Born in 1190 kingdom of Leon in Spain, St. Peter’s uncle, the bishop of Astorga, preferred him to a canonry and shortly after to the deanery of his chapter. The young dean took possession of his dignity with great pomp but in the midst of his pride happened by a false step of his prancing horse to fall into a sink. This humiliation moved the young gentleman to condemn his own vanity and fondness of applause. He retired to Palencia to learn the will of God in solitude, fasting and prayer. He was then ordered by his superiors to employ his talents in the ministry of the divine word. The number of conversions which God wrought by his ministry in the kingdom of Leon and Castile, especially in the diocese of Palencia, made king Ferdinand III desirous to see him  and so taken with him was he that he required that St. Peter always be near his person in court and in the field. St. Peter accompanied Ferdinand II in the conquest of Cordova in 1236, and his zeal to preach the Faith to the poor was so great that he left court, afterwhich, Galicia and the rest of the coast were the chief theatres of his pious labors.