Saint Peter Damian

Life story

Peter was born in 1007 in Ravenna into a large and poor family. Orphaned young, he was raised and sent to school by an older brother. He studied at Ravenna, Faenza and Parma and became a well-known teacher of letters and law. Around 1035 he turned away from that career and entered the hermit life at Fonte Avellana, a mountain hermitage in the Marche.

Around 1043 he was chosen as head of the community, and he held the post for many years. He wrote prolifically: letters, sermons, essays on monastic life, and a biography of St Romuald, founder of the Camaldolese. His Liber Gomorrhianus, written about 1049, described abuses among the clergy of his day and was addressed to the pope. He also attacked simony, the buying and selling of church offices, one of the great problems of the eleventh century.

In 1057 Pope Stephen IX compelled him to accept the office of cardinal-bishop of Ostia, against his own wishes. Successive popes then sent him on missions. In 1059 he went to Milan to deal with disputes over clerical marriage and the purchase of office, and in 1069 he travelled to Frankfurt to dissuade King Henry IV from repudiating his wife Bertha. He repeatedly asked to return to his hermitage and was eventually allowed to withdraw in part.

In 1072, returning from a journey to reconcile the Church of Ravenna with Rome, he fell ill and died in a monastery at Faenza on the night of 22 February. In 1828 Pope Leo XII declared him a Doctor of the Church. He is remembered as a severe reformer and also as one of the finest Latin writers of the eleventh century.

Works and witness

• Entered the hermitage of Fonte Avellana about 1035 and led it from about 1043
• Wrote a life of St Romuald and many letters and treatises on monastic life
• Served as cardinal-bishop of Ostia from 1057
• Papal envoy to Milan in 1059 and to Frankfurt in 1069
• Declared a Doctor of the Church in 1828

Saints from the same country

Saint Agnes, Saint Lawrence, Saint Cecilia, Saint Sebastian

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Peter Damian, Letters (Epistolae)
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.