ON BLESSED PETER THE HERMIT
Of the Vallumbrosan Order, on Montepiano in the Diocese of Pistoia
IN THE YEAR 1098
CommentaryPeter, of the Vallumbrosan Order, in the Abbey of Montepiano in the diocese of Pistoia (B.)
D. P.
[1] In those Alps which divide the diocese of Pistoia from the Bolognese territory, there is an Abbey of the Vallumbrosan Order, called Saint Mary of Montepiano; distant two thousand paces from the town of Vernio, but from Pistoia, to whose Bishop the place in sacred things is subject, ten thousand toward the north. This owes its origin to a certain Peter, professed of the Rule of the same Order, on the occasion which Eudoxius Locatellus narrates in Book 2, chapter 13, pursuing the history of the Generals following Saint John Gualbert: "Peter, led by the pursuit of a more secret life, with the good leave of his superiors retiring into the woods of the Vernio territory, Peter is found in the wilderness by the Lords of Vernio had built himself a little hut: to which when at some time the Lords of the same place, intent on hunting, and by mistake led some distance from their company, a certain chance or rather Divine providence had brought them; to those asking him whether he had anything necessary for refreshing a famished and thirsty body, with prompt will indeed, what he had in daily use, he offered—breads and wild fruits; and taking pure water from a fountain, and trusting God, he signed it with the Cross, he turns water for them into wine, and turned it into the most exquisite wine. Moved by the prodigy, and kindled with immense devotion toward the holy man, they gave him the choice of any land he might wish, for building a monastery in honor of Saint Mary the Virgin: which when the builders called to the work began to build in the place where the Saint had designated: by whose will the church is founded but when they marveled that as much of the work as they had done by day was the next day found dissolved by night, and reported it to the man of God, they began with him to go around the wood, praying God and the Blessed Virgin, that the place,
would deign to show them another place they had themselves chosen. While they were doing this, they came upon chips of wood or stones, upon which was inscribed in golden letters, 'Ave Maria.'"
[2] Thus far Locatellus. Tiberio Petraccio, more than once elsewhere mentioned by us with praise, a distinguished preacher and writer of the Vallumbrosan Order, in a letter given on this matter in the year 1670, on the 9th day before the Kalends of June, from popular tradition adds that the name of Mary was seen by the blessed man, in the place designated from heaven, not as Locatellus writes inscribed in golden letters on chips or fragments of stones; but composed upon them by doves, gathering grains of wheat with their beaks, and arranging them in the shape of the sacred name. However that may be: the holy man understood that it was the divine will that there should be built a church to be consecrated to the Mother of God, which also was done; and then with Peter dead, and buried there near the altar, a certain walnut tree, as the same Petraccio writes, closer to the church began to produce fruits, whose kernels bore the likeness of doves; and then that tree withering with the passage of time, another near it succeeded in place of the miracle: and with the miraculous walnut with its form shining down to this day, and with the trees thus four times changed down to this present time, there continues there in the kernels the dove-shape. "Such a walnut," he says, "even today I keep by me, for faith and display of the prodigy, and I believe it to be a sign of the most pure virginity, which this devout man cultivated all his life."
[3] His veneration continues there, especially at the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, to whom the church is titularly dedicated; when his sacred relics are wont to be displayed for adoration to the people running in crowds. Otherwise, in the very ancient Kalendar of the Vallumbrosan Religious and in the old table of the Blessed of the Order, these things are read. where Peter is venerated. "On the day before the Ides of April, the deposition of Blessed Peter, Monk and hermit, formerly Abbot of the monastery of Saint Vigilius of Brescia: inscribed in the Kalendars of the order on April 12. who was so just and upright and fearing God, that of his own will he refused the Abbacy, and betook himself to a hermitage: and was of such sanctity, that by prayer alone he turned water, by the example of the Lord, into wine. He died in the year 1098." These same things, written in the same words, are found in the manuscripts of Saint Praxedis of the city, written out four hundred and fifty years ago: but in the month of June. In this month perhaps, and of June, in the year 1350 in the presence of the most Reverend Bishops of Bologna and Pistoia (this one being Andreas of Centoriis, in the year 1350 placed under the altar, that one Beltramo Paravicino, according to the Catalogues of Ughelli would have been) and a certain Anastasius, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, a Vallumbrosan monk (of whom here the first mention occurs, nor anywhere else); then perhaps engaged for the affairs of the Pontiff living at Avignon, traveling in Lombardy and Tuscany; before these, I say, perhaps in the month of June, the translation was made of the sacred body of Blessed Peter from the sepulchre to the altar, under which thenceforth until the year 1668 it rested. For of this translation then made, testimony is borne by a parchment manuscript of the Abbey of Montepiano, not without miracles, almost consumed by age of time, and subscribed by three Imperial Notaries; in which also mention is made of many graces, especially concerning various sick persons, which it pleased the Lord to confer by the merits of Blessed Peter.
[4] and in the year 1668 translated into a new ark. So the above-praised Petraccio, from whom if we obtain a copy of that old writing, we shall not refuse to add it at the end of this volume. Meanwhile (to follow the other things concerning him) the same suggests that the memory of the aforesaid Saint is even celebrated in our own age, especially from the year 1668 mentioned, by the most noble Counts of Vernio, who flowed from the very ancient progeny of the Florentine Bardi, at the insistence of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Vincenzo Bardi, from the same Counts of Vernio, Archdeacon of the Metropolitan and Vicar General of the Florentine diocese, and Commendatory of that Abbey, the body of Blessed Peter was placed in a gilded ark, upon the main altar of the church, transferred there with solemn pomp and the greatest concourse of peoples from another on the side, under which up to that time it had lain. Gabriel Bucelinus referred his name on this day in his Benedictine Menology, with a longer exposition of the life received from Locatellus.