ST PETER OF PISA, FOUNDER - 1 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 1st of June

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.

ST PETER OF PISA, FOUNDER

[Founder of the Hermits of St Jerome.]  Saint Peter of Pisa was born at Pisa in 1355, whilst his father, Peter Gambacorta enjoyed the sovereign authority in that commonwealth. 

HE LEFT HIS FATHER'S COURT

Being twenty-five years old, he privately left his father’s court, disguised in the habit of a poor penitent, and retired to Montebello, an agreeable solitude in Umbria. He begged his subsistence in the neighbouring village, and, in 1380, found means to build a church, and twelve cells for so many companions who had joined him. He chose St Jerome for the patron of his congregation, because that father having visited the hermitages of all Egypt and Syria, selected out of each what seemed to him the most perfect in every exercise. 

PRAYER AND MIRACLES

Peter prescribed to his monks four Lents in the year, and to fast on all Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays; to continue in prayer two hours after Matins, at night, etc. As to himself, his whole time was devoted to the exercises of prayer, and his life was most austere. F. Sajanello relates many miracles performed by him, and gives an edifying account of his eminent virtues. His congregation was approved by Martin V in 1421. 

His father and two brothers being assassinated by their secretary in 1393, he was tempted to leave his desert to do justice to his family and country: but by redoubling his fervour in his holy exercises, he overcame that suggestion of the devil. 

HIS HOLY DEATH

He died in 1435, being eighty years old: was styled blessed by Pius V and Clement VIII, and a solemn decree of his beatification was published by Innocent XII in 1693. His congregation is much spread in Italy. 

The Order of St Jerome of Fiesoli instituted by the Ven. Charles of Montegraneli, a noble Florentin, was united to it by Clement IX in 1668. There are also hermits of St Jerome in Spain, of a like institute. They follow the rule of the hermits of St Augustine; but adopt certain constitutions gathered from the works of St Jerome. 

(From Fr Butler's Lives of the Saints)