ON BL. PETER OF GUALDO, OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS,
A HERMIT IN THE MARCH OF ANCONA IN ITALY.
In the year 1367.
The place, his cult, other notices, his disciple.
Peter of Gualdo, hermit, in the March of Ancona in Italy (Bl.)
BY J. P.
Gualdum (Gualdo) is a fortress town of Italy in the March of Ancona at the foot of the Apennine mountain, The place is described in which he practiced the solitary life: and on the very border of Umbria (so Baudrand describes it), under the dominion of the supreme Pontiff, and it was raised in the year 1180 from the ruins of Tadinum, according to Jacobilli. Leander Alberti, published at Cologne in the Latin tongue in the year 1566, among the things which he writes about Umbria, records this more distinctly to our purpose about the situation of the place, on page 134: Then on the Flaminian Way there appears first, from Sigillo, the town of Fossato on a lofty hill of the Apennine, and beside it at the fourth milestone, near the Apennine, yet on the same hill, Gualdo, which Blondus wrote was founded by the Lombards, the neighboring city of Vallidum being destroyed. Here a small stream flows into the Esino, descending not far from Gualdo, which those are wont to cross who go from Ancona or from Picenum to Fossato and Gualdo, and thence to Perugia, having first traversed the Apennine … After Gualdo the towns of the Apennine begin gradually to grow more distant. Then there is the city of Nocera, likewise clinging to the side of the Apennine. This place therefore gave our blessed Peter the surname "of Gualdo," whether because he is said to have been born there, or because he practiced the solitary life in its territory. The situation of the place being thus set forth, we proceed to establish the lawful cult of the Man.
[2] We have judged that a place is due to him among the other Heavenly ones of this day his cult is proved who are inserted into our Work as Saints or Blessed, for this reason, that although we have hitherto nowhere found an author who before Jacobilli made mention of his name or of his cult; nevertheless it is asserted by him to have existed from time immemorial before the famous decree of Pope Urban VIII; and since the same cult afterwards persevered, it has seemed good to us to give him here as a Blessed, saving and unimpaired, as we think, that same decree. Take therefore various testimonies of his public and religious veneration, which we produce from the account and on the credit of the aforesaid Jacobilli. In volume 2 On the Lives of the Saints and Blessed of Umbria, at the XIX day of August, page 148, he narrates that Bl. Thomas, the disciple of our hermit, honorably buried the body of his dear master blessed Friar Peter; and that this happened in an oratory which was adjoining the hermitage of Gualdo: but that, that oratory being enlarged, a devout church was there founded, no longer of a hermitage but as a parish church under the title of St. Peter of Rigolo; and that this being afterwards destroyed, another and larger one was built by the people of Rigolo in the year 1633 by order of Virgilio Florenzi, bishop of Nocera, in which the festival of St. Peter the Apostle is celebrated on the XXIX day of June, in honor also of this blessed Friar Peter.
[3] Besides these things, which we have recited on Jacobilli's credit, the same author, turning aside to earlier times, from time immemorial: adds that this blessed man's body was carried to a certain church of the Friars Minor in the territory of Gubbio, which is adjoining the territory of Gualdo; and then that on the XIX day of August in the year 1450 it was translated to the church of St. Francis within Gubbio, beneath the altar of the family called Conventini of the said city, and there laid up with this inscription: The body of Bl. Friar Peter of Gualdo. He adds finally that in the above-mentioned convent of Gubbio there is found an ancient memorial noted in these words: Bl. Friar Peter of Gualdo, of the third Order of St. Francis, died on the XIX of August 1367 in the hermitage of St. Peter of the mountain of Gualdo; and was translated into this church of Gubbio on the XIX day of August 1450: where on this day his memory is kept. He was of great perfection and virtues. By these things the public and lawful veneration of this Blessed one among mortals seems to us abundantly established. Now it is helpful to bring forward other hagiologists who after Jacobilli have made mention of him.
[4] Arthur du Monstier at the XXIX day of June announces him thus: he is praised in the calendars, At Gualdo, a town of Umbria, of blessed Peter, tertiary, confessor. Hueber in his Franciscan Menology at the XXV day of June reports and praises him in these words: In the hermitage of Montreale near Gualdo, a town of Umbria, about the year 1367, a certain Peter, a hermit, ceased to practice the third Order of St. Francis: who, before he passed from the vast solitude to the delights of paradise, drew out a very austere life, and for 24 years gave to blessed Thomasuccio the first training of a holy manner of life. Lastly on this very mountain he is celebrated to this day by the holy resort of Christian people.
