Peter of Alcantara

Peter of Alcántara was born in 1499 at Alcántara in Extremadura, in the Crown of Castile. His baptismal family name is given in the sources as Garavito (or Garavita) y Vilela de Sanabria; his father, Pedro Garavito, was governor of Alcántara, and his mother belonged to the noble Sanabria family. After early studies he spent a period at the University of Salamanca. About the age of sixteen he entered the Observant Franciscans at the convent of San Francisco de los Majaretes (Manjaretes), near Valencia de Alcántara, and took the religious name Peter. He was ordained priest in 1524. From early in his religious life he was noted for an unusually severe personal austerity: he went barefoot, wore a poor habit, ate very little, and reduced sleep to a short interval, often remaining in a sitting or kneeling posture.

Within the Observant Franciscans he served as guardian of several houses and as provincial of the province of Saint Gabriel in Extremadura. Convinced that the Rule of Saint Francis was being observed too loosely, he sought a still stricter form of life. In the mid-sixteenth century, with papal authorization, he established a reformed family of Friars Minor of the Strictest Observance, later known as Alcantarines or Discalced Franciscans of that observance. Their first houses included the hermitage of El Palancar and a convent at Pedroso. The reform emphasized absolute poverty, solitude, and penitential practice. Peter also wrote a short Treatise on Prayer and Meditation, which circulated in Spain and was used in the contemplative tradition of the following generation.

In the later 1550s he became spiritual director and confessor to Teresa of Ávila, whom he encouraged to persist with the reform of the Carmelite nuns despite strong opposition. Teresa later described his life of prayer, his counsel, and, in her account, appearances of him after his death. He spent his last years mainly at the convent of Arenas (Arenas de San Pedro) in the province of Ávila and died there on 18 October 1562.

He was beatified on 18 April 1622 by Pope Gregory XV, in the same period as several other Spanish and Italian figures of the Catholic Reformation, and was canonized on 28 April 1669 by Pope Clement IX. His cult took root especially in Spain and in Portuguese America. In 1862 Pope Pius IX declared him patron of Brazil. His relics are venerated in the church dedicated to him at Arenas de San Pedro. His traditional feast is kept on 19 October.