(A.D. 1072.)
[Roman Martyrology. A double of the Breviary. Pope Leo XII. gave to
S. Peter Damiani the title of Doctor of the Church, and extended to
the whole of the Catholic Church the right of venerating him, which
was formerly reserved to the Camaldolese, and to the dioceses of
Ravenna and Falonza. Authority:--Life by his disciple, John of Lodi.]
Peter, surnamed of Damian, was born about the year 988, in Ravenna, of
a good family, the Onesti, that was considerably reduced in
circumstances. He was the youngest of many children, and when very
young, losing his father and mother, he was left in the hands of a
married brother, in whose house he was treated more as a slave than a
relation; and when grown up, he was sent to keep swine. One day he
became possessed of a piece of money, which, instead of spending on
himself, he bestowed in alms on a priest, desiring him to offer up
prayers for his father's soul. He had another brother called Damian,
who was arch-priest of Ravenna, and afterwards a monk; who, taking
pity on him, gave him an education. Damian sent Peter to school, first
at Faenza, afterwards at Parma. Having good natural parts, it was not
long before Peter found himself in a capacity to teach others. To arm
himself against the allurements of pleasure, and the artifices of the
devil, he began to wear a rough hair-shirt under his clothes, and to
inure himself to fasting, watching, and prayer. In the night, if any
temptation of concupiscence arose, he got out of bed and plunged into
the river. After this, he visited churches, reciting the psalter
whilst he performed this devotion, till the church office began. He
not only gave much away in alms, but was seldom without some poor
person at his table, and took a pleasure in serving them with his own
hands. But at length he came to the resolution of deserting the world,
and embracing the monastic life, at a distance from his own country.
While his mind was full of these thoughts, two religious of the order
of S. Benedict, belonging to Font-Avellano, a desert at the foot of
the Apennines in Umbria, happened to call at the place of his abode;
and being much edified at their disinterestedness, he resolved to
embrace their institute; which he did shortly after. This hermitage
had been founded by Blessed Ludolf, about twenty years before S. Peter
came thither, and was then in the greatest repute. The hermits, in
pairs, occupied separate cells. They lived on bread and water four
days in the week: on Tuesdays and Thursdays they ate pulse and herbs,
which every one dressed in his own cell: on their fast days all their
bread was given them by weight. They never used any wine (the common
drink of the country) except for mass, or in sickness: they went
barefoot, used disciplines, made many genuflections, struck their
breasts, stood with their arms stretched out in prayer, each according
to his strength and devotion. After the night office they said the
whole psalter before day. This severe life brought on S. Peter a
nervous attack of wakefulness, which nearly wore him out, and of which
he was cured with very great difficulty. But he learned from this to
use more discretion. He gave a considerable time to sacred studies,
and became as well versed in the Scriptures as he was before in
profane literature. His superior ordered him to make frequent
exhortations to the religious, and as he had acquired a very great
character for virtue and learning, Guy, abbot of Pomposia, begged his
superior to send him to instruct his monastery, which consisted of a
hundred monks. Peter staid there two years, and was then called back
by his abbot, and sent to perform the same function in the large abbey
of S. Vincent, near the Pietra Pertusa, or Hollow Rock. On his recall,
he was commanded by his abbot, with the unanimous consent of the
hermitage, to take upon him the government of the desert after his
death, Therefore, on the decease of the abbot, in 1041, Peter assumed
the direction of that holy family, which he governed with wisdom and
sanctity. He founded five other hermitages; in which he placed priors
subject to his jurisdiction. His principal care was to cherish in his
disciples the spirit of solitude, charity, and humility. Among them,
many became great lights of the Church, as S. Ralph, bishop of Gubbio,
whose festival is kept on the 26th of June; S. Dominic, surnamed
Loricatus, the 14th of October; S. John of Lodi, his successor in the
priory of the Holy Cross, who was also bishop of Gubbio, and wrote S.
Peter's life; and many others. He was for twelve years much employed
in the service of the Church by many zealous bishops, and by four
popes successively, namely, Gregory VI., Clement II., Leo IX., and
Victor II. Their successor, Stephen IX., 1057, prevailed on him to
quit his desert, and made him cardinal bishop of Ostia.
Stephen IX. dying in 1058, Nicolas II. was chosen pope, a man of deep
penetration, of great virtue and learning. Upon complaints of simony
in the Church of Milan, Nicolas II. sent Peter thither as his legate.
Nicolas II. dying, after having sat two years and six months,
Alexander II. was chosen pope, in 1062. S. Peter had with great
importunity solicited Nicolas II. to grant him leave to resign his
bishopric, and return to his solitude; but could not obtain it. His
successor, Alexander II., out of affection for the holy man, was
prevailed upon to allow it, in 1062, but not without great difficulty,
and the reserve of a power to employ him in Church-matters of
importance, as he might have occasion hereafter for his assistance.
