CONCERNING BLESSED PETER OF THE ORDER OF HERMITS OF S. AUGUSTINE, AT GUBBIO IN UMBRIA.
THIRTEENTH OR FOURTEENTH CENTURY.
Commentaryin his honor: Crowds gather for the spectacle of the uncorrupted body. then on the said Tuesday itself, after the customary ringing of the bells, the coffin is opened, with not only the people of the city and territory of Gubbio assembling, but also a great multitude from neighboring places: which fills the entire church in regular order until the third and fourth hour of the night; while each person strives not to leave without obtaining a portion of flowers or cotton that have touched the holy Relics, or with their prayer beads sanctified by contact with them.
[9] Moreover, from the very day of his death (or rather of his elevation), this blessed body has rested beneath the altar and most recently translated in the year 1666. called the Samaritan, in a walnut coffin. But when afterward, beside the aforesaid altar, another more sumptuous and more conspicuous one had been erected and consecrated under the name of S. Thomas of Villanova, it seemed to Father Master Felix of Offida, Father Master Andrea Balbucci, and other Fathers, that the sacred treasure could be much more fittingly housed in this new altar, and they sent a supplicatory letter concerning the matter to the Most Reverend General of the Order, Peter Lanfranconi. When he assented to their pious wishes, the Blessed was translated in the presence of the Vicar and Episcopal Notary on Tuesday of Holy Week in the year 1666 to the aforesaid altar, and placed there in a cypress coffin, partially carved with skill and gilded; entirely intact, and in the same humble and rough habit in which he had first been buried so many years ago; not without a signal miracle of virtue transmitted from the body itself to the garment.