Pietro Geremia

Did You Know?

• Pietro Geremia's conversion was sparked by a vision of a deceased male relative who knocked on his third-floor window in 1422.
• In 1444, he stopped a lava flow from Mount Etna by holding Saint Agatha's veil toward it.

Life

Pietro Geremia was born in Palermo on 10 August 1399 to aristocrats. He studied at the Bologna college from 1417 and was an excellent law student, but his pride led him to dwell on his vain success. One night in 1422, a deceased male relative knocked on his third-floor window, told him that pride had cost the relative heaven, and warned Geremia not to repeat that mistake. The shaken Geremia bought an iron chain from a locksmith the next morning as a penitential act.

He received a sign to enter the Order of Preachers; his enraged father came to Bologna to stop him but saw how pleased Geremia was with his decision. Geremia started his novitiate in Fiesole, made his vows in 1423, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1424. He returned to Palermo in 1433. He suggested to the young Giovanni Liccio that he 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 visited him to discuss spiritual matters. Because churches could not hold the crowds, Geremia often preached in the open. On one occasion, when there was no food for the people, he asked a fisherman for a donation but was rudely refused. Geremia rowed out to sea, made a sign to the fish, who broke the nets and followed him to shore.

The fisherman apologized, and Geremia made another sign, sending the fish back to the nets. In 1444, while preaching on repentance in Catania, Mount Etna erupted. The people begged him to save them; he went to the Saint Agatha shrine, removed the saint's veil, and held it toward the lava flow heading toward the town. The eruption and lava ceased.

Geremia was sent to establish regular observance in Dominican monasteries in Sicily, including the Santa Caterina convent. Pope Eugene IV called him to Florence in 1439 to help heal the rift between the Greek and Latin churches, and he managed a brief union. He was once offered a bishopric but refused it. He died on 3 March 1452 in the Santa Zita convent in Palermo.