. He was publicly reprimanded and placed on punishment because a brother, passing Peter’s cell late at night, thought he heard women’s voices in the room. The voices were those of angels, who frequently visited the saint: but in his humility he thought it better to accept the punishment and say nothing about it. He was sent to another convent to do penance, and his ordination was delayed. Peter prayed and found great strength in prayer: but, being human, he felt the disgrace keenly, and he one day complained to our Lord:

” ‘Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent of this: why dost Thou permit them to believe it of me?’

A sorrowful voice replied from the crucifix:

” ‘And I, Peter, what have I done that they should do this to Me?’

“Peter complained no more. The truth was eventually discovered, and Peter, reinstated in the community, resumed his studies. He prayed daily for the happiness of dying a martyr’s death.

“Sold like his Master for thirty pieces of silver, Peter was ambushed and killed on the road to Milan. He went to his death singing, which is the traditional Dominican way to enter heaven. Undaunted by the threats of the heretics, he walked along singing the Easter Sequence, and fell unprotesting beneath the blows of the assassins. One of his murders, touched by grace at the sight of a saint, was converted, eventually took the Dominican habit, and was popularly known as ‘Blessed’ Carino. To him as to us, Peter had pointed out the way to heaven when he traced on the dust of the road, in his own blood, the creed that had lighted his path: ‘Credo in unum Deum.’ ”

Is there anything in this man’s life to be believed? Wow.

(As I write this, I’m listening to the Easter Sequence. And where is that piece of Gregorian Chant today, which he sang as he went to his death? Who knows it? Who has heard it in the New Mass of Paul VI? I mean, really heard it, not a miserable English translation of it, but the beautiful Latin poetry which St. Peter sang? Could we sing it? What wisdom, what brilliance, when most of the Sequences were cut from the new rite of the Mass!)

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