Milo

ON ST. MILO, BISHOP OF BENEVENTO, IN ITALY

YEAR 1070.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Milo, Bishop of Benevento in Italy (St.)

By J. B.

[1] We published on February 8 the Life of St. Stephen, who founded the Order of Grandmont. He himself was educated in piety and letters by Milo, Archbishop of Benevento, who is called Milus by some and Molo by Raphael of Volterra. He too is enrolled in the catalogues of Saints, St. Milo enrolled in the catalogues of Saints, even though he is not honored with any ecclesiastical office. The Topography of Saints, formerly composed by the First Bishop and Theologian of Chalon-sur-Saone in the year of salvation 1450, and afterward revised by Francesco Maurolico and published in the year 1568, under the entries beginning with the letter B, reads thus: "Benevento, ^a city of Italy. Here Januarius the Bishop, Festus, Stephen, and Desiderius were Martyrs under Diocletian. Here Milo, Bishop, who educated Stephen, founder of Grandmont."

[2] The day on which his anniversary memory is recalled, the Chalon author does not specify. November 20. In the Topography of Filippo Ferrari, to the day November 20 are assigned "Dorus, 22nd Bishop of Benevento; Deodatus, Bishop; Acutius the Martyr; Acuntius and brothers, Martyrs; Milus, Bishop; Repositus, etc." On the same day also Constantino Ghini in his Birthdays of the Holy Canons has: "Likewise in the same place, St. Milus, likewise Bishop." In ^a certain codex of the Charterhouse of Brussels, but not written in an ancient hand, I read the following at May 25: "At Benevento, St. Milo, Archbishop of the same city." and May 25. But Marius Vipera, Archdeacon of Benevento, to whom therefore more faith is due than to others, in his Catalogue of the Saints of Benevento, page 88, has the following: "February 23, on St. Milo, Archbishop of Benevento." And afterward: but better February 23. "He flew to the heavenly homeland at Benevento on the seventh before the Kalends of March." The same author in his Chronology of the Bishops of Benevento, page 91, writes thus: "On February 23, our holy Archbishop Milo fell asleep in the Lord." And all these either place him in the Catalogue of Saints or simply call him St. Milo, as does also Giovanni Vincenzo Ciarlanti, Archpriest of Isernia, in his Historical Memorials of Samnium, book 3, chapter 34. Gerald, the seventh Prior of Grandmont, in his Life of St. Stephen written many centuries ago, chapter 1, number 3, calls him Blessed Milo.

[3] St. Milo was of Auvergnat origin in Gaul. So says the same Gerald: "At that time, Blessed Milo governed the Archbishopric of the aforesaid city, he was of Auvergnat stock: known to this man of whom we speak from his youth in the territory of Auvergne, whence he had his origin." In what year he died can be gathered from the age of St. Stephen, which we discussed there in section 3 of the preliminary commentary, number 22, and showed that he died in the year 1124, on ^a Friday, February 8, having lived four years at Rome after the death of St. Milo and fifty in the monastery of Muret: whence it follows that Milo died in the year 1070. With our reckoning Vipera agrees, reporting that Arelius, the successor of St. Milo, flourished in the year of the Lord 1071; he died in the year 1070. and Ciarlanti likewise at the cited passage, when he says the Order of Grandmont was founded in the year 1075, namely five years after the death of Milo.

[4] What has been committed to writing concerning the deeds of St. Milo comes almost entirely from the Life of St. Stephen. The latter's father took him, when twelve years old, to Apulia; whence, when he was happily returning through the city of Benevento after completing his prayers, the same boy, offered to God, he instructed St. Stephen of Grandmont for twelve years in letters and virtue, who receives the little ones, fell ill. "At that time, Blessed Milo governed the Archbishopric of the aforesaid city, known to this man of whom we speak from his youth in the territory of Auvergne, whence he had his origin. The nobleman commended his son to the Archbishop, that he might take care of his illness and, if he survived, educate him; for the boy Stephen was already twelve years old... After ^a few days, by the working of divine mercy, the boy was restored to health, and as if forgetting his father and homeland, was cheerful and joyful in ^a foreign land. Whence the Archbishop, as ^a pious father and faithful teacher, with whom he remained for twelve years, taught him goodness, discipline, and knowledge most diligently; and when the boy was free from his studies, while the Archbishop was transacting the affairs of his diocese, he had him stand at his feet." and employs him in handling affairs. "Stephen, therefore, passing beyond the years of boyhood, after the death of the Archbishop, entered Rome and remained for four years with ^a certain Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church."

[5] Charles Fremon, as we noted in the annotations at chapter 1 of the Life of St. Stephen, annotation ^h, in his French Life of the same Saint published by himself, reports that he was ordained Subdeacon and then Deacon by St. Milo; and initiates him into holy orders: and that when the Archbishop was visiting the diocese, he was taken as ^a companion and often sent on other occasions to handle various affairs; indeed, in certain ancient codices of the monastery of Grandmont it is said that he was the Archdeacon and Official of Milo. So he reports.

[6] At the time when Stephen was living with Blessed Milo, he became acquainted with ^a certain religious congregation in Calabria, of which the following is reported in chapter 1 of his Life, number 4: "He most devoutly petitioned the Roman Pontiff that the rule of life which he had learned was observed in Calabria by ^a certain religious congregation -- who desires to imitate holy monks, one walking in the straight path, living unanimously in the cloister without personal property, keeping obedience (the restorer of the human race) in all things as far as their strength allowed, crucifying the world to themselves and themselves to the world, and glorying in the Cross of the Lord -- he might be permitted to observe somewhere, for the remission of his sins." In the Proper of feasts of the Order of Grandmont, in the Lessons of the second day within the Octave of St. Stephen, the holiness of that congregation is extolled more fully, and the following is added concerning St. Milo: "The most wise Archbishop Milo continually commended the purpose of these men in the sermons which he delivered to the people; whom Milo esteemed highly, and when he could see any one of their Fathers, he would listen to him as to Christ speaking in His servant, and, setting aside all other concerns, would devote himself entirely to him. He would hear from him about their manner of life, by which he afterward and praised to his own people. kindled the life of clerics, laypeople, and other religious to higher things, setting before them the example of those who guarded themselves from all covetousness (which is the root of all evils) and yearned only for heavenly things. When therefore Stephen, now passing beyond the bounds of boyhood, saw this most holy man take such great delight in this manner of life, he studied more attentively to investigate the customs and practices of that religious life, out of ^a desire to imitate them, and to commit them faithfully to memory." Thus far that source. Nor have we yet found more concerning St. Milo.

ON BLESSED PETER DAMIAN, CARDINAL OF THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH, BISHOP OF OSTIA, PRIOR OF THE HERMITAGE OF THE HOLY CROSS OF FONTE AVELLANA, AT FAENZA IN ITALY

Year of Christ 1072

Preliminary Commentary.

Peter Damian, Bishop Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of Ostia, Prior of the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, at Faenza in Italy (Bl.)

By G. H.

Section I: The Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana in the diocese of Gubbio, joined to the Camaldolese Order. Its institute, growth: holy monks under Blessed Peter Damian.

[1] Iguvium, or Iguuium, ^a town of Umbria on this side of the Apennines at the very foot of the mountains, known to Caesar in book 1 of the Civil War, to Cicero in book 7 of his Letters to Atticus, epistle 13, to Silius Italicus in book 8, and to other ancient writers, is today called Eugubium, In the diocese of Gubbio and in Italian Gubbio and Agubio: although some would have it restored from the neighboring ruins of the ancient town after the barbarian incursion into Italy. An episcopal see was once erected there, over which in the eleventh century of Christ several men presided who were drawn from the monastery of the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, the monastery of the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, or Avellana, which is fourteen miles distant from the city of Gubbio, situated at the foot of Monte Catria toward the east, as that part of the Apennines is called in the Chronicle of Gualdo, by an ancient writer, and by an anonymous hermit of the same place in Gaetani's preface to the works of Blessed Peter Damian. Petrarch, in book 2 of On the Solitary Life, treatise 3, chapter 17, calls it ^a most quiet solitude in the middle of Italy, on the left side of the Apennines, which still preserved the ancient name of Fonte Avellana when he was writing in the fourteenth century; Agostino Fiorentini, in book 5 of the Camaldolese History, chapter 7, observes that it now bears the title of the Holy Cross, and that the name of the Holy Cross was taken on account of the Friday fast begun there in the time of Blessed Peter Damian.

