Pietro Pattarini of Imola

In Florence, Pietro stripped himself of his privileges to care for the sick in hospitals. He entered the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem (the Hospitaller Knights). Noted for his skills, he was appointed Grand Prior of Rome. Desirous of returning to the direct service of the poor, he returned to Florence to direct the commandery of San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, where he dedicated himself to the infirm until his death on October 5, 1320.

Interred in the church of San Jacopo in Campo Corbolini, his tomb became a place of veneration. Tradition recounts the miracle of a priest saved from a fatal fall from a ladder by the hand of the blessed one emerging from his tomb to stabilize it. Following this prodigy, his relics were placed under the high altar. In 1557, despite a severe flood of the Arno that inundated the church, his sacred remains were miraculously preserved.

The cult of Pietro Pattarini was officially confirmed on July 4, 1987, by a decree approved by Pope John Paul II, and subsequently on January 27, 1995. On June 10, 2016, his relics were solemnly transferred to the Basilica of San Lorenzo in Florence, beneath the altar of the Madonna, in the presence of Cardinal Giuseppe Betori. On October 7, 2023, a national pilgrimage of the Order of Malta led by Fra' Emmanuel Rousseau gathered there to honor his memory.

Pietro Pattarini perfectly embodies the dual vocation of the Order of Malta: the defense of the faith and the service of the poor and the sick. His radical conversion, moving from the chair of law to the bedside of the suffering, testifies to a profound humility. His legacy of charity and reconciliation remains alive today, and relics are also preserved and venerated in the cathedral of his native city of Imola.