Saint of the Day – 3 August – St Pietro (c1033-1105) Bishop of Anagni, Italy, Mpmk, Papal Chaplain and Legate, Restorer of the Anagni Cathedral, its people and of its Clerics .Born in c1033 in Salermo, Anagni, Italy and died there on 3 August 1105. after faithfully serving his Diocese as their guardian and shepherd with discipline and love, for 43 years. Patronages – of the City and Diocese of Anagni. Also known as – Pierre, Peter.
The Roman Martyrology reads today: “At Anagni, St Pietro, Bishop, who rested in the Lord after gaining great renown for monastic observance and for pastoral vigilance.”
Pietro had been prepared for pastoral office by the life of meditation and prayer to which he had been directed from childhood, when, descended from the family of the Lombard Princes of Salerno and, orphaned at a young age, he was sent to the Monastery of San Benedetto.
Here, he pursued the study of the Sacred Canons and so distinguished himself as a Monk that Pope St Gregory VII appointed him as the Bishop of Anagni.
As the Bishop, he improved the spiritual welfare of the City and started rebuilding the Cathedral and reform the Clerics of the See. He was then sent, as the Papal Legate to the Eastern Empire where he was also able to convince Emperor Michael VII Doukas, to provide funds and craftsmen to assist in the building of Anagni’s Cathedral. The new Cathedral also included an annexed hospice, where free accommodation and care was provided not only to the sick but also to pilgrims.
In 1096, Pietro joined the forces of Bohemond of Taranto during the First Crusade on their way to the Holy Land and later returned by way of Constantinople, Palermo and Salerno.
In Anagni, he suffered greatly at the hands of Clerics who were enemies of his reforms but when, after forty-three years as their Bishop, he died on 3 August 1105, the arduous work was accomplished! The Cathedral had been rebuilt and discipline restored to both the Clery and the faithful, including community life. Clerics he had trained were ready to worthily succeed him in the governance of the Anagni Church. His great friend and collaborator, Bruno di Segni, was then able, after celebrating his funeral, to recount his edifying life and prepare for his glorification.
Regarding the history of his cult, we recall, after the proclamation of Pietro’s Sainthood on 4 June 1110, by Pope Paschal II, a mere 4 years after his death, the Saint’s second successor, Pietro II, as legend has it, oversaw the translation of his body from the upper Basilica to the lower. Here, after more than 2 Centuries, the Anagnina Canon Jacopo de Guerra restored the aAltar erected in his honour which was Consecrated on 11 February 1324.
In a large niche carved into the back wall, he had the holy Bishop painted, nobly seated in a Cathedral between the upright figures of Saints Aurelia and Neomisia. The Anagnina Church still celebrates his Feastday on 3 August but since he is the Patron Saint of the City and Diocese, his silver-plated copper bust, with a Relic, a work of 1541, is displayed alongside the similar bust of the Martyr Magnus ,during the patronal celebrations of 19 August.
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