Feast Day: January 20th
The Life of Saint Peter: The Angels placed this one loaf of bread on the empty side of the scale, and that loaf of bread outweighed the other side of the scale, laden with all of Peter’s sins…
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Prayers
Saint Peter the Merciful Pray to God for us.
Saint Peter was a very wealthy tax collector, and he did not help any of the many beggars who came to him. One day a beggar was persistently asking him for alms, in a rage Saint Peter grabbed what was closest to him, a loaf of bread, and threw it at the beggar and it hit him. The beggar joyfully took this bread and left. Immediately after this Saint Peter became seriously ill and had a vision:
He was being interrogated by demons in the other world. There was a scale, and on one side of it, the demons heaped Peter’s sins, making that side extremely heavy. On the other side – which was empty – Angels stood, sorrowing that they had not even one good deed in Peter’s life to help balance the scale. One of them said: “We have nothing to place on the scale except one loaf of bread, with which he struck a beggar the day before yesterday.” The Angels placed this one loaf of bread on the empty side of the scale, and that loaf of bread outweighed the other side of the scale, laden with all of Peter’s sins.
When the vision was over Saint Peter said to himself:
“Indeed, this was not an apparition but the living truth, for I saw all my sins from my youth. And when I can be helped so much by one loaf of bread that I threw at a beggar, how much help would I receive from many deeds of almsgiving, performed from the heart and with humility?”
From this time on Saint Peter became the most compassionate man in his town, distributed all his possessions to the poor, and then sold himself into slavery for thirty gold pieces – and this gold he gave to the poor as alms in the Name of Christ. From hereon he was known as Saint Peter the Merciful.
One day Saint Peter a man who had barely survived a shipwreck asked Saint Peter for some clothing. Saint Peter removed his expensive cloak and clothed the naked man with it. Shortly afterward, Saint Peter saw his cloak in the shop of a merchant, who had it displayed for sale, and this saddened him very much, and he thought “I am not worthy; the Lord does not accept my alms.”. However, the Lord later appeared to Saint Peter in a dream. He appeared as a handsome man, brighter than the sun, with a Cross on His head, wearing Saint Peter’s cloak. Christ asked: “Peter, why art thou sad?”. Saint Peter replied: “My Lord, why would I not be sad, when I see that which I gave to the poor being sold at the market?” Then the Lord asked him: “Dost thou recognize this garment on Me?” Peter replied: “I recognize it, Lord; that is my garment with which I clothed the naked man.” Then the Lord spoke to him again: “Therefore do not be sad; thou gavest it to the poor man, and I received it, and I praise thy deed.”
