The Assassin-Saint: The Life and Cult of Carino of Balsamo

St. Peter Martyr was a thirteenth-century preacher and inquisitor who achieved rapid canonization and attained a worldwide cult. Less well known was his assassin, Carino of Balsamo. Hired as a cutthroat thug to murder Peter of Verona, Carino escaped, repented, and lived out his life as a humble Dominican penitent. After his death, a local cult developed around him. Although the story of the famous Inquisitor and the humble penitent were inextricably intertwined, their cults hardly ever intersected. This article lays out Carino's biography and his cultic afterlife, and sheds light on early Dominican practice, on the continuing importance of local cults in Italy, and on the Christian ideal of conversion.