[2] This hermitage of Fonte Avellana, as some call it, is said to have been built about the year of Christ 1000, or ^a little before, by ^a certain Lodulph, son of Gesso, built about the year 1000, who, having been elected Bishop of Gubbio, voluntarily renounced that honor; nevertheless, from that hermitage of Fonte Avellana the following were admitted as bishops: Julian, Theobald or Tedaldus, St. Rodulph, and Maynard, it soon gave several Bishops of Gubbio: in whose times Blessed Peter Damian lived, and indeed -- if the first be excepted -- after he had embraced the monastic discipline in that hermitage. He writes in epistle 14 of book 1 to Pope Alexander II that ^a certain charge over that same Church had been imposed upon him, in these words: "That the Church of Gubbio, which was long ago entrusted to me by your predecessors, is now, alas, entirely confused and cast down like ^a threshing floor trampled underfoot -- I attribute this to my sins." The same author, in epistle 8 of book 4, enjoins the following upon Maynard, Bishop of Gubbio: "Restore, venerable Brother, the estates of your Church, extravagantly handed over to secular persons; recall the diverse ornaments recklessly given away; and let at least the most distinguished and best things be restored, which we deeply lament were taken during your time in office." This he wrote out of concern for the Church committed to him. But he appointed St. Rodulph, Bishop of Gubbio, and Theodosius, Bishop of Senigallia (whose diocese is also close to the hermitage of Fonte Avellana toward the Adriatic Sea), as judges and, as it were, censors of the books he had written. There is an epistle to them in book 4, number 11. On the Bishops of Gubbio and Senigallia, consult the Italia Sacra of Ughelli.

[3] Who were the Priors (for so the governors were called) of this hermitage of Fonte Avellana before Blessed Damian, we have not yet read. Blessed Peter himself, in opusculum 34, chapter 6, says: "In this hermitage of Fonte Avellana, its Priors: where I now dwell, there was ^a certain Prior named John." And in opusculum 15, chapter 28, he teaches what kind of man should be chosen as Prior among the Hermits and how the one elected should exercise the office of the Priorate; though he is also called Abbot and Master below in the Life. After the death of Blessed Peter, Prior Liprand governed those Hermits, to whom John inscribed his Life, and he himself was afterward (as will be said below) appointed Prior of Fonte Avellana and finally created Bishop of Gubbio. In which manner perhaps the above-mentioned Bishops of Gubbio were most of them drawn from among the Priors of Fonte Avellana.

[4] Blessed Peter also presided, as supreme governor, over other disciples gathered in various places, Head of the Congregation. as is said in number 20 of the Life, and in number 19 five monasteries or hermit dwellings built by him are mentioned: which together with certain others coalesced into one Congregation, of which the head was the hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana. And so the monastery of St. Mary at the Gates, once outside the city of Faenza but now enclosed within the walls, in which Blessed Peter closed the last day of his life, is called ^a monastery of the Order of monks of the Congregation of the Holy Cross of Avellana in the monastic History of ^a certain anonymous Benedictine of the Congregation of St. Justina, in Gaetani's preface to the works of Blessed Peter, Rule and institute, whom he says flourished about the year 1480. The Rule and manner of living of this Congregation is prescribed and explained by Blessed Peter in opusculum 15, divided into 31 chapters. But in opusculum 14, for the example and imitation of posterity, he sets forth the rules and manner of living which the Hermits of Fonte Avellana used in his time; and he most gravely adjures those who will live there after him to use the same and not to decline to ^a more relaxed standard of life. This hermitage of Fonte Avellana was joined to the Camaldolese Order about ^a hundred years ago, through the efforts especially of Peter Franceschini of Bagnacavallo, Visitor, the union with the Camaldolese Order made in the sixteenth century: and of Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, Bishop of Urbino, created in 1548, who afterward became Bishop of Vicenza and then Archbishop of Ravenna, and died in the year 1578. This union is mentioned by Peter Ricordati in the fourth volume of his monastic History, cited by Gaetani, by Agostino Fiorentini in book 3 of the Camaldolese Histories, and others. On the Camaldolese Order we treated on February 7, in the Life of its founder St. Romuald, which Blessed Peter Damian wrote, compelled, as he testifies in the prologue, by the prayers of many Brothers and bound by fraternal charity. The same author, in the above-cited opusculum 15 on the institutes of his Congregation, chapter 16, teaches that the treatment of the weak should be left to the discretion of their Prior, adducing the discipline of St. Romuald as an example. And below in the Life, number 19, he is said to have found at Monte Pregio ^a cell in which Blessed Romuald had once dwelt, and to have founded hermit dwellings there.

[5] On the possessions procured for this Hermitage, Blessed Peter treats in opusculum 14: "In this place which is called Fonte Avellana," he says, "we usually have about twenty monks, about twenty hermits at Fonte Avellana, more or less, dwelling through the cells or in the obedience assigned to each, so that all together with the lay brothers and servants we scarcely or barely exceed the number of thirty-five." And then, after setting forth the rule of life, he adds the following, addressing the one who is to be his successor in governance: "But so that no room may be left for any excuse in the observance of these things, according to what suited the humility of this small place, property procured by Bl. Peter Damian, we have striven to acquire possessions sufficient that you may sustain the aforesaid number of Brothers, provided that care of cultivation is not lacking. We have also left behind no small number of books, so that we might provide our Brothers, who deign to pray for us, with ample material for meditation. various books in the library, We have taken care to correct for you, even if cursorily and therefore not exactly, ^a library of all the volumes of the Old and New Testament. From the Passions of the Blessed Martyrs, from the homilies of the holy Fathers, from the commentaries of those expounding the allegorical meanings of Sacred Scripture -- namely, Gregory, Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, Prosper, Bede, and also Remigius and Amalarius, and moreover Haymo and Paschasius -- by the divine grace blessing our labors, you have many books to which you can devote yourselves, so that your holy souls may grow not only by prayer but also be fattened by reading. Several of these codices we have corrected according to our ability, so that we might open for you the door of understanding in the studies of sacred learning."

[6] We also deemed it fitting that ^a cloister be built next to the Church with this intention: a cloister built, that if the customary practice of the monastic Order still pleases anyone, he might have ^a place where he could solemnly proceed in the accustomed manner on the principal feast days; for this procession we also procured ^a silver Cross of suitable quality. With the same intentional zeal, consulting the weakness of the frail, furnishings supplied, we also obtained bells and drinking vessels and various utensils for the house of God. We also provided for you two silver chalices, most beautifully gilded, chalices, for this reason: that when you wish to receive the sacred mysteries of the Lord's Body and Blood, there should be no need to bring tin or any baser metal to your lips. We also bestowed upon the sacrosanct altar conspicuous coverings, and precious ornaments for the celebration of the solemn Masses. ornaments: All these things, Brothers, we sought not without labor, so that we might remove from you the costs of labor, and that your mind might lift itself to higher things all the more freely, the less the want of material things burdened it with providing for the lowest necessities. Thus far Blessed Peter, who, in epistle 2 of book 3, summoned by the Archbishop of Ravenna Gebehard, excuses himself on account of the poverty of his people for whom he had to provide: "You have commanded me," he says, "dearest Father and Lord, and by commanding have ordered me to come to you; but I, having taken on ^a poor little place to govern, I who formerly was poor only through myself, am now made poor through as many as I have received to govern. I therefore consider what it is to govern many and to have no resources for the necessary provisions." Thus far Blessed Peter, who in the Chronicle of Gualdo, composed about the year 1325, in Gaetani, is regarded as the builder of this hermitage of the Holy Cross at Fonte Avellana -- which cannot in any way be taken of the first foundation of the eremitic life there.

[7] Among those who served well from that hermitage was St. Rodulph, his disciple and afterward, as we said, Bishop of Gubbio, to whom Blessed Peter dedicated the Life he had written and addressed to Pope Alexander II, and at the beginning he narrates the following: His disciples enrolled among the Saints: Rodulph, "About seven years ago, that Rodulph, with his mother and two brothers slightly older than himself -- the servants having merely been freed -- conferred his castle, fortified with impregnable defenses, upon me, together with all the estates that were in his jurisdiction; and coming to the Hermitage, he received the habit of monastic profession." Thus far that source. St. Rodulph is venerated on June 26. The other, whose Life is read joined with the Acts of St. Rodulph, is St. Dominic the Cuirassed, who likewise became ^a disciple of Blessed Peter Damian, Dominic the Cuirassed, as he testifies in these words there: "Much later, with the Master's consent, the aforesaid holy man deigned to commit himself with truly wondrous humility to me, ^a wretch, and one whom he himself would deem unworthy to receive -- and to subject himself like ^a monk to an Abbot: to whom indeed he gave, he did not receive. And he whom I had received as, so to speak, ^a subject client, I rejoice that in the school of Christ I gained as ^a truly philosophical teacher. For his whole life was preaching and edification, doctrine and discipline." So much concerning St. Dominic the Cuirassed, whose feast falls on October 14.

