Saint of the Day: February 19

St. Conrad of Piacenza

Saint Conrad, T.O.S.F., (ca. 1290 – February 19, 1351) was an Italian penitent and hermit of the Third Order of St. Francis.

Conrad belonged to one of the noblest families of the city of Piacenza, the place of his birth. The date of his birth, however, is uncertain. He married an aristocratic young woman named Ephrosyne when he was quite young, and, though pious, he led the standard way of life for a man of his station.

One day, when he was engaged in his usual pastime of hunting, he ordered his attendants to set fire to some brushwood in which game had taken refuge. The prevailing wind caused the flames to spread rapidly, and the surrounding fields and forest were soon in a state of conflagration. A peasant who happened to be found near the place where the fire had originated, was accused of being the author of the blaze. He was imprisoned, tortured to confess and condemned to death. As the poor man was being led to execution, Conrad, stricken with remorse, made an open confession of his guilt; and in order to repair the damage he had caused, was obliged to sell all his possessions.

Thus reduced to poverty, and seeking penance for his act of cowardice, Conrad and his wife saw the hand of God in this event. As a result, they agreed to separate and Conrad retired to a hermitage some distance from Piacenza, joining a community of hermits, who were Franciscan tertiaries, while his wife became a nun of the Order of Poor Clares.

He soon developed a reputation for holiness, and the flow of visitors left him unable to keep the solitude he sought. He then went to Rome, and from there to an isolated site near Noto, Sicily, where he settled and for thirty-six years lived a most austere and penitential life of solitude, working numerous miracles, until his death on February 19, 1351. He died while in prayer, kneeling before a crucifix. He was canonized in 1625 and his liturgical feast day is celebrated in the Franciscan Order on the day of his death.