The saint from that time thought himself discharged, not only from the
burden of his flock, but also from the government, as Superior of the
several priories, dependent on his monastery.
In this retirement he edified the Church by his penance and
compunction, and laboured by his writings to enforce the observance of
discipline and morality. He wrote a treatise to the bishop of
Besançon, against the custom which the canons of that Church had, of
saying the divine office sitting, a custom which has unfortunately,
since his time, become general; but he saw the propriety of all
sitting during the lessons. This saint wrote most severely on the
obligations of religious, particularly against their rambling over the
country, and going from monastery to monastery. He complained of
certain evasions, by which many palliated real infractions of their
vow of poverty. He justly observed, "We can never restore what is
decayed of primitive discipline; and if we, by negligence, suffer any
diminution in what remains established, future ages will never be able
to repair such breaches. Let us not draw upon ourselves so base a
reproach; but let us faithfully transmit to posterity the examples of
virtue which we have received from our forefathers." The holy man was
obliged to interrupt his solitude in obedience to the pope, who sent
him in the capacity of legate, into France, in 1063, commanding the
archbishops and others to receive him as himself. S. Peter there
reconciled discords, settled the bounds of the jurisdiction of certain
dioceses, and condemned and deposed in councils those who were
convicted of simony. He notwithstanding, tempered his severity with
mildness and indulgence towards penitents, where charity and prudence
required such a condescension. Henry IV., king of Germany, in 1067,
married Bertha, daughter of Otho, marquis of the Marches of Italy, but
afterwards, in 1069, sought a divorce, and persuaded the Archbishop of
Mentz to favour his design, by promising full payment of monies due to
him if he complied, and threatening to fall on his territories with an
armed band if he refused. For the purpose of sanctioning the divorce,
the archbishop assembled a council at Mentz. Pope Alexander II.
forbade him ever to consent to such an injustice, and chose Peter
Damiani for his legate to preside in the synod. The venerable legate
met the king and bishops at Frankfort, laid before them the orders and
instructions of the pope, and in his name conjured the king to pay a
due regard towards the law of God, the canons of the Church, and his
own reputation, and seriously reflect on the public scandal of so
pernicious an example. The noblemen likewise all rose up, and
entreated their sovereign never to stain his honour by so foul an
action. The king, unable to resist so cogent an authority, dropped his
project of a divorce; but remaining the same man in his heart,
continued to hate the queen more than ever.
S. Peter hastened back to his desert of Font-Avellano. Whatever
austerities he prescribed to others he was the first to practise
himself, remitting nothing of them, even in his old age. He lived shut
up in his cell as in a prison, fasted every day, except festivals, and
allowed himself no other subsistence than coarse bread, bran, herbs,
and water, and this he never drank fresh, but what he had kept from
the day before. He tortured his body with iron girdles and frequent
disciplines, to render it more obedient to the spirit. He passed the
first three days of every Lent and Advent without taking any kind of
nourishment whatsoever; and often for forty days together, lived only
on raw herbs and fruits, or on pulse steeped in cold water, without
touching so much as bread, or anything that had passed the fire. A mat
spread on the floor was his bed. He used to make wooden spoons and
such like useful cheap things, to exercise himself at certain hours in
manual labour. Henry, archbishop of Ravenna, having been
excommunicated for grievous enormities, S. Peter was sent by Pope
Alexander II. in the character of legate, to adjust the affairs of the
Church. When he arrived at Ravenna, in 1072, he found the unfortunate
prelate just dead; but brought the accomplices of his crimes to a
sense of their guilt, and imposed on them a suitable penance. This was
his last undertaking for the Church, God being pleased soon after to
call him to eternal rest, and to the crown of his labours. Old age and
the fatigues of his journey did not make him lay aside his accustomed
mortifications, by which he fulfilled his burnt-offering. In his
return towards Rome, he was stopped by a fever in the monastery of Our
Lady, outside the gates of Faenza, and died there, on the eighth day
of his sickness, whilst the monks were reciting Matins round about
him. He passed from that employment, which had been the delight of his
heart on earth, to sing the same praises of God in eternal glory, on
the 22nd of February, 1072, being fourscore and three years old. He is
honoured as patron at Faenza and Font-Avellano, on the 23rd of the
same month.
[Illustration]
February 24.
S. MATTHIAS, _Ap. M., after_ A.D. 60.
SS. MONTANUS, LUCIUS, JULIAN, VICTORIUS, AND COMPANIONS., _MM.
in Africa_, A.D. 259.
S. SERGIUS, _M. at Cæsarea in Cappadocia_, A.D. 304.
S. MODESTUS, _B. of Treves, circ._ A.D. 480.
S. PRÆTEXTATUS, _of Rouen, B. M._, A.D. 586.
S. LIUTHARD, _of Senlis, B. C. in England, end of 7th cent._
S. ETHELBERT, _K. of Kent_, A.D. 616.
S. JOHN THERISTIS, _Monk at Stylum in Calabria; circ._ A.D. 1129.