Pietro Geremia

Pietro Geremia

Pietro Geremia (born August 1, 1399 in Palermo , † March 3, 1452 ibid) was an Italian Dominican and diplomat from Sicily .

He came from a noble family in Palermo. The father Arduin Geremia was a lawyer and tax officer in the service of King Alfonso I of Sicily (Alfonso V of Aragon). From 1418 he studied law at the University of Bologna . Through visions he came to the conclusion that a heavenly advocacy was preferable to earthly and first, against the fierce opposition of the father, in 1422 he joined the Dominican Order (Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum - OP) in Bologna. He completed his novitiate in the Dominican monastery of Fiesole near Florence . In 1424 Geremia was ordained a priest and appeared as a valued preacher. In 1427 the order's executive sent him to Sicily to reform the Dominican monasteries there. In 1430 he taught at Oxford , in 1433 he returned to Palermo, where he was accepted into the monastery of Santa Cita and a few years later became prior.

In 1439 he was invited by Pope Eugene IV as a delegate to the Council of Florence in order to mediate in the church dispute between East and West Rome . Then Pietro Geremia was called to be the Apostolic Visitator , a short time later he was in Catania , where he is said to have stopped the flowing lava with prayers shortly before the city during an eruption of the Aetna . With the approval of King Alfonso I (1416-1458), he founded the University of Catania in 1445 . For the last few years he has lived in the Santa Cita monastery in Palermo.

He was on May 12, 1784 by Pope Pius VI. Beatified, his relics are in the Church of San Domenico in Palermo.

His sermons were published posthumously in Brescia by the publisher Giacomo Britannico under the title Divinum Petri Hieremiae Opus .

Web link

• Beato Pietro Geremia Domenicano. On: santiebeati.it