Who is St. Peregrine, the ‘cancer saint’ Catholics are invoking for Pope Leo XIV?

As Pope Leo XIV recovers at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital from surgery that confirmed lung cancer , Catholics around the world are praying for him, and many are turning to a 14th-century Servite priest long known as “the cancer saint”: St. Peregrine Laziosi.

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From punch to penance According to an account by Father Lawrence G. Lovasik, SVD, published in EWTN’s library , Peregrine was born in 1260 in Forlì, Italy. He was the only son of a wealthy family, and as a young man he sided with the city’s anti-papal faction.

When St. Philip Benizi of the Servants of Mary (the Servites) came to Forlì to preach peace on behalf of Pope Martin IV, he was met with insults, rocks, and clubs. Peregrine struck him in the face . Philip answered by offering the other cheek and praying for the young man.

Moved, Peregrine ran after the departing friar. He begged forgiveness on his knees and promised to change his life. According to the traditional account, the Virgin Mary later appeared to him in Forlì’s cathedral and told him: “Go to Siena. There you will find the devout men who call themselves my servants. Join them.”

Peregrine received the…