ON SAINT PEREGRINE, CONFESSOR, AT PIACENZA IN ITALY.
AROUND THE YEAR 400.
CommentaryPeregrine, Confessor, at Piacenza in Italy (Saint)
By J. B.
[1] At Piacenza in Cisalpine Gaul, Saint Peregrine the Confessor is venerated on February 10 with a semidouble Office. Philip Ferrari mentions him under this day in his general Catalogue of Saints and in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, the feast day of Saint Peregrine, from the Offices of the Church of Piacenza. Those very Offices, printed by Giovanni Antonio Ardizzoni in the year 1635 at Piacenza, read as follows.
[2] Peregrine was distinguished in those ancient times, and was one of those apostolic labors, who labored most diligently at Piacenza in preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ; and he advanced not only through preaching and teaching, but also through example and the holiness of his life; and he led very many who were strangers to Christian practices to the way of salvation, sanctity, having dispelled the errors of the pagans. At last, when the Lord called him to the heavenly abodes, he was received, overflowing with glory. His body, interred in the church of Blessed Sabinus, was most recently examined by Fabricius, Bishop of Piacenza, burial, and together with the bodies of Saints Gelasius, Victor, and Domninus, was translated to a more honorable tomb within the same basilica in the year of salvation 1481.
[3] We have treated of Saint Gelasius the boy on February 4. From what was said there it may be gathered that Saint Peregrine (if he was originally buried in the church of Saint Sabinus, and his body was not translated thither from elsewhere) lived around the year of Christ 400; his era, since Saint Sabinus, who dedicated that church to the holy Twelve Apostles, was a contemporary of Saint Ambrose. When that church had been burned by the Hungarians and rebuilt by Bishop Everard, the bodies of Saints Peregrine, Gelasius, a twofold translation, and others were translated in the year 903; and again by Bishop Fabricius Marliani in the year 1481. All of which has been explained more fully in that place. We have nothing further ascertained concerning Saint Peregrine.