St. Conrad of Piacenza, Holy Hermit and Healer
Today is the feast of St. Conrad of Piacenza, a Third Order Franciscan hermit celebrated for his piety and miraculous cures at Noto in Sicily. St. Conrad was a noble, born at Piacenza, Italy. As a young man, he married the beautiful Euphrosyne, daughter of a nobleman. One day while hunting, Conrad made a fire that quickly spread throughout the area. The wind carried the flames to nearby fields, forests, towns and villages. An innocent peasant was arrested as an arsonist and condemned to death, but Conrad stepped forward to admit his guilt in the matter, saving the man's life. Consequently, he had to sell his possessions to pay for the damages. He and his wife gave everything they owned to the poor in recompense. Conrad and his wife then decided to enter the religious life. She became a Poor Clare, and he entered the Franciscan Third Order as a hermit. Conrad went to Noto, in Sicily, where he lived the next three decades at St. Martin's Hospital and in a hermitage ...