Pietro da Verona, o Pietro Martire, al secolo Pietro Rosini (Verona, 1205 – Seveso, 6 aprile 1252), fu un predicatore appartenente all'Ordine dei domenicani.
Pietro da Verona, or Pietro Martire, also known as Pietro Rosini (Verona, 1205 - Seveso, April 6, 1252), was a preacher belonging to the Order of Dominicans. He was born in Verona at the end of the century XII in a heretical family, but as a boy he opposed his relatives. He continued his studies at the University of Bologna where he then entered the Dominican Order, when San Domenico was still alive. Historical information cites him as a great participant in the foundation of the Societies of the Faith and the Marian Confraternities in Milan, Florence and Perugia. From 1236 he was a preacher in the central-northern cities of Italy against dualistic heresy, but Milan was the main field of his apostolate. His sermons and his public disputes with heretics were accompanied by miracles and prophecies and a lot returned to the true faith of the gospel. In 1251 Pope Innocente IV named him an inquisitor for the cities of Milan and Como. The fight was tough because heresy was widespread and on Palm Sunday March 24th 1252 during a sermon he predicted his death by the hands of the heretics who plotted against him. The leaders of the sects of the cities of Milan, Bergamo, Lodi and Pavia, hired Pietro da Balsamo called Carino and Albertino Porro di Lentate as executors. They prepared an ambush near Meda where Pietro, Domenico and two other Dominicans, on their journey from Como to Milan on April 6th 1252 had stopped for breakfast before continuing on their way. Carino smashed Pietro's head, dipping a long knife in his chest as well, the other confrere Domenico had several fatal wounds that led to his death six days later in the Benedictine convent of Meda. Pietro's body was immediately transported to Milan where he had triumphant funeral and was buried in the cemetery of the Martyrs, near the convent of S. Eustorgio. The great outcry aroused by the killing and the wonders that took place meant that an elevation to the martyr's altars was requested from all sides. Eleven months later, Pope Innocente IV on March 9th 1253, in the square of the Dominican church of Perugia, canonized him by setting the date of the feast on April 29th. His cult had great expansion, the Dominicans erected churches and chapels dedicated to him all over the world. In Recanati, Pietro stopped in the convent of the Church of San Domenico, now demolished, leaving a relic of the Holy Cross as a gift. The city was deeply devoted to the relic for the episode in which the martyr who was preaching against heresy on the main square of Recanati in front of the church of San Domenico, to show the prodigious nature of the relic he brought with him, lit a fire and he threw it into the flames. After recovering the fireproof wood, he handed over a fragment to the moved devotees. The Dominicans asked the Venetian Lorenzo Lotto to tell the proof of the fire wanted by Saint Peter martyr in one of the three predellas, part of the pictorial complex called "The Polyptych of San Domenico", realized with oil technique on wood in 1506-08 and preserved in the Civic Museum of Recanati. |