Saints celebrated on the 8th of July
Prayer to the Angels and the Saints
Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.
In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.
Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.
Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.
BL. PETER THE HERMIT
Blessed Peter was born at Amiens about 1050; he died at the monastery of Neufmoutier (Liège), in 1115.
THE FIRST CRUSADE
His life has been embellished by legend, and he has been wrongly credited with initiating the movement which resulted in the First Crusade. While the contemporary historians mentioned him only as one of the numerous preachers of the crusade, the later chroniclers, Albert of Aix-la-Chapelle, and above all William of Tyre, gave him an all-important role.
HE UNDERTOOK A PILGRIMAGE TO JERUSALEM
According to Albert of Aix Peter having led during some years the rigorous life of a hermit undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and suffered much at the hands of the Turks. One day when he was asleep in the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre, Our Lord appeared to him and ordered him to ask for credentials from the Patriarch of Jerusalem and to go to Europe proclaiming the miseries which had befallen the Christian of the Orient. Peter obtained the patriarchal letters and sought Urban II, who, moved by his recital, came to preach the crusade at Clermont.
HE DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE HAD AS IMPORTANT A ROLE AS LEGEND GAVE HIM AFTERWARDS
According to William of Tyre, it was of his own accord that Peter went to find the pope. The pilgrimage of Peter is mentioned by Anna Comnena, who, born in 1083, could know nothing of this story except through tradition; she relates, however, that he could not get as far as Jerusalem, and that, resolved to undertake a second pilgrimage, he conceived the idea of preaching a crusade in order to be able to go to the Holy Sepulchre attended by goodly company. It is evidently absurd to ascribe the Crusades to such an insignificant cause. Because of the silence of contemporaries and the later contradictory accounts, even the fact of the pilgrimage of Peter is doubtful, while it is impossible to assign to him the role of promoter of the crusade.
POPE URBAN II. WAS THE ONE PROMOTING THE CRUSADE
The merit of this belongs solely to Pope Urban II. Writers like Albert of Aix wished to deprive the pope of this honor in order to attribute it to the ascetics so popular at that time in Europe. It is absolutely certain that it was only after the Council of Clermont that Peter commenced to preach the crusade.
In March, 1096, he led one of the numerous bands going to the East; his enthusiastic eloquence is described by the chroniclers. He arrived with his army at Constantinople August 1, 1096.
AFTER A TOILSOME MARCH PETER PITCHED HIS CAMP AT CIVITOT
After a toilsome march as far as Nicomedia Peter pitched his camp at Civitot, and seeing his army without resources returned to Constantinople to solicit help from the Emperor Alexius.
During his absence, the crusaders, commanded by Walter the Penniless, were massacred by the Turks near Nicaea (October 1096).
ON HIS RETURN TO EUROPE HE FOUNDED THE MONASTERY OF NEUFMOTIER
Peter assembled the remnants of his band and in May, 1097, joined the army of Godfrey of Bouillon near Nicomedia. After this he had but an unimportant part. On his return to Europe he founded the monastery of Neufmoutier. [Despite being called "Blessed", Peter has not been formally beatified.]
(From Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913 - 📷 1. Peter the Hermit, 2. The massacre of the Crusade of the Poor by the Turks)
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