
Peter of Alcántara
1499 AD — October 18, 1562
Peter of Alcántara was a sixteenth-century Spanish Franciscan who ate once every three days and slept upright for a few hours a night. His Treatise on Prayer and Meditation was declared by Pope Gregory XV to have been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and Teresa of Ávila praised it as a masterpiece of interior guidance.