Feast day: February 21

St. Peter Damian

Bishop & Doctor of the Church · 1007–1072

Patron of Reformers

Orphan turned monk turned cardinal who fought corruption in the medieval Church with fearless letters and reforms.

Peter Damian was born about 1007 at Ravenna, the youngest of a large family and orphaned into harsh poverty; set as a boy to herd swine, he was rescued by an elder brother who paid for his schooling. He proved brilliant, became a celebrated teacher, then abandoned the world for the austere hermitage of Fonte Avellana, where he eventually became prior.

He lived in an age of grave corruption in the Church — of clergy who bought their offices and openly disregarded their vows. Peter became one of the fiercest and most effective voices for reform, writing blistering treatises and rebuking abuses without regard for anyone's rank.

Against his will he was made Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia in 1057 and drawn into the highest affairs of the Church, serving as papal legate on difficult missions to Milan, Germany, and France, always labouring for reform alongside his friend Hildebrand, the future Pope Gregory VII.

A monk at heart, he begged repeatedly to be allowed back to his cell, and at last was. He died at Faenza in 1072. His writings and his zeal helped prepare the great medieval reform of the Church, and in 1828 he was declared a Doctor of the Church.

He begged to retire back to his monastery so often that the pope finally relented — history's most reluctant cardinal.

Image: Srnec at English Wikipedia (CC BY 2.5), via Wikimedia Commons.

Source: newadvent.org/cathen/11764a.htm