[8] A third disciple enrolled among the Saints is John of Lodi, of an illustrious family among the Insubrians at Laus Pompeia, who, as his Acts relate, John of Lodi, "having learned of the fame of so great ^a man and animated by his example, fled to him, and removed himself far from the world, departing from his own land and kindred; he came into the land which the Lord had revealed to him, and humbly offered himself to the venerable Father Peter Damian, Prior of the Hermitage and Master of the devout Brothers, on bended knees earnestly asking that he would receive him as ^a disciple and Brother under the discipline of the sacred Rule of the most blessed Father Benedict, to serve King Christ perpetually. And the reverend Priest of God, Peter Damian, seeing John's simple purity of soul, fervor of spirit, readiness for obedience, and true contempt of the world in him, kindly received him." Blessed Peter inscribed to him opusculum 44, on the ten plagues of Egypt and the Decalogue, he is encouraged by Bl. Peter in an opusculum inscribed to him, and addresses him thus: "To the most beloved Brother John, no longer of Lodi, and therefore ^a praiseworthy man, Peter, sinner monk, offers the affection of paternal love. You have recently, my son, despised Pharaoh and at the same time abominated the servitude of the proud and oppressing King of Egypt; it is therefore now necessary that, journeying through the desert, you undergo many kinds of temptation, endure the want of thirst and hunger, and so through perilous hardships and the straits of diverse calamity attain to the promised land." Much more can be read there, both in the prologue and the last chapter, about the singular affection of charity that Blessed Peter had toward this disciple, which the author of the Life of St. John expresses in these words: "The two luminous columns of the Brothers of the Hermitage of Fonte Avellana, the reverend Prior Peter joined by ^a singular friendship, and the Clerk of God John, like two Seraphim inflamed with divine charity, praised God most high continually with heart and mouth, and kindled the minds and hearts and mouths of the Brothers to the fear of God and fraternal charity. O how good and how pleasant it was for such brothers to dwell together!" Concerning the same St. John, the following is read in the Chronicle of Gualdo: "In the same hermitage, among other holy Prior monks, the servant of God Dom John of Lodi flourished with great sanctity and harsh penance and abstinence, from Prior of the Holy Cross made Bishop of Gubbio. and amid those dense forests and steep mountains he chastised his body. He was afterward elevated from the Priorate of the Holy Cross to the bishopric of Gubbio, and lived and died in great sanctity." His feast day is assigned to September 7.

Section II: The literary labors of Blessed Peter Damian. His published Life. His feast day.

[9] The works of Blessed Peter Damian had lain in the darkness, scattered in various places, not without detriment to ecclesiastical literature, The works of Bl. Peter Damian were long hidden, as Pope Paul V testifies in his Brief to Constantino Gaetani, ^a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St. Nicholas of the Sands at Catania, by whose labor and diligence he asserts they were sought out and collected from many libraries. then published by Lipomano, But various manuscript treatises of the same Blessed Peter had already been excerpted from the libraries of Cassino, Capranica, then of the Canons of the Church of St. Peter, and of another monastery of Italy, by Luigi Lipomano, first Bishop of Verona and then of Bergamo, and he had them published by the Roman press in the year 1560, in the fourth part of volume 8 of the Lives of the Saints of the ancient Fathers. Marguerin de la Bigne also appended various epistles of the same Blessed Peter in the enlarged edition of the Library of the Ancient Fathers. by de la Bigne, Cardinal Baronius, at the year 1047, number 15, says that almost every year it would be necessary to describe by Baronius, how Blessed Peter, by manifold title, benefited the Catholic Church in those most corrupt times, since he was often called from the hermitage to undertake ecclesiastical affairs; and he frequently adduces his epistles and other small works from manuscript codices. and especially by Gaetani, arranged in three volumes: But Gaetani arranged all his works, collected from every quarter, in three volumes, of which the first contains eight books of epistles, the second various sermons and histories of the Saints, and the third, finally, sixty illustrious opuscula on various subjects. All of which were afterward republished in France, reviewed and augmented with new study and labor.

[10] A Life drawn from manuscripts is prefixed, Prefixed to these works is the Life of Blessed Peter Damian, published from two manuscript codices, one of Ravenna and one of Faenza, and reprinted in the third edition of Surius; which we also give here, divided into chapters in our manner, and illustrated with notes and marginal summaries of the events. We believe the author was St. John of Lodi, afterward Prior of the same hermitage, by St. John of Lodi, and later Bishop of Gubbio, as we said above. He reveals his own name in the inscription of the Life, and soon in the Prologue says that he clung to so great ^a Father as an inseparable companion, even if in almost the last period of his life. For St. John himself, as is read in his Life, an inseparable companion, "learning of the fame of so great ^a man, when the latter, with the permission of the Lord Pope, had abandoned the glory of the Cardinalate and enclosed himself in the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, animated by his example, fled to him." In the Life of the same St. Peter, after narrating his return to the hermitage in chapter 8, he soon relates in number 42 what he had seen him do: reporting what he saw. "I saw indeed," he says. And then: "This indeed I myself, being present, recognized." He remained an inseparable companion to the end, since in number 49 the dying man, "knowing that the hour of his departure was approaching, immediately ordered us, standing around his bed, to perform the morning Office." And in number 21, "after," he says, "we had celebrated his burial at Faenza, and returning thence stayed the first night at the monastery of Acereta; there we happened to learn not only this or from other disciples but also certain other things which we shall take care to append to this miracle, as the same were reported by certain Brothers of the same monastery and also of the aforesaid Hermitage, who had then assembled there." Among the appended miracles, he states that one was related to him at number 24 by ^a Brother, when he had returned from the forest with the same. Another, at numbers 27 and 28, he narrates as the man upon whom the benefit was conferred, having become ^a monk, "told us the whole in order, as we have set it down." So at number 42: "I will tell what I heard from my elder fellow disciples." and he learned from ^a kinsman of his, But what preceded his conversion, he says at number 2 that he heard from the report of ^a certain kinsman of his, "a man of gravity and honor"; "and part from ^a certain one of my fellow disciples," he says, "who clung to his company more familiarly before me; and part of what I am about to relate I recall having received from the mouth of Peter himself." And at number 18: "He used often," he says, or what Bl. Peter related to him. "to tell us." He also excerpted other things from the opuscula of the same Blessed Peter: thus at number 10: "And indeed he himself," he says, "inserted both this and the other thing which I reported above concerning the abandonment of the newborn, by writing them in his opuscula." What is narrated in chapter 7 about the reconciliation of the Church of Milan, or left in writing: he says is clearly expressed "in the book entitled the Acts of Milan," which he transcribed in largely the same words. In the same manner, what is handed down about the institution of Fonte Avellana in number 16, although the author saw and observed it in person, is nevertheless drawn from opuscula 14 and 15.

[11] Ughelli, in volume 1 of the Italia Sacra, among the Bishops of Gubbio, calls St. John of Lodi by the cognomen Grammaticus, on account of the elegance and gravity of his style, St. John also called Grammaticus: which is expressed in this Life almost beyond the custom of that age. This diligent cultivator of truth, therefore, with ^a flourishing pen described the deeds accomplished by Blessed Peter soon after his death, and dedicated them to Prior Liprand, his successor: who is perhaps the same as the Ariprand whether Liprand is the same as Ariprand. to whom Blessed Peter inscribed opuscula 45 and 46, the last of which begins thus: "You ask, dearest son, that I write something to you, and you who often write for others at my dictation implore that something also be written for you"; formerly Bl. Peter's secretary? and in epistle 19 he expounds to him the series of his illnesses. What is found at the end about the apparition of Blessed Peter made in the year 1080 Appendix at the end of the Life. seems to have been added afterward by some other person, as we observe there and mark as an Appendix.

