Pietro Geremia (10 August 1399 – 3 March 1452) was an Italian

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest and a professed member from the

Order of Preachers The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of Cal ...

. Geremia was born in

Palermo Palermo ( , ; scn, Palermu , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan ...

but spent an extended period of time in

Bologna Bologna (, , ; egl, label= Emilian, Bulåggna ; lat, Bononia) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in Northern Italy. It is the seventh most populous city in Italy with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nat ...

– where he experienced a radical conversion – and

Fiesole Fiesole () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany, on a scenic height above Florence, 5 km (3 miles) northeast of that city. It has structures dating to Etruscan and Roman times. Sin ...

for his admittance into the Dominicans before returning to Palermo where he became a sought after and noted preacher and miracle worker. Geremia's beatification was confirmed in 1784.

Life

Pietro Geremia was born in

on 10 August 1399 to aristocrats. Geremia studied at the

college since being sent there in 1417 and was perceived to be an excellent law student and his own pride led him to believe this to be true. One night in 1422 he dwelled on his vain success and what his future would bring when a deceased male relative knocked on his third floor window; Geremia sat upright and asked who was there before seeing this relative. The relative told him that his pride lost him a chance at entering heaven and so warned Geremia not to repeat his mistakes. The shaken Geremia purchased an iron chain as a penitential act from a locksmith the next morning and began to contemplate what his vocation might be. He received a sign that it was to enter the

; his enraged father came to Bologna to stop him but saw how pleased Geremia was with his decision when he entered. He started his

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

and was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

to the priesthood in 1424. He made his vows in 1423 and returned to Palermo in 1433. It was Geremia who suggested to the young Giovanni Liccio that he should join the Order of Preachers. Liccio later became provincial of all Dominican Sicilian houses. His fame as a preacher caught the attention of

Vincent Ferrer Vincent Ferrer, OP ( ca-valencia, Sant Vicent Ferrer , es, San Vicente Ferrer, it, San Vincenzo Ferreri, german: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer, nl, Sint-Vincent Ferrer, french: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Valencian D ...

who once visited him and the two discussed spiritual matters at great lengths. Geremia was seen as one of the finest preachers on the island and preached in the open often because the churches never could hold the vast number of people that flocked to see him. On one particular occasion there was no food for the people and he asked a fisherman for a donation but the fisherman refused him in a rude manner. So he got into a boat and rowed out to sea and made a sign to the fish who broke the nets in the water and followed him back to the shore. The fisherman apologized and so he made another sign to the fish who returned to the nets in the sea. On another occasion he was preaching on repentance in

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

when

Mount Etna Mount Etna, or simply Etna ( it, Etna or ; scn, Muncibbeḍḍu or ; la, Aetna; grc, Αἴτνα and ), is an active stratovolcano on the east coast of Sicily, Italy, in the Metropolitan City of Catania, between the cities of Messina a ...

erupted in 1444; the people begged him to save him and he went to the Saint Agatha shrine and removed the saint's veil. He held the veil towards the flow of lava heading towards the town and the eruption and lava flow ceased. Geremia was sent to establish regular observance to all those Dominican monasteries in the Sicilian area – in particular Santa Caterina convent – and

Pope Eugene IV Pope Eugene IV ( la, Eugenius IV; it, Eugenio IV; 1383 – 23 February 1447), born Gabriele Condulmer, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 3 March 1431 to his death in February 1447. Condulmer was a Venetian, and ...

once called him to

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

in 1439 to help heal the rift between the Greek and Latin churches – he managed a brief union. He was once offered a bishopric but refused it. He died on 3 March 1452 in the Santa Zita convent in Palermo.

Beatification

Geremia's beatification received the approval of

Pope Pius VI Pope Pius VI ( it, Pio VI; born Count Giovanni Angelo Braschi, 25 December 171729 August 1799) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799. Pius VI condemned the French Revoluti ...

on 12 May 1784.

References

External links

Saints SQPN
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geremia, Pietro 1399 births 1452 deaths 15th-century venerated Christians 15th-century Italian Roman Catholic priests Italian beatified people Dominican beatified people Italian Dominicans Members of the Dominican Order Clergy from Palermo University of Bologna alumni Venerated Catholics Venerated Dominicans Beatifications by Pope Pius VI