St. Conrad of Piacenza

St. Conrad of Piacenza was born about 1290 at Piacenza in northern Italy, of a noble family, and married into wealth, living the life of a young nobleman devoted to the pleasures of the hunt. One day, to drive game from a thicket, he ordered a fire set, which spread out of control and burned fields and forest; an innocent poor man was arrested and condemned for the blaze. Stricken with remorse, Conrad came forward, confessed that he was the cause, and made full restitution, an act that ruined him financially but marked the turning of his life to God.

He and his wife each embraced the religious life, she entering a convent of Poor Clares and he becoming a Franciscan tertiary and then a hermit. He journeyed at last to Sicily, where he spent some thirty or more years in solitude near Noto, living in prayer, penance, and severe austerity, and was granted gifts of healing and prophecy, so that many sought him out. He died as a hermit about 1351, and his cult was later confirmed by the Church. He is venerated as a saint, his memory kept on 19 February.