[12] Others in the sixteenth century adorned the Acts of the same Blessed Peter with their own style, published by Gaetani together with the Roman edition of the Epistles, but afterward omitted in the Lyons edition, because they narrate the same events of Damian which his disciple John narrates, and in the very same sequence. The first of these is Giovanni Antonio Flaminio of Imola, Others who wrote Lives omitted here: G. A. Flaminio. between whom and Leandro Alberti of the Order of Preachers there existed the greatest union of minds and mutual sharing of studies. Leander dedicated to him in the year 1516 the Lives of the Generals of the Order of Preachers, from Blessed Jordan, the successor of St. Dominic, to Thomas Cajetan, which Lives are extant in book 1 of the Illustrious Men of the Order of Preachers. Flaminio also wrote various Lives of the Fathers of the Order of Preachers published by Leander -- of St. Albert the Great, Vincent of Valencia, James of Venice, Maurice of Pannonia, Venturino of Bergamo, and James the German; the last, however, he rendered into Latin from Italian. That he wrote in the same manner the Lives of the four most holy Patrons of the city of Faenza, he testifies in the Prologue of the Life of Blessed Peter Damian in these words: "I am accustomed to take great pleasure, men of Faenza, whenever I recall how grateful and how pleasant you find the work that I have begun to perform in describing the Lives of the Saints who are most devoutly venerated by you -- with this preface and epilogue. with such alacrity of mind indeed as could scarcely be shown by anyone most devoted to you. I perceived this in the Life of Blessed Terentius the Confessor, recently described by me, who was the first to present himself, and in the Life of Blessed Sabinus, Bishop and Martyr. Wherefore, when I heard that ^a similar service from me was expected by you for the two remaining Saints, I thought I should respond to your expectation and desire with the same zeal. I therefore added Blessed Peter Damian and St. Emilianus, on his veneration among the people of Faenza, whom the eminence of the episcopate together with holiness made illustrious, to the two already named, so that you might experience by daily clearer proofs my love toward you, already demonstrated, unless I am mistaken, and my wish to do you every service in my power." Thus Flaminio. The other Protectors of the city of Faenza, mentioned together with Blessed Peter, are venerated: Terentius on July 30, Sabinus (or Savinus) on December 7, Emilianus on November 6, in whose manuscript Life the author is said to be Giovanni Antonio Flaminio, Priest of the Church of Faenza, whom Leander Alberti calls ^a man of letters. He concludes the Life of Blessed Peter thus: "At last they placed his body in ^a marble sepulchre, and miracles: where to this day God makes His holy Bishop illustrious and venerable to the people by many prodigies. Those who read the things we have compendiously described about him, and who read his eloquent and most salutary sermons, will be able, unless I am mistaken, abundantly to testify by how great proofs his wonderful sanctity and eloquence have been demonstrated, and what ^a great star he was in the Church of God. Blessed Peter died about the year of Christ 1080, the great Protector and guardian of the city of Faenza." Thus far that source. We shall treat below of the year of the death of Blessed Peter.

[13] In Gaetani there exists another Life of Blessed Peter Damian, from Agostino Fortunio, ^a monk of the Camaldolese Congregation, book 5 of the Camaldolese Histories, the latter part from chapter 6 to 14. Agostino Fortunio, The author published the first part in three books under the name of Agostino Fiorentini in the year 1575, dedicated to the Grand Duke of Tuscany. At the end of this Life, after relating the apparition of Blessed Peter which we have relegated to the Appendix, the following is added: "Blessed Peter from that time onward (that is, from the year 1080) was held by the whole Church as ^a Saint and received among the citizens of heaven." Another Life of the same Blessed Peter, collected from the History of Ravenna by Girolamo Rossi, Girolamo Rossi, was published by Jacob Mosander in volume 7 of the Lives of the Saints in the Supplement to Surius, and reprinted in Lipelo. Gaetani from the same Rossi published the same Life, but arranged in ^a different order, together with the preceding authors. Since all these are either drawn from the earlier Life written by John, or excerpted from other ancient authors of whom we shall treat below, and have often been printed, Silvano Razzi. we omit them here, relegating some things to the Notes and the following sections. The same Life was published in Italian in his book on the Saints and Blessed of the Camaldolese Order by Silvano Razzi, Camaldolese Abbot, who prefaces that he translated it chiefly from Rossi.

[14] That Blessed Peter Damian yielded up his spirit to the Lord on the anniversary day of the Chair of St. Peter the Apostle is reported by John in his Life at number 49, Bl. Peter Damian died on February 22. and by others who followed him. On account, however, of this solemnity of the Chair, the people of Faenza defer the veneration of Blessed Peter to the next day, February 23, on which day Ferrari in his general Catalogue has the following: "At Faenza in Emilia, St. Peter Damian, Bishop of Ostia, venerated on February 23. Protector of that city." He celebrates the same with ^a longer encomium in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, and even adorns him with the title of Saint, although he confesses that he has not yet been placed in the number of the Saints. With Ferrari, Jacobilli also calls him Saint in his work On the Saints and Blessed of Umbria, at February 23, on which day he also gives some Life of him and asserts he is venerated by the people of Faenza, and cites the ancient manuscript Lessons of the Church of Faenza which were then customarily recited from his Life. Together with the people of Faenza, we too give his Acts on February 23, on which day his death is reported by Calvisius at the year 1072 and Schmid in his Historical Diary -- which, however, they had not read in Baronius, on whose testimony they rely. But on February 22, on which day we said he died, the same was inscribed by our Balinghem in his Marian Calendar, by Ghini in the Birthdays of the Saints of the Canons, by Wion, Dorgani, Menard, and Bucelin in the Benedictine Martyrologies, and Surius, Haraeus, and others gave his Life.

Section III: The reverent spirit of Blessed Peter toward St. Benedict, his Rule and Order. He is distinct from Peter de Honestis. The surname Damiani.

[15] The Benedictines, moreover, rightly claim the veneration of Blessed Peter Damian, since he honored the most holy Patriarch Benedict with solemn devotion, The Hermits of Fonte Avellana honor St. Benedict with solemn worship, and prescribed in opusculum 14, on the order and rule of the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, that on his feast day the strict Lenten fast might be somewhat relaxed for this reason: "In the two Lents," he says, "which precede either the Nativity of the Lord or holy Easter, the custom has held that neither monks nor laypeople are permitted the taking of wine or even fish. The side dish also in these Lents is never more than one, except on these four feast days: namely, Blessed Andrew and St. Benedict, and Palm Sunday and the Lord's Supper -- on which most sacred days fish and wine are received with thanksgiving." Indeed, he says that some are accustomed to complete that entire double Lenten period with fasting, excluding Sundays, except for three solemnities: namely, St. Andrew, St. Benedict, and the Annunciation of the Lord. That hermitage is dedicated to St. Andrew, whence the monastery is also read to be called St. Andrew of Avellana in Agostino Fiorentini, cited by Wion in book 2 of the Wood of Life, chapter 9. But they venerated St. Benedict in the Congregation of the hermitage of Fonte Avellana as Patron, not as cenobites, as Patron and also Founder of hermits, but as anchorites or hermits, whose life Blessed Peter Damian teaches at length in book 6, epistle 12, from the very words of St. Benedict, is more perfect than that of cenobites. "These, therefore," he says, "are not our words but those of the same our Father: 'The second kind,' he says, 'is that of anchorites, that is, hermits: those who, not in the fervor of ^a recent conversion but by the probation of the monastery, have learned to fight against the devil, now well taught by the support of many; and well instructed from the fraternal battle line for the solitary combat of the desert, they are now secure, without the consolation of another, to fight by hand or arm alone against the vices of the flesh and of thoughts, with God's help.'" These from chapter 1 of the Rule of St. Benedict, cited by Blessed Peter, whose words in the same epistle are also: "We know moreover that Blessed Benedict was ^a cultivator of the desert, and cultivator of the desert. and he certainly wished us to be what he was, but ... he dispensatively first established the level ground of the monastic life, so that there, worn down by the scourges of discipline and proved by exercises, we might more easily ascend to the citadel of the desert. This therefore Benedict did, just as Blessed Paul also had done. * For the Apostle was celibate; yet he urged men to marriage: 'Let every man,' he said, 'take ^a wife, and let every woman have her own husband' ... But shortly afterward he says: 'I would that all men were as I myself am.' 1 Cor. 7:2, 7 But the Apostle willed one thing and commanded another. He wished us to be celibate as he was, because of the surpassing merit of flourishing chastity, but he willed that we enter marriage because he feared the danger of our frailty ... Thus Blessed Benedict, although he more earnestly wishes us to be what he was -- that is, followers of the desert -- yet he considers it more tolerable that we, weak and feeble, live even obscurely in the port of the monastery, than that we, shipwrecked, perish in the tempestuous whirlpool of the world." And at last he concludes thus: "Therefore, that Brothers may ascend from the monastic life to the desert, both we ought to exhort them and we ought to receive them with charity, so that we may not seem to depart from the blessed man with ^a schismatic, God forbid, aversion as enemies, but that as true disciples we may appear to agree unanimously with one another."

