SAINT CONRAD OF PIACENZA

Feast Day: February 19

Lived (1290 - February 19, 1351)

Born in northern Italy, to a noble family. Conrad as a young man married Euphrosyne, daughter of a nobleman too.

While hunting one day, he ordered attendants to set fire to some brush in order to flush out the game. This then became a wild fire spreading to nearby fields and to a large forest. Conrad fled. An innocent peasant was imprisoned, tortured to confess, and then, condemned to death. Conrad confessed his guilt, saved the man’s life, and paid for the damaged property.

Not long after this incident, Conrad and his wife agreed to separate: she to a Monastery of Poor Clares, and he to a group of hermits following the Third Order Rule. His reputation for holiness, however, spread quickly. Since his many visitors destroyed his solitude, Conrad went to a more remote spot in Sicily where he lived 36 years as a hermit, praying for himself and for the rest of the world.

Prayer and penance were his answer to the temptations that beset him. He died kneeling before a crucifix. He was canonized in 1625.