St Peter of Verona
St Peter Martyr was not the first Dominican to die in the cause of preaching the Truth but he was so revered for his sanctity that he was canonized in 1253, a year after his death, and a General Chapter soon mandated that every Dominican church had to have an image of St Dominic and St Peter of Verona.
Born of heretical parents in Verona, he maintained the Faith of the Church and was sent to study in Bologna where he met St Dominic at the age of fifteen and begged admission to the Order of Preachers.
Peter was a celebrated preacher who engaged in disputes with heretics throughout northern Italy and his success in this regard won him many enemies.
On 6 April 1252, on the road to Milan, he was ambushed and killed. He has been singing the Easter sequence, 'Victimae Paschali Laudes' on the road when he was beset and he died, forgiving his murderers. One of his murderers was so moved by his faith - the dying saint wrote the words 'Credo in unum Deum on the dusty road with his blood - that he repented, converted and became a Dominican.
The Order today, 4 June, celebrates this great saint and brother, and this painting of the saint hangs in the library at Blackfriars Oxford.
St Peter of Verona
St Peter Martyr was not the first Dominican to die in the cause of preaching the Truth but he was so revered for his sanctity that he was canonized in 1253, a year after his death, and a General Chapter soon mandated that every Dominican church had to have an image of St Dominic and St Peter of Verona.
Born of heretical parents in Verona, he maintained the Faith of the Church and was sent to study in Bologna where he met St Dominic at the age of fifteen and begged admission to the Order of Preachers.
Peter was a celebrated preacher who engaged in disputes with heretics throughout northern Italy and his success in this regard won him many enemies.
On 6 April 1252, on the road to Milan, he was ambushed and killed. He has been singing the Easter sequence, 'Victimae Paschali Laudes' on the road when he was beset and he died, forgiving his murderers. One of his murderers was so moved by his faith - the dying saint wrote the words 'Credo in unum Deum on the dusty road with his blood - that he repented, converted and became a Dominican.
The Order today, 4 June, celebrates this great saint and brother, and this painting of the saint hangs in the library at Blackfriars Oxford.