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Saint Peter of Verona
Saint Peter the Martyr by Pedro de Berruguet
Born	1205, Verona, Italy
Died	6 April 1252, on the road near Milan, Italy
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Canonized	25 March 1253 by Pope Innocent IV
Feast	29 April
Attributes	Dominican holding a knife; Dominican in a forest being stabbed; Dominican with a gash across his head; Dominican with a knife in his shoulder; Dominican with a knife splitting his head; Dominican with an axe splitting his head; Dominican with a large knife in his head; Dominican with his finger on his lips; Dominican with the Virgin and four female saints appearing to him; Dominican writing credo in unum deum in the dust as he dies; man with a knife in his head and a sword in his breast
Patronage	Guaynabo, Puerto Rico; inquisitors; midwives
Saints Portal

Saint Peter of Verona, O.P. also known as Peter Martyr (1206 – April 6, 1252), was a 13th century Dominican preacher and Inquisitor in Italy.

He was born at Verona, a son of Cathars, adherents of the dualist faith which had many adherents in northern Italy in the thirteenth century. He went to a Catholic school, and later to the University of Bologna, where Peter is said to have maintained his orthodoxy and at the age of fifteen, met Saint Dominic. Peter joined the Order of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) and became a celebrated preacher throughout northern and central Italy.

In 1252, because of what was said to be his virtues, severity of life and doctrine, talent for preaching, and zeal for the orthodox Catholic faith, Pope Innocent IV appointed him Inquisitor for Lombardy; he had been fighting against what the Church deemed heretics since the 1230s under Gregory IX.

As his superiors destined him to persecute the Cathars, he "evangelized" nearly the whole of Italy, preaching in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Genoa, and Como. Crowds came to meet him and followed him; and "conversions" were numerous. He typically attacked Catholics who confessed the Faith by words, but in deeds denied it. The Cathars, against whom he preached, were a heretical group that adhered to elements of dualism and Manichaeism and rejected the authority of the Church and many Christian teachings.

He was killed on 6 April 1252, when returning from Como to Milan by Cathars. According to legend, a man called Carino who with some other Cathars had designed the attack struck his head with an axe, and then gave Peter's companion Dominic several fatal wounds. It is told that, rising to his knees, Peter recited the first article of the Symbol of the Apostles, and offering his blood as a sacrifice to God he dipped his fingers in it and wrote on the ground the words: "Credo in Unum Deum". The assassin then pierced his heart.

His body was carried to Milan and laid in the church of Sant'Eustorgio, where an ornate mausoleum, the work of Balduccio Pisano, was erected to his memory.

His assassin, Carino, eventually became a Dominican at Forlì and is the subject of a local cult as "Blessed Carino of Balsamo".

Many miracles are attributed to him when living, and even more after his martyrdom.

He was canonized by Pope Innocent IV on March 9, 1253 after an interval of only 337 days, making him the fastest papally canonized saint in history.

His liturgical feast is on April 29. The church of Santa Maria Antiqua in Verona is co-entitled to him.

The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr, by Giovanni Bellini.

The fire miracle of Saint Peter Martyr by Antonio Vivarini.

Murder of St. Peter the Martyr by Domenichino.

Murder of St. Peter the Martyr. Church at Boccioleto.

• Antoine Dondaine, O.P. "Saint Pierre Martyr" Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 23 (1953), 66-162.
• Donald Prudlo, The Martyred Inquisitor: The Life and Cult of Peter of Verona (+1252), Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2008.

• "St. Peter of Verona". Catholic Encyclopedia. (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company. 
• Saints Index
• Patron Saints: Peter of Verona

This article incorporates text from the entry St. Peter of Verona in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.