[16] Thus far Blessed Peter in that epistle of his, who also reports, in opusculum 14, that in his hermitage of Fonte Avellana, beyond the customary exercises of the monasteries of St. Benedict, to the Benedictine monastic exercises they add other more perfect ones: many other and far more excellent practices are observed. "Concerning the Psalmody," he says, "the custom is that when two Brothers dwell together in ^a cell, they complete two psalters per day -- one for the living, the other for the dead ... He who dwells alone should complete the entire psalter of the living on each day; and that of the departed, either half or the whole, according to the capacity of his strength. The canonical Psalter of the Hours is, moreover, entirely fulfilled here in due order, just as it is in the monastery." And ^a little below: "It is the monastic rule," he says, "that those who are sent out on the road should not eat outside if they hope to return on that day; to which observance the following is also added among us: that whether ^a person has gone out on the same day or another, he should always return to the Hermitage fasting." Indeed, Blessed Peter, as is read in his Life at number 43, established the observance of his Hermitage in certain monasteries that embraced it with pious devotion, and decreed that certain things be written as part of the regular mandates even at the illustrious monastery of Monte Cassino. This is splendidly confirmed by Leo Marsicanus, himself also Bishop of Ostia, in book 3 of the Chronicle of Cassino, chapter 21, in these words: "When Lord Peter Damian came to the monastery, Bl. Peter persuades the Cassinese to adopt some of these practices, and by word and example alike fervently kindled everyone he could to the service of God, he at length obtained from the entire community, with the permission of Abbot Desiderius, ^a voluntary offering in remission of all sins: that on Fridays throughout the entire year, content with bread and water, each should receive the discipline after making confession; and moreover, that they should keep ^a three-day fast at the beginning of Lent every year." Desiderius was the Abbot, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and afterward Roman Pontiff called Victor III, whom Blessed Peter visited frequently and to whom he wrote many epistles and opuscula. To Desiderius's successor among the Cassinese, Oderisio, Leo dedicated his Chronicle of Cassino.

[17] At that time, among the monasteries of Gaul, the one at Cluny, built in the tenth century (as we said on January 13, in the Life of Blessed Berno, its first Abbot), flourished pre-eminently; he was succeeded by Odo, Aymard, Maiolus, Odilo, and Hugh -- men illustrious for holiness. Concerning the visit of Blessed Peter Damian to the monastery of Cluny, in the treatise on the miracles of St. Hugh written by ^a contemporary author, the following is narrated in the Cluniac Library, column 460: "At ^a certain time it was necessary for the holy man to have recourse to the mother Church for the defense of his sons sent to Cluny by the Pontiff, and to invoke the patronage of the Roman See. Wherefore, seeking the refuge of that city, with great labor and difficulty he obtained that Lord Peter, Bishop of Ostia, surnamed Damian, be torn from his side and given to him to fight on behalf of the great Peter and to lay low his adversaries with his wonderful prudence and eloquence. For that man was so worn down by his singular practice of abstinence and the binding of iron chains on every side that ^a way could scarcely be found to sustain the weakness of his body so as to endure somehow the heavy burden of riding. And because he could easily be offended by the slightest scandal, he often needed to be placated with some satisfaction. In which matter the venerable Hugh so bowed himself as to restore his spirit to tranquillity, as if he were another Martin who thought nothing unworthy that humility counseled should be done. When therefore he came to Cluny -- that other Gregory, so to speak, through the richness of his eloquence, though not through the equality of apostolic life -- and had seen the humanity and discipline, he marvels at the holiness of the monks amid abundance of goods: and had compared the rod and the staff, he began to be fixed in wonder and amazement at how they could be holy or have holy founders who abounded in such goods; and again, how they could not be holy or could perish who so devoutly sustained so great ^a weight of labor and the keeping of monastic discipline. Sometimes he judged the abundance of food; sometimes he marveled that those who fasted lacked that grace which he saw them have. Yet, if it were possible, as he himself said, that both virtues -- of obedience and abstinence -- were joined in them, then assuredly nothing of apostolic perfection would be lacking."

[18] On which matter, approaching the Lord Abbot, he entreated that they abstain from rich foods on at least two weekdays, he urges greater abstinence, since in all other things they were so perfect that they owed nothing to anchorites. To whom the venerable Hugh, that excellent guardian of discretion, replied: "If, dearest Father, you wish to increase for us the crown of our reward by the addition of fasting, first try with us the weight of our labor for the space of at least eight days, and then you will judge what you ought to deem should be added. For as long as you have not tasted the dish, you cannot know what seasoning of salt it requires; and if you have not applied even the smallest of your fingers, you will by no means be able to judge wisely and worthily concerning the burden of the brethren." Hearing these words and perceiving the gravity of such ^a burden to be insupportable for his own strength, he is discreetly admonished by St. Hugh the Abbot that this cannot be done, he desisted from the petition of increasing the weight and began to strike himself where he had wished to strike others, because he could not direct the arrow at them without his own wound -- understanding that the burden was great, and that what he himself could not take hold of should suffice, he who seemed to stand at so great ^a summit of virtues. Thus the learned Bishop returned much more learned than he had come, and carried back with him ^a great treasure of fleeing vainglory and embracing true humility. This from the history of the Miracles of St. Hugh, Abbot of Cluny, at whose request he writes the Life of St. Odilo. at whose request Blessed Peter testifies he had written the Life of St. Odilo, beginning it thus: "Hugh, the Rector of the monastery of Cluny and the leader and chief instructor of the spiritual warfare, enjoined this labor upon me: that I should briefly summarize in my own style the Life of Blessed Odilo, that is, his predecessor, and from those things which in earlier pages were found to be spread out at greater length, I should select whatever was more useful and more necessary in ^a brief compendium."

[19] These things about St. Benedict, his Rule and Order, had to be touched upon briefly, because some have transferred Blessed Peter from the hermitage of Fonte Avellana to the canons of the Portus monastery in the diocese of Ravenna, and from the anchoritic institution of St. Benedict to the Rule of Clerics [He is distinct from Peter de Honestis, Prior of the Clerics of the Portus monastery in the diocese of Ravenna,] or Canons Regular -- to whom they would also have him prescribe constitutions and decrees for right living, and they wrongly call it the Damian Rule. On this Congregation of the Portus Canons, one should read Gabriel Pennotto, part 2 of the History of the Order of Canon Clerics, chapter 47, where at number 2 he enumerates the various proponents of this error, whose opinion Ciaconius followed in his accounts of the Supreme Pontiffs and the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, confusing under Stephen X the deeds of Blessed Peter Damian and those of the other Peter de Honestis -- an error corrected by Ughelli in the second edition, who also removed the arms of the House of Honestis, in which ^a red lion standing and erect in ^a white field holds ^a golden pine cone with its front paws as if with hands. Arnold Wion, as if to reconcile all opinions, begins chapter 9 of book 2 thus: "St. Peter de Honestis, surnamed Damian and the Sinner, ^a nobleman of Ravenna, ^a monk of the monastery of St. Andrew of the Hermitage of Avellana, of the Order of St. Benedict, Congregation of the Dove, etc." But Peter Damian, of whom we treat, is one man, and Peter de Honestis another; each had Ravenna as his homeland, each assumed the name of "Sinner": but the former was accustomed to subscribe his epistles as "Peter, sinner monk," the latter as "Peter, sinner cleric." Each was ^a Prior -- the former of monks of the hermitage of Fonte Avellana in the diocese of Gubbio, the latter of Clerics or Canons Regular in the Portus church of Blessed Mary in the territory of Ravenna, who died in the year 1119. for whom he also prescribed constitutions, approved by Pope Paschal II on the tenth before the Kalends of January, the tenth Indiction, in the year 1116. Peter de Honestis died at last in his Portus monastery in the year 1119, that is, forty-seven years after the death of Blessed Peter Damian. The epitaph of Peter de Honestis, his epistle to Pope Paschal and the latter's response, and the various monasteries joined to this Portus Congregation are listed by the aforementioned Pennotto, who also calls Peter de Honestis Blessed and says he died on the fourth before the Kalends of July; but Ughelli prints the fourth before the Kalends of April, which will be examined in its own time.

