ST PETER PASCHAL, BISHOP AND MARTYR - 6 DECEMBER

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN DECEMBER

 Saints celebrated on the 6th of December 

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SAINT PETER PASCHAL, BISHOP AND MARTYR 

Saint Peter Paschal was a native of Valencia, in Spain, and descended of the ancient family of the Paschals, which had edified the Church by the triumphs of five glorious martyrs, which it produced under the Moors. 

Peter’s parents were virtuous and exceedingly charitable; and St Peter Nolasco often lodged with them in his travels. 

ST PETER NOLASCO'S PRAYERS

The birth of our saint was ascribed by them to his prayers and blessing, and the child received from him an early tincture of sincere piety. 

Peter Paschal performed his studies under domestic tutors, and, having received the tonsure, was made canon at Valencia, soon after the king of Arragon had won that city from the Moors. 

His preceptor was a priest of Narbonne, a doctor of divinity, of the faculty of Paris, whom our saint’s parents had ransomed from the Moors, who had made him a captive. 

HE TOOK THE HABIT OF THE ORDER OF OUR LADY, FOR THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES

St Peter Paschal went with him to Paris, and having studied, preached and taught with great reputation, proceeded doctor: then returned to Valencia, and, after employing a year in preparing himself, took the habit of the Order of our Lady, for the redemption of captives, in 1251.

St Peter Nolasco was his spiritual director at Barcelona, and by the instructions of that experienced master, our saint made great progress in the exercises of an interior life. 

James I. king of Arragon, chose him preceptor to his son Sanchez, who embraced an ecclesiastical state, afterwards entered himself in this Order, and was soon after made archbishop of Toledo, in 1262. 

HE GOVERNED THE DIOCESE

The prince being at that time too young to receive the episcopal consecration, St Peter Paschal was appointed his suffragan to govern his diocese, and was ordained titular bishop of Granada: which city was at that time in the hands of the Mahometans. 

The prince archbishop died a martyr, of the wounds he received by the Moors, who had invaded the territory of his diocese, making great havoc in his flock, in 1275. 

St Peter Paschal was by this accident restored to his convent; but joined the functions of the ministry with those of a contemplative and penitential life. 

HE FOUNDED SEVERAL NEW CONVENTS OF HIS ORDER

He founded several new convents of his Order at Toledo, Baeza, Xerez, and particularly at Jaen, twenty-two miles from Granada, endeavouring by this last to procure the means of affording some spiritual succours to the afflicted Church of Granada, which he regarded as his own peculiar charge, though he was not suffered to serve it. 

The martyrdom of B. Peter of Chemin, a religious man of the same Order which our saint professed, and who was put to death at Tunis in 1284, kindled in his breast an ardent desire of martyrdom.

HE WENT TO PREACH TO FRIEND AND FOE ALIKE

Being made bishop of Jaen in 1696, fearless of all dangers, he went often to Granada, and there not only ransomed the captives, and instructed and comforted the Christians, but also preached to the infidels, and reconciled to the Church several apostates, renegades, and others. 

On this account he was at length shut up in a dark dungeon, with a severe prohibition that no one should be allowed to speak to him. 

HE WROTE AN EXCELLENT TREATISE, BY WHICH SEVERAL WERE CONVERTED

Yet he found means there to write an excellent treatise against Mahometanism, by which several were converted. 

Hereat some of the infidels took great offence. 

Whilst he was at his prayers, after having said Mass in his dungeon, he was murdered, receiving two stabs in his body: after which his head was struck off. His martyrdom happened on December 6, in the year of Christ 1300, of his age seventy-two. 

HE WAS MURDERED

The Christians procured his chalice, sacred ornaments, and discipline, and secretly buried his body in a grot, in a mountain near Mazzomores. Not long after, it was translated to Baeza, where it still remains. 

His name occurs in the Roman Martyrology on December 6, and on October 23. 

Source: Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints

PRAYER:

Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that we who know how courageously your holy bishop and martyr Peter confessed the faith, may experience his goodness as he intercedes for us with you. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.