| Father Peter | ||||||||||||
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Father Peter was the priest who traveled to the wilderness outpost of Snake River, Montana in 1817, to provide religious services for the settlers there. He carried with him the elaborate gold and jeweled Cross of Saint Antoine which he had brought from the Vatican. Duncan MacLeod saved both the priest and the cross the first time an attempt was made to steal it at a baptism on the river, taking a bullet for his trouble. When the priest insisted on examining MacLeod's wounds, he believed that a miracle had occured when no wound was in evidence.
MacLeod proceeded into Fort Wolf from the riverside, where he met another immortal, John Durgan. He was followed shortly by the priest bearing the cross where he caught Durgan's eye; "...all that gold, wasted on a priest." The following day, MacLeod had hoped to say goodbye to the priest but was told that Durgan had approached the Father, and told him he "...could not bear to face another sunrise as a heathen" and so the pair had gone to the river to perform a baptism.
Durgan insisted the rite be performed with the golden cross, and the priest humored him, taking out the elaborate cross.
Father Peter, Durgan, and the Cross of St. Antoine
Durgan than asked to hold it, and once it was in his hands, stabbed the priest, and dropped him in the river. MacLeod arrived in time to witness the crime, and rushed to the aid of the priest whose only concern was the cross and that in might be lost to the church. MacLeod said he would return it, and Peter asked him to swear to it, which he did. The priest then died in MacLeod's arms.