ON B. PETER COMPATER,
OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR AT OVIEDO IN SPAIN.
YEAR MCCXVI.
Sylloge concerning the Life, burial, translations, cult, & year of death.
Petrus Compater, of the Order of Minors, at Oviedo in Spain (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR G. H.
Oviedo, a city of the kingdom of Leon among the Spaniards, & of Asturia, called the Ovetensian from it, is the Head, indeed & formerly a Royal Seat: in which, Pelagius gathering the Christians driven out by the Moors instituted a kingdom, whence the Leonensian arose. Name in the Hispanic Martyrology. The citizens of this city among other Saints, of whom we more often treat, hold in veneration B. Petrus Compater; about whom John Tamayo Salazar in the Hispanic Martyrology on this XV June has these things: At Oviedo the deposition of S. Peter, by surname Compater, who by the Seraphic Father Francis destined to the Transmontane Asturians, that he might amplify the Order of Minors, staying at Oviedo, there acclaimed by the title of sanctity, cult, fell asleep in the Lord. And in the Notes, Among the citizens, he says, of Oviedo honorific cult yearly, & daily devotion perseveres: by which to his sacred sarcophagus piety with continuous vows approaching, miracles. obtains distinguished benefits from the Divinity, supported by the intervention of the holy man. Then, after various things interposed, soon to be brought forth from the older sources, he adds these: It does not escape me, that the Ribadean citizens in the Mindonian diocese of Spain, Body not at Ribadeo, contend, that they retain with them the whole body of B. Peter Compater; as we have learned from a letter of Lord Bartholomew Velapti & Vela, Canon & Scholastic of Mindonia. But by what right they assert this, but at Oviedo, I have not yet learned; let faith stand with them. For with the Ovetensians the presumption of right is, because the first at Oviedo … from the year MCCXIV built a monastery.
[2] Francis Gonzaga, in the third part on the Origin of the Seraphic religion, in the Province of S. James Convent 3 pg. 737, treating of the Convent of S. Francis of Oviedo, writes these things: This sacred shrine, in the Convent constructed by him, dedicated to the most blessed Father Francis, & somewhat from the walls of the Ovetensian city of the Asturican Principate, was erected by a certain companion of the Seraphic Father, by name Brother Petrus Compater, about the year of the Lord's Incarnation one thousand two hundred fourteenth, was built, … But near the door of the church on the interior part lay long buried the aforesaid Father Peter Compater: near the door buried in the year 1216, who by all the inhabitants of his country, is held as Saint & dear to God: who closed his last day in the year from the nativity of Christ one thousand two hundred sixteenth, while the blessed Father Francis was still in Spain. But in the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXXVII, to a certain more eminent & more honorable place, namely above the chief door of the church, he was translated. translated in the year 1487. To whose sepulchre the following Epitaph by certain pious men, who pursued him with the highest love & greatest observance, was placed.
Brother Peter I, by surname Compater before, The Epitaph Chronicle is explained.
The bones of the flesh here I cover, with the Saviour calling me, In thousand years, C twice, X, six also full, The holy Brother Peter dies of the race of Minors, Compater, indeed Father, called of the wretched, Propitious Father God be with the Spirit dead And Son of God, with voice favoring the matter.
1These says Gonzaga, using a copy without doubt imperfect sent to him, in which one might without difficulty supply the deficient penultimate verse by conjecturing, at least as to sense: but the third verse by some inept conjecturer was described as so read: In thousand years, hundred twice, ten six six, eight full: where it appears for octo, something must be read which forms a dactyl, & the letters themselves must be named Ce, iX, not reading the numeral words Centum, Decem, that the senarius may stand consistent with itself, otherwise about to be of eight feet: which if Wadding to be cited presently had animadverted, he would not have believed Peter is noted to have died in the month of October. The same Gonzaga presently in num. IV treats of the Convent of S. Francis of Ribadeo, with no mention made of the body of B. Peter Compater, as if there it were said to be preserved.
[3] From Wadding it is known Lucas Wadding, in the Annals of the Minors on the year 1214 num. 9, describes the same from Gonzaga, & adds the indicated Translation made on XXVI May, at the instance & expense of the noble man Alphonsus de Baldez Cabano, Governor of Asturia. Then with the Epitaph related he subjoins these: By which verses it is indicated that he was held in the people as a Saint, was compassionate toward the poor, & affected with some celestial favor, Translation made 1594. by which God deigned to call him his Son, & in the month of October of the year MCCXVI dead. Another Translation of the Relics of the most holy man was made in the year MDXCIV, on the XV day of June, by Louis de Quiros Guardian & Professor of Theology, to a more honorable place: while the wall, in which they had been previously hidden, threatened ruin. He found in the sepulchre three little leaden chests, into which were divided the holy man's bones, hard & whole. In the first was this memory of the first Translation, signed on cattle parchment: Relics of a certain most holy man, companion of our Father Francis, who was called Fr. Petrus Compater: whose translation was made on XXVI May in the year MCCCCLXXXVII. In the second was another parchment with these words: The Relics which are contained in these three caskets, are of Fr. Petrus Compater the most holy man, formerly companion standard-bearer of our Father Francis, with the distribution of the bones & the linen veil. which were translated on XXVI May in the year of the Lord MCCCCLXXXVII. Brother Thomas. The same was repeated on the parchment of the third casket. There were present at this Translation Lord Louis Carillo de Mendoça Governor of Asturia, & all the nobles of that dominion & chief men, to whom some parts were distributed of the bones & of the linen veil, with which the Relics were wrapped: which have worked not few miracles, as to that year, if it shall please God, we shall narrate. These Wadding who finished his Annals with the year MDXL. Whether Harold is to lead it to the year MDXCIV & there narrate the said miracles, we have not yet been able to know.
[4] Arturus in the Franciscan Martyrology on this XV June, says, At Oviedo in Tarraconian Spain of B. Peter Compater the Confessor, a man of great sanctity. Then in the Notes he heaps up many things from Gonzaga & Wadding. But Arturus tries to elicit, from the Epitaph that He died in the year MCCXXVIII, on the last day of December. For if thou takest, he says, MCC & addest ten six, that is sixty with eight full, namely fulfilled, To Arturus he is said to have died in the year 1268 31 Dec., truly they will effect the number MCCLXVIII: & in the month of December completed of the same year MCCLXVIII to have died, must be confessed. But Gonzaga, who, about a hundred years ago, first edited the said verses, clearly asserts, that B. Peter closed his last day in the year MCCXVI, while S. Francis was still in Spain, & to him in the verse the years decem sex are years sixteen, for it is not read decies sex, or sexies decem. against all verisimilitude. But what the same Arturus adds that he died in the month of December completed, Tamayus above-related contends that he errs, adding that he himself learned this from some citizens of the Ovetensian city, rejecting the death to this XV day of June. But, after the last Translation, made on this XV day of June, the veneration seems adjoined to this day, because the day of death was unknown; & hence the citizens led, to judge, that it was the day of death, of which otherwise in the Epitaph no mention even by shadow is found.
[5] The name of Compater I think clung to him, because all, with whom he dealt, The surname of Compater. he was wont to call Compatres. For such a custom often produced a surname for many, even continued to posterity. Thus (to be silent of others) S. Nico the Armenian, to be commemorated on XXVI November, whose Greek Acts we still require, obtained the surname Μετανοεῖτε, that is, Repent, among the Greeks; & the Order of those ministering to the sick in Italy, is everywhere called, Fatte ben fratelli, that is, Do well brothers.