Also known as St. Peter of Verona or St. Peter of Milan, St. Peter Martyr was a Dominican who preached against the Catharists. He was murdered by two Catharist assassins on the road from Como to Milan in 1252 and canonized the following year.
One of the assassins killed a friar named Dominic who was traveling with Peter. The other, Carino of Balsamo, attacked Peter first with blows to the head, using an axe, though the Golden Legend says it was a sword. Then he stabbed him in the chest. This sequence is presented in Bellini's painting of the murder, along with the killing of Dominic. Bellini dresses the assassins as if they were knights or soldiers, as does a 13th century manuscript illumination; but there is nothing in the Golden Legend about their being military, and Professor Prudlo (Catholic Historical Review, Jan. 2008) says Carino was a "cutthroat thug."
Peter's body was taken to Milan, where it was entombed in a mausoleum erected by Balduccio Pisano (image).
In portraits St. Peter Martyr appears as at left: tonsured, wearing the white and black Dominican habit, his skull distinguished by either a gash or an axe or sword. He often also holds the palm of martyrdom and a closed book.
The santos referenced by this page are from 16th-century Dominican churches in Oaxaca state, Mexico.
Feast day: February 13
At left, a santo in the church of SS. Peter and Paul, Etla, Oaxaca
Other images:
With other saints:Santos from Huitzo and Santo Domingo Diaz Ordaz, Oaxaca
Hagiography:In the Ugljan Polyptych, 1450
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