[5] Wadding in the additions to volume 4 of the Annals of the Minors, page 478, citing Jacobilli, and in the Annals of the Friars Minor. abridged these things from him, and notes them as to be added at the year 1367: Of the same third institute, the most holy Man Friar Peter, hermit of Gualdo, master of Bl. Thomasuccio for twenty-four years, as we said elsewhere at the year 1333, number 21, in this year (1367) on the XXIX day of June died in the hermitage of Monte Rigolo (namely a village of the territory of Gualdo), being buried there by his aforesaid disciple. The hermitage, or the chapel of the hermitage, afterwards grew into a large parish church under the invocation of Bl. Peter of Rigolo. But lately in the year 1635 this church being destroyed, another and larger was built by the people of Rigolo within the village of Rigolo, and in it Peter's anniversary is celebrated; whose body was translated to the territory of Gubbio, and there, near the territory of Gualdo, is reverently kept in a stone sepulchre, with these few words carved on the side: "Friar Peter of Gualdo." But now certain things must be observed by us concerning the day on which his annual memory is reported, and on which he is written to have departed this life.
[6] The writers do not agree about the day of his death. Jacobilli records that he died on the XXIX day of June; but in the Gubbio document which we produced before from him, he is marked as having died on the XIX of August: which can by no means cohere; so that it follows either that that instrument is faulty, or that Jacobilli, who on this XIX day of August treats of our Blessed one, strays from the truth when he affirms that his death fell on the XXIX day of June. But on which of the two days it happened, I have nothing at hand from which to determine. Hueber stands alone in this, that he records Bl. Peter on neither of those days, but on the XXV of the same month of June. But Jacobilli perhaps wove him into his Work at the XIX day of August, because then, as is said above, the translation of the body to the church of Gubbio was made, where also on this day his memory was said to be kept. In marking the year of his death the authors agree, Jacobilli going before them, whom we too have followed above. Here for you, reader, are certain other notices from the oft-praised Jacobilli, page 147.
[7] Other notices about the Blessed one are given; and he is praised He relates therefore that this blessed friar Peter was of Gualdo in the diocese of Nocera: that the habit of the third Order of St. Francis was received by him, that he might serve God earnestly: that the solitary life was undertaken by him on the mountain above Rigolo, a village of Gualdo, distant from that territory about one mile: that a hermitage was there founded by him, in which he shut himself up, that, removed from men, he might be nearer to God, exercising himself in assiduous and fervent prayer and contemplation, and striving also to follow the footsteps of those great servants of God who in times past had served God in the region and on the mountain where he himself dwelt: that he lived in exceedingly austere poverty and in continual penance; and that for this cause he became famous in all the territory of Gualdo. Then the cited Jacobilli praises our Tertiary as a distinguished master, assigned from heaven to an excellent disciple of a most pious life, rare among few: concerning which matter I excerpt this from Wadding at the year of Christ 1333, number 21: In this year the institute of the third Order was embraced by Bl. Thomas, called out of humility or contempt Thomasuccio, born of a rich family in the village of Valmacinaia, of the territory of Nocera in Umbria. His mother … while she was carrying the infant in her womb, being forewarned by an angel of a happy birth, of his future sanctity, and of the name Thomas by which he should be distinguished, brought forth this sacred offspring in the year 1309.
Thomas, being made twelve years old, offered his virginity to God, and in the twenty-fourth year of his age, long prayer being first made, and the leave of his parents obtained, or rather wrested from them, bade farewell to the world and withdrew into solitude.
[8] by his illustrious disciple. Here, remaining and lamenting that he lacked a master of virtue, he is greeted by an angel and bidden to climb the mountain of Gualdo, where the Lord had prepared an excellent teacher, Friar Peter the hermit, a most pious man of admirable penance: whose discipline he was commanded to follow ever exactly. Being taught by him the way of eternal salvation, and having received the habit of the third Order of St. Francis, he lived with him twenty-four years. But after the death of so great a master that excellent disciple proved not obscurely how excellently he had profited in austerity of life and in the strictest solitude, which he prescribed for himself after Peter's death; as may be seen in Wadding designated before: who sets forth far more about Thomasuccio at the year of Christ 1377, in which he reports that he died, at number 4 and following: where there is treatment of the apparitions made to him, his predictions, miracles, gift of tongues, discernment of hearts, pious death, burial, the incorruption of his body, his public cult among the people of Foligno and of Nocera, and also of the writers of his life. Further, the Acts and public cult of this wonderful man may be examined elsewhere. Here for our purpose let it suffice to have indicated that no small honor is derived to the master from so long a fellowship of Thomasuccio under the discipline of our Bl. Peter. These are the things which we have been able to gather concerning the blessed Tertiary, and with which we conclude this third volume of the month of August.
Appendix, August III