PETER PASCUAL, ST.

Bishop and martyr; b. Valencia, Spain, 1227; d. Granada, Spain, Dec. 6, 1300. He was of noble birth. He became a doctor of theology in Paris and a priest (c. 1250), taught in Barcelona and administered the Diocese of Toledo (1266–75) for its young Archbishop Sancho, son of James I of Aragon. He then traveled on foot, performing works of mercy. In Paris, he defended the Immaculate Conception, and in 1296 he was consecrated bishop of Jaén by boniface viii in Rome. He was captured by the Moors in 1298 and died in prison. His relics are in the cathedral of Baeza; his cult was approved in 1673. Peter wrote several religious works in Catalan and Castillan and a gloss on the Lord's Prayer against the teachings of Judaism and Islam.

Feast: Dec. 6.

Bibliography: Opera, ed. p. a. valenzuela, 4 v. (Rome 1906–08). f. fita, ed., Bulls of Boniface VIII, Boletín de la Real Academia de la Historia 20 (1892) 32–61. Analecta Bollandiana 23 (1904) 507–508; 58 (1940) 88. d. mansilla, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner, 10 v. (2d, new ed. Freiburg 1957–65) 8:375. Homenajes de las entidades culturales de Valencia a San Pedro Pascual en el III centenario de su canonización (Valencia 1973), anonymous author. f. colombo, Resumen de la vida del glorioso mártir San Pedro Pasqual de Valencia, ed. j. b. merega (Valencia 1979). w. mettmann, Die volkssprachliche apologetische Literatur auf der Iberischen Halbinsel im Mittelalter (Opladen 1987).

[e. p. colbert]