Blessed Pietro Geremia

Pietro Geremia (10 August 1399 – 3 March 1452) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and a professed member from the Order of Preachers. Geremia was born in Palermo but spent an extended period of time in Bologna – where he experienced a radical conversion – and Fiesole for his admittance into the Dominicans before returning to Palermo where he became a sought after and noted preacher and miracle worker. Geremia's beatification was confirmed in 1784. Pietro Geremia was born in Palermo on 10 August 1399 to aristocrats. Geremia studied at the Bologna college since being sent there in 1417 and was perceived to be an excellent law student and his own pride led him to believe this to be true. One night in 1422 he dwelled on his vain success and what his future would bring when a deceased male relative knocked on his third floor window; Geremia sat upright and asked who was there before seeing this relative. The relative told him that his pride lost him a chance at entering heaven and so warned Geremia not to repeat his mistakes. The shaken Geremia purchased an iron chain as a penitential act from a locksmith the next morning and began to contemplate what his vocation might be. He received a sign that it was to enter the Order of Preachers; his enraged father came to Bologna to stop him but saw how pleased Geremia was with his decision when he entered. He started his novitiate in Fiesole and was ordained to the priesthood in 1424. He made his vows in 1423 and returned to Palermo in 1433. It was Geremia who suggested to the young Giovanni Liccio that he should join the Order of Preachers. Liccio later became provincial of all Dominican Sicilian houses. His fame as a preacher caught the attention of Vincent Ferrer who once visited him and the two discussed spiritual matters at great lengths. Geremia was seen as one of the finest preachers on the island and preached in the open often because the churches never could hold the vast number of people that flocked to see him.