Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology on 6th Dec., but his festival is observed on Oct 23. In 1673 Clement X. by brief allowed the Order of Mercy to recite his office as bishop and martyr. He extended the privilege to all the clergy, regular and secular, of the dioceses of Valencia, Granada, Jaen, and Toledo, and had his name inserted in the Roman Martyrology on Oct 23 and Dec. 6. Authority: — The Acts of Canonization. ] The ancestors of S. Peter Paschal came from Valencia, and were noted for their charitable benefactions, given for the keeping up of the Convent of the Holy Sepulchre, in the city of Valencia. Five of the family are said to have shed their blood for their religion. The saint was bom on December 6th, 1227; he was educated by a priest whom his parents had redeemed from slavery among the Moors. On the conquest of Valencia (1238) from the Moors by the king of Aragon, Peter was made canon of the cathedral, and he went to Paris to complete his studies in that university. On his return to Spain, he entered the Order of Mercy founded by S. Peter Nolasco for the redemption of captives, and received the habit in 1251. After his profession, he went to Barcelona, where he taught theology, till called to be tutor to Don Sanchez, third son of James I. of Aragon, whom he persuaded to enter the same Order as himself, and dedicate himself to the Church. Don Sanchez was appointed archbishop of Toledo, while still a boy in his teens. As he was too young to govern his church, Peter Paschal was given him as his coadjutor, by Urban IV., with the title of Bishop of Granada. He was consecrated in 1262, and governed the archdiocese till 1275, when the youthful archbishop died in battle, fighting the Moors.

He visited Granada, still under the Moors [the Muslims of North Africa and Spain], and consoled the Christians in captivity, and redeemed many from their slavery. In 1269 he was made bishop of Jaen, then under Moorish government His success in bringing renegades back to Christianity exasperated the Cadi, and he had Peter Paschal imprisoned. A large sum was collected for his ransom, but he expended it on a number of captive women and children, whom he feared the Mussulmans would force into apostacy. A story not without its beauty and meaning is told of the saint at this period. He was saying Mass, and a little boy served at the altar, with book and bell, most properly. When Mass was over, Peter turned to the server, and, thinking he was a Christian child, put him through his catechism. The child repeated it with great quickness and apprehension. But when the catechist asked the boy who was Jesus Christ, he was startled by receiving the answer, “ Myself.” There can be little doubt that the great truth that mercy shown to the little ones believing in Christ is accepted as done to Christ Himself, was distorted in the mouth of the people into this story.

Whilst in prison he composed a work against Mohammedanism, anything but complimentary to the founder of the religion and to the merits of the Koran. This so incensed the Moors that they clamoured for his execution, and he was sentenced to lose his head. He spent the night before his martyrdom in an agony of fear, but was consoled by a vision, in which Christ appeared to him, and assured him that before His passion, He also had been agonized by natural fear of death.

Peter Paschal suffered on January 6th, 1300, at the age of seventy-three. The Moors, not valuing his relics [the bodily remains of a saint, or objects they used, kept with honor], readily abandoned them to the eager deputies of the churches of Jaen and Baeza, who quarrelled which should have them. The contest was settled by mutual consent, that they should vS. Peter Paschal.

be placed on the back of a blind mule, and the beast be allowed to take them where it liked. The mule had formerly, no doubt, belonged to some one in Baeza, though of this the deputies of Jaen were not informed, and the animal trotted home with the bones.