Peter of Vercelli

Peter of Vercelli was bishop of Vercelli in Piedmont, probably of German origin, from around 978, and he died at Vercelli on 13 February 997. He is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

He became a friend of Bononius of Lucedio, who freed him from captivity in Egypt, into which he had fallen after the defeat he suffered in Calabria, in the army of the emperor Otto II, at the battle of Capo Colonna. He then made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and, after a stay at Constantinople, returned to Vercelli before 990.

He remained loyal to the German emperors, which vexed Arduin, margrave of Ivrea, who wanted to escape subjection to the emperor. He was disliked also by some of his vassals and part of the diocesan clergy, because he had tried to recover goods of the diocese squandered by his predecessor, Ingo. On 13 February 997 Arduin besieged Vercelli and, according to legend, personally killed the bishop. He then set fire to the cathedral, to end the veneration that had arisen at Peter's tomb; the veneration did not end. Adalbert succeeded him, and after him Leo, a bitter enemy of Arduin.

His remembrance is in the liturgical calendar of the archdiocese of Vercelli on 13 February. The Roman Martyrology does not mention him. He is a local saint of the West; no Orthodox synodal canonization is known.