[20] Whence the surname Damiani came to Blessed Peter, authors vary. The surname Damiani for Bl. Peter. Ciaconius, Bellarmine, and certain others call him the son of Damianus. Fortunio and others prefer that he assumed this name from his brother Damian, by whose efforts he was imbued with the liberal studies; and perhaps for this reason he is written by some as Peter Damiani, not Damianus. But Peter Damianus (unless the most carefully printed codices err everywhere) is what he is called by Leo Marsicanus and by the ancient author of the miracles of St. Hugh related above, in the Life of Pope Stephen X, in the epistles of Pope Alexander II; followed then by Helinand, Antoninus, Lipomano, the Bergomensis, Ricondati, Rolewinck, the anonymous Benedictine of the Congregation of St. Justina, and the anonymous author of Fonte Avellana in the testimonies printed by Gaetani before the works of Blessed Peter.

* agamos, unmarried.

Section IV: The earlier acts of Blessed Peter Damian; likewise before the Pontiffs Gregory VI, Clement II, Leo IX, Victor II, Stephen IX, Nicholas II. His bishopric of Ostia. The dignity of the Cardinalate. The schism of the Antipope Benedict ended through his efforts.

[21] That Peter Damian was an outstanding Doctor and ^a noble part of the Christian commonwealth and the Apostolic See Bl. Peter born some years before the year 1000 of Christ: imbued with studies, was attested by Paul V in the aforementioned Brief to Constantino Gaetani. He was born at Ravenna, perhaps about the year of Christ 988, as will be apparent from his death related below. But in the first years of his youth he had to pasture swine, even when somewhat grown up; afterward imbued with letters and liberal studies, then excelling in learning, he is said at number 7 to have taught others. At length embracing the eremitic life, he was vested with monastic garments at Fonte Avellana. he becomes ^a hermit of Fonte Avellana, And since he devoted himself to sacred reading with diligent meditation, he is said at number 17 to have become so distinguished in the knowledge of the divine Scriptures as he had not been before in secular learning. He taught the Brothers of his hermitage, and then the monks of Pomposa, having been summoned by St. Guido the Abbot. he teaches in various monasteries, This Abbot died in the year 1046, but Rossi in book 5 of the History of Ravenna reports that he had presided over the Pomposian monastery for forty-eight years. After spending two years among the Pomposians, both teaching and preaching, he returned to the hermitage of Fonte Avellana; and having enjoyed some quiet there, he was sent to the celebrated monastery of St. Vincent. In this monastery, Blessed Peter Damian wrote the Life of St. Romuald about the thirteenth year after the latter had departed from the living, he writes the Life of St. Romuald about the year 1040. as the same Rossi asserts. We published the Life of St. Romuald on February 7 and said that he died in the year 1027. Hence the thirteenth year from his death corresponds to the year of Christ 1040, which confirms the chronological epoch of the deeds done by Blessed Peter, also observed by Agostino Fortunio from certain major Chronicles.

[22] He was then created Prior of the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, having been assigned for some time to the administration of temporal affairs. created Prior before the year 1044, When invited by the Archbishop of Ravenna, Gebehard (who died on February 16 of the year 1044 and was buried in the Pomposian monastery), to come to Ravenna, he wrote back the epistle indicated by us above, in which he excuses himself, since as Prior he was now obliged to govern others and attend to their needs, that he could not easily come to him. These things occurred before the said year 1044. But in that year, after three Pseudo-Pontiffs had simultaneously invaded the Roman Church, he writes to Gregory VI, the schism was removed and Gregory VI was created as the legitimate Pontiff, to whom two epistles of Blessed Peter exist at the beginning of his book: in the first he shows himself gladdened at hearing of his election, and hopes that the Church of God will, through him, regain its former beauty once the filth has been purged away. Baronius, having cited that epistle at the year 1044, number 8, adds concerning Blessed Peter that "such great things are worthy of none but ^a legitimately elected Pope: so that plainly, even if other proofs be lacking, these suffice to demonstrate his canonical election, in every respect most pure. his authority proving the legitimate Pope: For Peter Damian was not ^a man of such ^a sort as to wish, in writing these things, to flatter ^a Pontiff shamefully; for, burning with zeal for ecclesiastical discipline, he knew how to spare no one, but most sharply reproved whomever he knew to be opposing it." Thus Baronius, who at the year 1046, number 3, says that the same Gregory VI, following the example of St. Gregory Nazianzen, who for the sake of reconciling the peace of the Church voluntarily abdicated, himself with the same spirit and the same virtue voluntarily yielded the Pontifical See.

[23] He was succeeded by Suidger, Bishop of Bamberg, called Clement II, consecrated on the very day of the Lord's Nativity, December 25, who immediately crowned the Emperor Henry, son of Conrad the Salic, and his wife Agnes during the solemnities of the Mass. in favor with Pope Clement II Baronius at the year 1047, number 13: "To the same Clement, Peter Damian, an inhabitant of the desert of celebrated name both for sanctity and learning, is found to have written an epistle, whose beginning is this: and the Emperor Henry, 'Let Your Blessedness know, most excellent Lord, that the Lord the most invincible Emperor not once but often commanded me, and, if I dare say so, deigned to ask me to come to You and to intimate to Your ears what is being done in the Churches of our regions and what I saw needed to be done by You' -- which that epistle carefully does, and he sends along ^a letter of the Emperor received on the journey, and asks him to write whether he thinks the journey he has undertaken should be continued."

[24] When Clement II was dead in the same year, on the seventh day before the Ides of October, and the Church had been afflicted for some time by Benedict, who was invading the Roman See for the third time, Damasus II was created in the year 1048, who died within the first month of his pontificate; at last, after the See had been vacant for five months, St. Leo IX succeeded, formerly called Bruno, Bishop of Toul in Belgica Prima. praised by St. Leo IX: To him Blessed Peter wrote against malevolent detractors. But Leo sent back ^a distinguished epistle in which he praises the zeal of the holy man, detests the incontinence of clerics and prescribes that it be punished, and concludes with these words: "Dearest son, I rejoice inexpressibly, because by the example of your manner of life you instruct whatever you have taught by the faculty of oratory. For it is greater to teach by deeds than by words. Wherefore, with God as the author, you will obtain the palm of victory, and with the Son of God and the Virgin you will rejoice in the heavenly mansion, and you will be laden with as many rewards as you are surrounded and, as it were, crowned by those snatched by you from the snares of the devil." Thus St. Leo, who held ^a Roman Council against the Simoniacs in the year 1049, whose decree Blessed Peter Damian praises in opusculum 6, chapter 35. The epistle numbered 10 of the same Leo to the people of Osimo, under his name he writes to the people of Osimo: in which he reproves the despoilers of episcopal houses after the death of the Bishop, is listed among the epistles of Blessed Peter Damian in book 5, number 6, and is asserted to have been written by him under the name of the Pontiff. St. Pope Leo died in the year 1054, on April 19, distinguished for his renown of virtues and miracles, as the records of the Roman Martyrology proclaim. Gebehard, Bishop of Eichstaett in Germany, called Victor II, succeeded in the following year 1055, consecrated on the Ides of April, on the Lord's Supper; in whose hands the Emperor Henry, in the following year 1056, on the third before the Nones of October, surrendered his spirit to God. Victor himself also died the next year, 1057, at Florence on July 28. One epistle of Blessed Peter to Victor is found, written in ^a rather bitter spirit, he writes also to Pope Victor II: but with his zeal for injured justice burning, on behalf of ^a certain illustrious man who had been despoiled and unjustly harassed.

