Day 4: The Vigil Before the Cross

The fourth day of the Saint Peregrine Novena turns to the moment in the saint's life that gives the devotion its particular character: the night he spent in prayer before the Crucifix on the eve of his scheduled amputation. The Catholic faithful praying the novena for healing today are invited to keep their own vigil with Saint Peregrine, before the same Cross from which his healing came.

Today's invocation

O great Saint Peregrine, you have been called the Mighty, the Wonder-Worker... (the full opening prayer)

Today's meditation

The standard hagiographical account, drawn from the early Servite testimonies and confirmed in the canonization records, places the vigil in the chapel of the Servite friary at Forlì. Peregrine was about sixty years old. The cancer on his right leg had advanced to the point where the surgical removal of the limb was the only remaining medical option. The surgery was scheduled for the following day. Peregrine, having received the consent of his religious superiors and prepared himself spiritually for the loss of the limb, withdrew that night to the chapel to pray.

The chapel held a fresco of the Crucifixion of the Lord Jesus on one of its interior walls. Peregrine, kneeling before the fresco, spent the night in prayer. According to the standard account, he experienced toward the early morning hours a vision in which the figure of the Crucified Christ on the fresco descended from the Cross and touched his diseased leg. When Peregrine awoke from the prayer-trance (the Catholic tradition is uncertain whether the experience was strictly visionary or partly somatic), the cancer had vanished. The surgeon arrived the following morning and confirmed that the disease was entirely gone. The amputation was canceled.¹

The Catholic devotional tradition has read the vigil as the model for every Catholic prayer in serious illness. The patient, on the eve of major medical procedure, comes to the Crucifix and waits with the suffering Lord. The waiting is not principally a request for the miracle (though the miracle is asked); it is principally an act of solidarity with Christ in His own suffering. The healing Saint Peregrine received was a particular Catholic mercy; the disposition of the vigil is the Catholic model regardless of whether the same mercy is given.

Today's intention

Today, if at all possible, spend a longer-than-usual time in prayer before a Crucifix or before the Blessed Sacrament. Lord Jesus, I keep watch with You as Saint Peregrine kept watch. Whatever You choose to give in this novena, give me the disposition of his vigil.

If the patient for whom you are praying is able, encourage them to keep their own vigil. The Catholic patient in the hospital, in the days before a major procedure, can keep a brief vigil at the bedside (with a Crucifix placed on the bedside table), often in the company of a Catholic family member or chaplain. The practice connects the patient's own night of fear with Saint Peregrine's vigil and with the Lord's own night in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Reflection

The Catholic spiritual tradition has long observed that the Cross is the place where every Catholic suffering finds its proper meaning. The Lord on the Cross did not bypass suffering; He went into it, took it on Himself, and through it accomplished the redemption of the human family. The Catholic patient, going into surgery, into chemotherapy, into the long course of treatment, follows the same path. The Cross is not the obstacle in front of healing; the Cross is the door through which healing comes, when it comes.

Saint Peregrine's vigil before the Crucifix is the Catholic icon of this disposition. He did not flee the Cross; he sat with it. He did not demand healing; he asked, but he was prepared for either answer. The Lord, in response, gave the healing in this case. The novena's fourth day is the Catholic invitation to enter into the same disposition.

Closing prayers

Conclude with the Our Father, the Hail Mary, and the Glory Be.

Lord Jesus on the Cross, Saint Peregrine kept watch with You and was healed. Hear our vigil. Heal us if it is according to Your will.

Footnotes

1. The vigil and miraculous cure are documented in the early Servite hagiographical sources and in the canonization records preserved at the Vatican. Pope Benedict XIII, canonization bull (27 December 1726). ↩