| Feast Day: |
May 8 |
| Born: |
1102, Saint-Maurice-l’Exil near Vienne, a town ot the
Rhône-Alpes |
| Died: |
1174, Bellevaux Abbey |
| Major Shrine: |
1191 by Pope Celestine III |
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He was a native of Dauphine. A strong inclination to
learning, assisted by a good genius and a happy memory, carried him very
successfully through his studies. At twenty years of age he took the Cistercian
habit at Bonnevaux, a monastery that had been lately filled by a colony sent by
St. Bernard from Clairvaux. They employed a great part of the day in hewing
wood, and tilling the ground in the forest, in perpetual silence and interior
prayer. They ate but once a day, and their fare was herbs or roots, mostly
turnips of a coarse sort. Four hours in the twenty-four was the usual allowance
for sleep; so that, rising at midnight, they continued in the church till it was
morning, and returned no more to rest: which was the primitive custom of that
order. Peter practiced the greatest austerities with fervor and alacrity: he was
most exactly obedient, obliging to all, humble, and modest. His pious parents,
after the birth of four children, lived in perpetual continency, and the
practice of rigorous abstinence, prayed much, and gave large alms: their house
they seemed to turn into a hospital, so great was the number of poor and
strangers they constantly entertained, whom they furnished with good beds, while
they themselves often lay on straw. The father and his two other sons at length
followed Peter to Bonnevaux and the mother and daughter embraced the same order
in a neighboring nunnery. The year after Peter had taken the monastic habit, his
example was followed by Amedeus, nearly related to the emperor Conrad III., and
sixteen other persons of worth and distinction. Amedeus, indeed, having there
made his solemn profession with the rest, by the advice of persons of great
virtue and discretion, spent some time at Cluni, the better to superintend his
son’s education, in the school established there for the education of youth: but
he returned after some time to Bonnevaux; and made it his request, at his
readmission, that he might be enjoined the lowest offices in the house. To this
the abbot, for his greater advancement in humility and penance, consented. The
earl of Albion, his uncle, coming one day to see him, found him in a sweat,
cleaning the monks’ dirty shoes, and, at the same time, so attentive to his
prayers, as not to perceive him. The earl remembering in what state he had seen
him in the world, was so struck and so much edified at this spectacle, that he
ever after retained the deep impression which it made on his mind, and published
it at court. Amedeus built four monasteries of his order: among which was that
of Tamies, or Stomedium, in the desert mountains of the diocese of Tarentaise,
of which he procured his intimate friend St. Peter, not then quite thirty years
of age, to be appointed the first abbot, in 1128. Amedeus worked himself with
his spade and mattock in building some of these monasteries, and died at
Bonnevaux, in the odor of sanctity, in 1140. His son Amedeus, for whose
education in piety he had always the greatest concern, after having spent part
of his youth in the court of his kinsman the emperor, became a Cistercian monk
under St. Bernard, at Clairvaux, and died bishop of Lausanne.
The monastery of Tamies seemed a house of terrestrial
angels; so constantly were its inhabitants occupied in the employment of angels,
paying to God an uninterrupted homage of praise, adoration, and love. St. Peter,
by the help of Amedeus III., count of Savoy, founded in it a hospital to receive
all the poor sick persons of the country, and all strangers; and would be
himself its servant to attend them. In 1142, the count of Savoy procured his
election to the archbishopric of Tarentaise, and he was compelled by St. Bernard
and the general chapter of his order, though much against his own inclinations,
to accept of that charge. Indeed, that diocese stood extremely in need of such
an apostolic pastor, having been usurped by a powerful ambitious wolf, named
Idrael, whose deposition left it in the most desolate condition. The
parish-churches and tithes were sacrilegiously held by laymen; and the clergy,
who ought to have stemmed the torrent of iniquity, contributed but too often to
promote irregularity by their own wicked example. The sight of these evils drew
tears from the eyes of the saint, with which he night and day implored the
divine mercy upon the souls intrusted to his care. He directed all his fasts,
his prayers, and labors, for the good of his flock: being persuaded that the
sanctification of the people committed to his charge was an essential condition
for securing his own salvation. He altered nothing in the simplicity of a
monastic life, and looked on the episcopal character as a laborious employment
rather than a dignity. His clothes were plain, and his food coarse; for he ate
nothing but brown bread, herbs, and pulse, of which the poor had always their
share. He made the constant visitation of his diocese his employ; he everywhere
exhorted and instructed his whole charge with unwearied zeal and invincible
patience, and besides, he provided the several parishes of his diocese with able
and virtuous pastors. When he came to his bishopric, he found the chapter of his
cathedral full of irregularities, and the service of God performed in a very
careless manner; but he soon made that church a pattern of good order and
devotion. He recovered the tithes and other revenues of the church that had been
usurped by certain powerful laymen; made many excellent foundations for the
education of youth, and the relief of the poor; repaired several churches, and
restored everywhere devotion and the decent service of God. The author of his
life, who was the constant companion of his labors, and the witness of the
greatest part of his actions after he was made bishop, assures us he wrought
many miracles in several places, chiefly in curing the sick, and multiplying
provisions for the poor in times of great distress; so that he was regarded as a
new Thaumaturgus. The confusion his humility suffered from the honors he
received, joined to his love of solitude, made him resolve to retire from the
world; and accordingly, in 1155, after he had borne the weight of the episcopal
character thirteen years, having settled his diocese in good order, he
disappeared on a sudden; and made his way to a retired monastery of Cistercians
in Germany, where he was not known. In the mean time, his family and diocese
mourned for the loss of their tender father. Strict inquiry was made in all the
neighboring provinces, especially in the monasteries, but in vain; till, after
some time, divine providence discovered him by the following accident. A young
man, who had been brought up under his care, came to the monastery in which he
lay concealed, and upon observing the monks as they were going out of the church
to their work, he knew his bishop, and made him known to the whole community.
