Happy Feast Day St. Peregrine!Lived from 1283 to 1345
Hometown: Forli, Italy
Feast Day: May 1st
St. Peregrine, much like St. Paul, was originally a persecutor of the Catholic Church and the papacy before he was converted. His conversion took place in the town square where St. Philip Benizi was preaching to the town, trying to bring people back to the church. Peregrine beat St. Philip and, story goes, St. Philip, instead of fighting back, literally turned the other cheek and asked Peregrine to strike that one too. Peregrine was so amazed at this act, he asked for forgiveness and changed his ways, becoming a priest and living a life of good works and penances. One of these penances was standing at any time where it was not necessary to sit down. Because of constantly standing all of the time, he developed cancer in his foot. The medical treatment available at this time was not working to cure it, so doctors said that they have to amputate his entire leg. The night before this operation, St. Peregrine was praying in front of the crucifix and had a vision that Jesus stretched down his hand from the crucifix and touched Peregrine's leg, which was completely healed when Peregrine woke up the next morning. For more information: see link below
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Saints/saint.aspx?id=1373
Thank you St. Peregrine for being so persistent in your faith and so willing to live it out even if it meant having your leg cut off because of penances that you took upon. Although today such penances would not be advised, may we learn from your persistence in faith to completely give up our lives of sin and follow the righteous road that all the saints have walked!
So starts all saints month! Feel free to let me know if you have any questions or want to request that I do a saint for a particular day.
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