Saint of the Day – 30 March – Saint Peter Regalatus OFM (1320-1456)

Saint of the Day – 30 March – Saint Peter Regalatus OFM (1320-1456) Priest, Friar of the Friars Minor, Superior, gifted with bi-location, prophecy and miracle working. Born in 1390 at Valladolid, Spain and died on 30 March 1456 at Aguilera, Spain of natural causes. Patronage – Valladolid, Spain. Also known as – Pedro de Regalado, Pedro Regalado, Peter Regalati, Peter Regulatus. Additional Memorial – 13 May – translation of his relics. His body is incorrupt.

The Roman Martyrology reads: “In Aguilera in Castile in Spain, Saint Peter Regalado of Valladolid, Priest of the Order of Minors, who was distinguished for humility and rigour of penance and built two cells, in which only twelve Friars could live in solitude.”

Peter was born in 1390 in Valladolid in Spain to a noble family of Jewish descent. He soon lost his father. At the age of ten years, Peter begged to be admitted into the Conventual Franciscans, which favour was granted him three years later and at the age of thirteen, his mother granting her permission to enter the Franciscan Monastery in his hometown. He had no other ambition than to lead a life of prayer and penance, considering his mother’s visits nothing more than a useless distraction.

Peter was conquered by the ideals of Peter da Villacreces, committed to re-establishing in the Iberian peninsula the original observance of the Franciscan Rule and from 1404 he followed him to he newly founded convent at Aguilera, where he found the solitude, poverty and the climate of prayer, he had so longed for. The young Lope de Salinas y Salazar also joined them. Lope was then called to hold the office of Vicar in Castile, with jurisdiction over the Convents of Burgos and founded another sixteen hermitages before his death.

In 1414 Peter da Villacreces had to participate in the Council of Constance, where he obtained the approval of the reform he had undertaken and left our saint in charge of .Aguilera, Both Peters, then in 1422, took part in the Provincial Chapter but here Peter da Villacreces died and Peter Regalatus was definitively entrusted with the guidance of the Monastery of Aguilera,

In 1426 he went to Burgos in order to recommend to his old friend Lope, not to abandon the reforming work undertaken by their common master. In the way traced by the latter, Peter had found his desire for holiness satisfied. He was in fact neither a founder nor a reformer but a simple ascetic and contemplative. He lived in conditions of penance and extreme poverty but his care for his brothers in need and his love for the sick became proverbial. With the gift of tears, his affectionate nature was manifested and likewise his burning love for God was proven. He performed several miracles on the banks of the Duero and, with irony it is said, that his work did not consist in much more.

In 1427 at Medina del Campo Peter attended the Concordia, a meeting of the followers of Peter Villacreces, the Reformer, where it was decided to remain united with the Conventual Friars. From 1442 he became Vicar of the Villacrecians and, therefore, the third successor of the Founder.. Finally, in 1456, hearing his death approaching, he decided to leave for Burgos to ask Lope, in vain, to accept the Vicariate of the Villacrecians. He died in Aguilera on 30 March 1456.

It was not long before numerous miracles occurred at his tomb and thirty-six years later, when he was exhumed to transfer his remains to the Church, his body was found incorrupt. He was Beatified on 11 March 1684 by Pope Innocent XI and on 29 June in 1746, Pope Benedict XIV Canonised PeterRegalatus of Valladolid by enrolling him in the register of Saints. Italian and Spanish iconography usually portrays the saint in the act of distributing bread to the poor, calling their gaze to the Crucifix.