The religious no sooner understood who he was, but they all fell at his feet,
begged his blessing, and expressed much concern for not having known him before.
The saint was inconsolable at being discovered, and was meditating a new escape,
but he was so carefully watched, that it was not in his power; so that he was
forced to go back to his diocese, where he was received with the greatest
demonstrations of joy. He applied himself to his functions with greater vigor
than ever. The poor were always the object of his peculiar care. He was twice
discovered to have given away, with the hazard of his own life, in extreme cold
weather in winter, the waistcoat which he had on his back. For three months
before the harvest he distributed general alms among all the inhabitants of the
mountains, provisions being always very scarce there at that season. He founded
hospitals on the Alps, for the entertainment of poor travellers; because, before
that time, many perished for the want of such a succor. To preserve in his heart
the spirit of devotion and penance, he continued to practise, as much as
possible, all the austerities and other rules of his order, only commuting
manual labor for the spiritual functions of his charge. By his conversation with
the God of peace, he imbibed an eminent spirit of that virtue, and learned, by
humility and charity, to be truly the man of peace; having also a singular
talent for extinguishing the most implacable and inveterate enemies. He often
reconciled sovereign princes when they were at variance, and prevented several
bloody wars. The emperor Frederic I. set up Octavian, a schismatical pope, under
the name of Victor, against Alexander III. St. Peter was almost the only subject
of the empire who had the courage openly to oppose his unjust attempt, and he
boldly defended the cause of justice in presence of the tyrant, and in many
councils. The emperor, who banished others that spoke in favor of that cause,
stood in awe of his sanctity: and Peter, by his mild counsels, frequently
softened his fierceness, and checked the boisterous sallies of his fury, while,
like a roaring lion, he spread terror on every side. The saint preached in
Alsace, Burgundy, Lorraine, and in many parts of Italy; and confounded the
obstinate by numberless miraculous cures of the sick, performed by the
imposition of his hands and prayer. He was ordered by the pope to go into France
and Normandy, to endeavor a reconciliation between the kings of England and
France, who had made peace in 1169, but quarrelled again the next year. Though
then very old, he preached wherever he went. Louis VII. sent certain gentlemen
of his court to meet him at a great distance, and received him with the greatest
marks of honor and respect; but honors and crowds were of all things the most
troublesome to the saint. The man of God restored the use of sight to one blind
in the presence of the count of Flanders, and many other noblemen, who were at
that time with the king of France: who, being also himself an eye-witness,
examined carefully all the circumstances, and declared the miracle to be evident
and incontestable. The saint went from Paris to Chaumont, on the confines of
Normandy, where Henry II., king of England, met him: and when he arrived in
sight of the holy man, alighted from his horse, and coming Up, fell at his feet.
The people stole the cloak or hood of St. Peter, and were going to cut it in
pieces to divide the scraps, being persuaded that they would perform miracles.
But the king took the whole cloak for himself, saying: I have myself seen
miraculous cures performed by his girdle, which I already possess.” In his
presence, the saint restored the use of speech to a girl that was dumb. On
Ash-Wednesday, in 1171, St. Peter being at the Cistercian abbey of Mortemer, in
the diocese of Rouen, the king of England came thither with his whole court, and
received ashes from his hands. The archbishop prevailed on the two kings to put
an end to their differences by a treaty of peace, and to procure councils to be
assembled in their dominions, in which Alexander’s title should be solemnly
recognised. The holy man hereupon returned to his church, but was some time
after sent again by the pope to the king of England, to endeavor to compose the
difference between him and his son: but his journey had not the desired effect.
He fell sick on his return, and died the death of the just, at Bellevaux, a
monastery of his order, in the diocese of Besancon, in 1174, being seventy-three
years old. He was canonized by pope Celestine III., in 1191. See his life
written nine years after his death by Geoffrey, some time his companion, and
afterwards abbot of Hautecombe, by the order of pope Lucius III. See also Le
Nain, t. 2, p. 83.
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