[25] In the same year 1057, Frederick, formerly Abbot of Cassino and Cardinal Priest, was unwillingly created Pontiff on August 2 and called Stephen -- commonly said to be the ninth, by Stephen, commonly called IX, who is actually X, but who should in truth be reckoned the tenth, since Stephen who was appointed as the successor of Zacharias in the year 752, although he lived only ^a few days in that office, was ^a legitimate Pontiff, improperly omitted on account of his successor, also named Stephen. Under this Pontiff, Blessed Peter, compelled by the precept of obedience as the Acts below relate, was ordained Bishop of the Church of Ostia: he is created Bishop of Ostia: and since the bishopric of Ostia is customarily bestowed upon the Dean of the Cardinals, by whom the Supreme Pontiff is consecrated, Blessed Peter is also rightly numbered among the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, although this dignity is not mentioned in his Life or in the epistles of the then-living Pontiffs; nor does Blessed Peter himself call himself ^a Cardinal in his writings. and also Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church There exists his epistle 1 of book 2, addressed to the Venerable Cardinal Bishops of the Lateran Church, to which Gaetani notes that it can be gathered he was ^a Cardinal Bishop from the following inserted words: "We therefore, my Brothers -- let me boldly include myself among you -- we, I say, who are as the seven eyes upon one stone, who bear the likeness of stars, who hold the dignity of Angels through the office of announcing -- let us see, let us shine, and let us proclaim the words of life to the peoples not only by our voices but also by our conduct." Thus far that passage. We shall soon give clearer indications from his works. Berthold of Constance, consecrated Priest in the year 1084 by Otto, Bishop of Ostia (afterward Pope Urban II), calls Peter Damian "Cardinal Bishop of pious memory" in the Appendix to the Chronicle of Hermann Contractus, brought down to the year 1100. Followed by the author of the Life of St. John of Lodi his disciple, Francesco Petrarch, Johann Trithemius, Luigi Lipomano, and others. But Cardinal Baronius at the year 1057 from number 19 sets forth at length the form of the Roman Church of that time, according to which he establishes the Bishop of Ostia as the first among the Cardinal Bishops; and Agostino Fortunio in his Life published by Gaetani says that Pope Stephen joined the Church of Ostia to him and made him Dean of the Sacred College in the year 1058, year 1058, at the beginning of Lent, in the month of March, on the Saturday of the Ember Days. Ciaconius asserts that on that day the first creation of Cardinals occurred under Stephen, and that six others were made Cardinals together with Blessed Peter Damian. In the above-mentioned Brief of Paul V to Gaetani, he is called Cardinal Bishop of Ostia of the Holy Roman Church. Stephen the Pope, therefore, as is read in his Life published with the Councils, having held several Councils in Rome against concubinage and many other vices of the Clergy, reformed the morals of the Church. He created Peter Damian, drawn from the hermitage, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia... Having set out for Florence to visit St. John Gualbertus, most celebrated for his fame of holiness, he fell ill, and ^a few days after he had fallen sick, he died on the fourth before the Kalends of April in the year 1058.

[25] The schism that soon arose is described thus by Leo of Ostia in book 2, chapter 102: "Meanwhile Gregory, Count of the Lateran and of Tusculum, having learned of the death of the Roman Pontiff, joined by Gerard of Galeria and several powerful Romans, by night with bands of armed men they invaded the church at once, he resists the schism of the Antipope Benedict: and set up John, Bishop of Velletri, afterward surnamed Mincius, as Pope, imposing upon him the name of Benedict. When Peter Damian, ^a very religious man (whom Pope Stephen at that time had drawn from the desert and made Bishop in the Church of Ostia), learned of this, together with the Cardinals he began to resist, to protest, and to anathematize. But all of them, nevertheless, compelled by fear, fled to various places." Blessed Peter wrote epistle 4 of book 5 on the schism of the said Benedict, with this inscription: "To Lord H., most reverend Archbishop, Peter, sinner monk, offers the service of due subjection." Gaetani thinks it was sent to Henry, Archbishop of Ravenna, and that it treats of the schism of the Antipope Cadalous. He inscribed to Henry opusculum 6, against the Simoniacs, when the latter had newly received the priesthood in the year 1051. But in the Appendix, or chapter 39, he laments having done so, he writes an epistle about it: since he could not strike even the faintest spark of amendment from him. Whence he does not seem to have favored him afterward or to have maintained friendship with him. But that the schism of Benedict, not of Cadalous, is being treated is clearly indicated by these words: "Add to this that Pope Stephen of pious memory, having gathered the Bishops and Roman citizens, Clergy and people, within the Church, had decreed under the censure of strict anathema that if it should happen that he departed from this world before Hildebrand, Subdeacon of the Roman Church, who was being sent by common counsel of all, returned from the Empress, no one should elect ^a Pope, and the Apostolic See should remain vacant and untouched until his return." When therefore Hildebrand, who was afterward Pope Gregory VII, had returned from Germany, he summoned the Cardinals and noble Romans to Siena, by whose votes Gerard, Bishop of Florence, was declared Roman Pontiff and called Nicholas II. he defends Nicholas II: While in the meantime Benedict still held the occupied Roman See by force, Peter wrote the said epistle, in which he clearly indicates his dignity as Cardinal: "As for what you appended at the end of your epistle," he says, "that I should write to you what I thought about him who now presides in the Apostolic See, or about him who has been elected to the same See -- although through certain sons of your Church you could already have heard what our opinion is concerning the difference between the two men -- yet since you command it, we note it also in writing. The one is without any excuse ^a Simoniac, because while we, all the Cardinal Bishops of the same City, he shows himself to be ^a Cardinal: were protesting, resisting, and terribly anathematizing, he was enthroned by night, with bands of armed men tumultuous and raging on all sides." These words, omitting the rest, indicate that the schism previously mentioned is being discussed.

[27] When the pseudopope and schismatic Benedict had been condemned at the Council of Sutri and deprived of all priestly office, and Nicholas was received with due honor by the Roman Clergy and people and inaugurated as Pontiff with solemn coronation in the month of January of the year 1059, soon in the same year ^a Council was held at Rome of one hundred and thirteen Bishops, at which Berengarius abjured his heresy, ^a constitution on the election of the Roman Pontiff was issued, and ^a decree against simoniacs was made, which Blessed Peter mentions in opusculum 30, chapter 1. He was then sent to the Milanese by Pope Nicholas he is sent to Milan: and freed that Church from ^a double stain, as is related in chapter 7 of the Life; these things are recalled by the Legates of Alexander II (who had succeeded Nicholas) in the Constitutions prescribed to the Clergy and people of Milan in the year 1067, where the following was prudently inserted: "Since certain things were formerly corrected in this city through our Confrater Lord Peter, Bishop of Ostia, ^a man of reverend sanctity, it is not necessary to rehearse those things or the past disputes known to all." The epistle read as book 7, epistle 9, was written by Blessed Peter in the name of Pope Nicholas to Anna, daughter of Yaroslav, King of the Russians, Queen of France and wife of Henry I, for Nicholas II he writes to the Queen of France: whose piety and beneficence toward the poor he praises, and he urges her to inflame her husband the King to the just administration of the commonwealth, the protection of the Church, and other works of piety; and also to educate her sons in the morals with which she herself is imbued. King Henry died in the year 1060; Philip I, still ^a boy, succeeded him. Because the same Pontiff had formerly taken care to rebuild the monastery of St. Felicitas near Florence, he fortified it with ^a privilege dated at Florence on the fourth before the Ides of January, the thirteenth Indiction -- that is the year 1060, which however was reckoned at Rome from the feast of the Annunciation, and is inscribed in the said privilege as the year 1059 -- to which, along with four other Bishops, "Peter, sinner monk" subscribes -- that is, the Damian of whom we treat.

Section V: The schism of the pseudopope Cadalous extinguished through Blessed Peter. His return to the hermitage of Fonte Avellana. Legation to the Cluniacs, the Archbishops of Gaul, and King Henry, under Pope Alexander II.

[28] When, with Nicholas II governing the reins of the Christian world, the Church of God had begun to enjoy greater tranquillity and felicity, Blessed Peter congratulates him in epistle 7 of book 1, and at the same time pleads for the people of Ancona, He writes various letters to Nicholas II. who had been cut off from Catholic communion, that the unhappy people might be rescued from the peril of eternal death. To the same Pope Nicholas he inscribed opusculum 17 on the Celibacy of Priests, and exhorts him to rise up, kindled with Apostolic zeal, against such things, setting aside all human regard, and not to reverence the powerful who defile the Church with turpitude. But above all, Blessed Peter prevailed upon this Pontiff to permit him to lay down the burden of the episcopate. There exists on this matter epistle 8 of book 1 to the same Pope Nicholas and Hildebrand, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. There exists also opusculum 19, dedicated to the same Pontiff, On the Abdication of the Episcopate: he seeks to be freed from the episcopal burden: in whose prologue among other reasons he alleges this: "Since under your holy pontificate the universal Church enjoys ^a pleasant peace, let rest not be denied to my gray hairs and now advanced old age." And at last, with great modesty of spirit, he concludes this book in chapter 11 thus: "Supported therefore by the authority of these and other Fathers, I irrevocably renounce in your holy hands both the episcopate and the monasteries together, and I cut off every right of raising any question or claim in the future. And because for my innumerable sins I am not worthy to persist in ecclesiastical dignity, may the divine mercy, through your holy prayers, venerable Father, grant me to persevere for the remainder of this life in mourning and penance... May almighty God, who by the incomprehensible counsel of His dispensation both cast me down from the ambition of obtaining governance and raised you to the summit of the ecclesiastical height, inspire your holy heart, of which He is the inhabitant, to direct to me through sacred letters such mandates as may be able to agree with my vows and my desires."

