This well-to-do young Italian assaulted the Servite superior general whom the pope had sent to make peace between feuding political factions in northern Italy. But he was so moved by the Servite’s Christian response that he repented and in 1292 joined the Servites in Siena. A prayerful and charitable friar, he was devoted to Mary. In 1322, he founded a new Servite house in Forli, his hometown. He said Mass and preached fervently, and was known for his spiritual direction. When doctors decided to amputate his right foot because of a cancerous open sore, Peregrine prayed a long time the night before the surgery and awoke with his foot healed. Canonized in 1726, he is an intercessor for those battling cancer.
