Peter of Alcantara, Saint

PETER OF ALCANTARA, Saint. - Franciscan, promoter of a reform within the Order.

I. LIFE

Born at Alcántara (Estremadura) in 1499, died at Arenas (diocese of Ávila) on 19 October 1562. He studied at the University of Salamanca (1513-15), then entered the Franciscans at Los Majaretes. Shortly after 1519, even before being ordained a priest, he was sent as superior to found the convent of Badajoz. Having received Ordination (1524), he became superior at Robredillo, then at Placencia, and again at Badajoz, until in 1532 he obtained permission to withdraw to a more retired life in the convent of St. Onuphrius de La Lapa. In 1538 he was elected provincial of the discalced province of St. Gabriel.

II. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE ALCANTARINE REFORM

Already during this office he had drawn up very severe Statutes for his religious, approved in the Chapter of Plasencia in 1540. But the beginning of his reform came in 1544, when, with the consent of Julius III, he withdrew to the small church of S. Croce di Cobollas, near Coira, placing himself under the obedience of the Conventuals, because of the difficulties he encountered among the Observants, who saw in his attempt the danger of a new internal division of the Order. In 1555 he built the famous convent of Pedroso, followed by others. In 1556 the Commissary General of the Conventuals elected P. d'A. as Commissary General of the convents of the Reformed of Spain. From this moment the custody prospered greatly, obtaining the approval of Paul IV with the brief Cum a nobis (8 May 1559), which permitted its spread abroad as well. The custody was erected into a province in 1561. The Observance did everything so that the new Province would return under its obedience, and finally the Alcantarines had to yield, and the passage to the Observance was sanctioned by Pius IV with the bull In suprema (25 Jan. 1562), executed only the following year. But in the meantime St. P. d'A. died. He was beatified by Gregory XV on 18 Apr. 1622 and canonized by Clement IX on 28 Apr. 1669; Clement X in 1670 extended his cult to the whole Church. Patron of the diocese of Coira in Spain and of Brazil.

III. THE SPIRIT OF SAINT PETER OF ALCANTARA

The life of St. Peter of Alcantara is dominated by a strong spirit of penance and mortification, from which also proceeded his most intense love of the poverty imposed upon his reform in a very strict manner, so as to renew the examples of the "Franciscan origins." Through such austere asceticism the Saint attained a very high degree of prayer and contemplation, favored also with mystical gifts and the power to work miracles. His holiness radiated not only through his apostolate and his reform, but also through his relations with holy figures of the time, such as St. Francis Borgia and above all with St. Teresa of Avila, who speaks of him several times in her writings and who had him as her director of conscience and found him a support and help in the reform of Carmel.

IV. THE WRITINGS

Not much remains of the writings of St. P. of A.: the Statutes of the Province of St. Joseph, the letters addressed to St. Teresa and to St. Francis Borgia, and above all the famous little work Tratado de la oración y meditación, whose authenticity has been much debated, without yet reaching a definitive solution accepted by all. The controversy concerns the great similarity, often even verbal, between the treatise attributed to our author and a similar treatise by the celebrated Dominican friar Louis of Granada, much more developed. In any case, it seems that the Alcantarine authenticity of the little work as it has come down to us should not be doubted. It presents two parts: in the first, a method of meditation is set out and analyzed, with two series of meditations developed on the last things and on the Passion of Our Lord; in the second, there is a more general discussion of the devout life. The little work presents fairly clearly the characteristics of Franciscan spirituality, in its affectivity, in the plastic concreteness of its scenes, and in the practicality of its teaching. The little work enjoyed great success, with very numerous editions and versions in all languages (in Italian, a very recent one [ed. by P. Valugani, Quaderni francescani di spiritualità, 3, Rome 1952).

Alberto Ghinato