St peregrine laziosi biography channel
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I know for me, there are few things that terrify me more (except perhaps fire, but that’s a story for another day). The following day, the doctor arrived to perform the amputation but could find no sign of the cancer, or even of a wound. His cancer healed, he faded peacefully, buried in the priory church—now a basilica.
The suffering they experience is still a mystery to me and probably colors my vision when it comes to God. Anger and confusion as to why these things happen always break into my thoughts.
Peregrine surely felt all those things when his own life hung in the balance. He is the patron of cancer patients.
His cult, strong among the sick, reflects a saint who turned from violence to grace, a beacon for those in bodily torment. Ordained a priest, he served in silence and penance, but at 60, a cancerous leg ulcer led him to pray before a crucifix; Christ appeared, healing him instantly. We’ve all been touched in some way, whether directly or indirectly, by this disease that sends even the strongest of us cowering in a corner.
Now imagine having cancer in the early 1300s.
As a youth he was active in politics as a member of the anti-papal party.
Patronage
Saint Peregrine Laziosi is patron of cancer patients, AIDS sufferers, and skin diseases. Some are still in the process of fighting it. He died on May 1, 1345, at about 80–85, his sanctity already renowned. Residents in these states chose sides, either the anti-papal faction or the pro-Church faction, sometimes switching sides when it suited them.
Peregrine’s family chose the anti-papal side, and he became involved in the faction’s activities as a young man.
Instead of staying angry with God, he turned to him for help.
The night before his surgery, Peregrine went to the chapter room of the Servite house where he lived and prayed before the fresco of the Crucified Christ. The good priest smiled and forgave him without hesitation. Approved in 1702, it echoed his own cure, hastening beatification. We might not punch someone from the opposing side, but we often say things we later regret.
He ministered decades more, a living testament. Sometime later, Peregrine was sent to Forli to found a new house of the Servite Order.
His death birthed a cult, his tomb a healing shrine. He joined the Servites soon after, seeking penance in Siena.