[29] These things Blessed Peter did for the abdication of the episcopate, and yet he did not attain his wish, perhaps on account of the death of Pope Nicholas. Alexander II elected Pope, He died at the end of July in the year 1061, and after two months of interregnum, Anselm, Bishop of Lucca, was legitimately elected by the Cardinals about the Kalends of October and called Alexander II. He had been the companion of Blessed Peter Damian on the celebrated legation to the Milanese, and Blessed Peter testifies in opusculum 5, which he entitled the Acts of Milan, that he was conspicuous for prudence and sanctity. he reproves the resisting pseudopope Cadalous. Against this Pontiff, ^a new schism having been fomented, Cadalous, Bishop of Parma, was set up as pseudopope on October 28, assuming the name of Honorius II; whom Blessed Peter admonished in two letters written to him, setting before his eyes the magnitude of the crime and threatening the imminent thunderbolt of divine vengeance unless he repent. These are epistles 20 and 21 of the first book. Since he had learned that the cause of Cadalous was impiously defended by the followers of Henry, King of Germany, he defends the cause of the Church before King Henry: then still ^a youth and not yet elevated to the Empire, in epistle 3 of book 6 he endeavors to impel his spirit with certain goads, as it were, to bring aid to the Church, toward which his outstanding zeal and devotion shines forth. This I show from ^a few words excerpted from the epilogue: "O would," he says, "that I be adjudged guilty of rebellion before your tribunal, provided that you act as an arbiter of equity against the adversaries of the Apostolic See! Let the axe brandished against the throat of my neck rage, only let the Roman Church, restored through you, ascend the summit of her own dignity. Moreover, if you destroy Cadalous quickly, like another Constantine destroying Arius, and strive to restore peace to the Church for which Christ died, may God cause you to ascend in the near future from ^a kingdom to the imperial height, and to carry back from all your enemies the titles of distinguished glory; but if you still dissemble, if you refuse to abolish the error of ^a perishing world when you can..." I restrain my pen and leave the understanding of what follows to the readers.

[30] Thus far Blessed Peter's letter to the King. His also is epistle 6 of book 3 to St. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, whom he praises for having pursued Cadalous and having cut him down as far as he could with the ecclesiastical sword: he urges St. Anno, Archbishop of Cologne, against Cadalous: he exhorts him to put the finishing touch to the work, which would be accomplished if through his efforts ^a general assembly of the Fathers were convoked. Which was indeed done. For in Germany the Council of Osbor is said to have been assembled by the authority of St. Anno, at which, with King Henry present, the Synodal Discussion was read aloud -- ^a discussion which Blessed Peter Damian had composed as though it had been held between ^a royal Advocate and ^a Defender of the Roman Church: where by the consent of all, the condemnation of the Pseudopontiff Cadalous is said to have been proclaimed, he is present at Councils in which the latter is condemned: and the election of Alexander confirmed. Consult Baronius at the year 1061, number 21, where he writes that these things were accomplished on October 27, the very vigil of the holy Apostles Simon and Jude. That Synodal Discussion is also contained among the works of Blessed Peter in volume 3, opusculum 4, and in volume 25 of the royal edition of the Councils from page 638. Likewise at the urging of St. Anno, legates from the German Princes were sent to Rome, and the Council of Mantua was held in the year 1064, at which Pope Alexander was present with the Cardinals; and at his request, Blessed Peter Damian and St. Anno the Archbishop attended: where, when the pseudopope Cadalous was again condemned, the scandal of the Church and the Empire was removed. In the meantime, during those years, Blessed Peter underwent many dangers to his life, he suffers ambushes: which in epistle 5 of book 6 to the monks of Cluny he calls "the massed snares of the Cadaloic fury." Because Godfrey, Duke and Count of Tuscany, had given hospitality to Cadalous, he was admonished by the same Blessed Peter in epistle 10 of book 7.

[31] Alexander II, having been elected, as said above, about the Kalends of October of the year 1061, deferred his consecration until his election should be recognized as canonically made by ^a synodal decree and also ratified. Indeed, when the schism of Cadalous ensued, he fled from the City lest he be overwhelmed by certain Romans favoring Cadalous; from whom Blessed Peter writes in opusculum 20 that he was then freed from the episcopal burden, [he obtains from the elected Alexander II permission to retire to the hermitage of Fonte Avellana,] which he inscribed to the same Alexander, elect of the Apostolic See, and Hildebrand. He begins chapter 1 thus: "Blessed be the dispensation of the almighty Creator, because recently ascending to you, weighed down by the burden of two bishoprics -- one to govern, namely Ostia, and the other to visit, namely Gubbio -- I crossed the steep ridges of the Alps; and soon, having cast off the load of tribulation, unburdened and free, I retraced my steps like ^a returned exile to my beloved solitude... Wherefore when I resolved to resign to you the ecclesiastical governance, I did not err, because I worthily restored to the Roman Church, which you are, what was her own; and to confess to you the truth, for this renunciation ^a penance of ^a hundred years has consequently been imposed upon me, a penance of ^a hundred years imposed by those remedies which are established by monastic rules." How ^a penance of ^a hundred years is fulfilled, Blessed Peter explains in the Life of St. Dominic the Cuirassed in these words: "Now, since three thousand strokes of the scourge regularly complete one year of penance among us, and the chanting of ten psalms admits of ^a thousand strokes, while the psalter is known without doubt to consist of ^a hundred and fifty psalms, ^a penance of five years is found, by those who reckon correctly, in the discipline of one psalter. But whether you multiply five by twenty to be completed by reciting twenty psalters with discipline. or twenty by five, they make ^a hundred. It follows therefore that whoever chants twenty psalters with discipline may be confident of having completed ^a penance of ^a hundred years." At what age Blessed Peter undertook this penance he indicates in the said opusculum 20, chapter 5: "Behold, already my eyes grow dim, and the humors of phlegm abound more than usual. Wrinkles creep in, and the gums threaten the ruin of the teeth. My head, which was hitherto sprinkled with gray, now gleams white with swanlike whiteness; my voice grows hoarse, my strength fails." And in chapter 7, during his peroration, he declares that he wished, as he had been commanded, to ordain or consecrate the Pontiff of the Apostolic See, and immediately afterward to retire from the citadel of his own pontificate of Ostia.

[32] But although Blessed Peter had been permitted to dwell in the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, that he was not entirely freed from the episcopal burden is intimated by himself in epistle 15 of book 1 to Alexander, now consecrated Bishop of the Supreme See, In the meantime still Bishop of Ostia, in which at the end he has the following: "O how pleasant, how sweet ^a report, how delightful ^a rumor recently reached my ears, which declared that you had taken the County of Ostia from me and given it to another... I also voluntarily implore the divine mercy that you not delay to ordain the bishopric as quickly as possible, and take from my hands the barren plow of the sandy shore." This he does not seem to have obtained. For besides the things he did against the Antipope Cadalous, he was employed in various legations, of which perhaps the first was to the monastery of Cluny, when its Abbot St. Hugh, as we said above from his Life, invoked the patronage of the Roman See: sent by Alexander II as legate across the Alps, first to the Cluniac monks, "when with great labor and difficulty he obtained that Lord Peter, Bishop of Ostia, surnamed Damian, be torn from the side of the Pontiff." The labor he then expended is recalled by Blessed Peter in epistle 2 of book 6 to St. Hugh the Abbot: "When already bent old age was pressing me down, and my tottering steps wavered with uncertain pace as my body was weakened in strength, I, at the command of your order, placed my soul, so to speak, in my own hands, climbed the steep passes of the Alps covered with summer snows, and for the benefit of your venerable monastery I penetrated deep into the interior of Gaul, near enough to the Ocean." He complains of having stayed there ^a long time in epistle 5 of the same book 6 to the monks of Cluny with these words: "It had been promised me that I would return to my own place by the Kalends of August; but when ^a further three months had gone by, I hastened with all the speed I could, and yet I scarcely climbed the summit of Fonte Avellana, whence I had set out, before the fifth day before the Kalends of November." Blessed Peter also recalls this journey of his in opusculum 34, chapter 6, and opusculum 39.

[33] A second legation of Blessed Peter to Gaul, with an outstanding commendation of him, is contained in epistle 21 of Pope Alexander to five Archbishops of Gaul, which we give here in full: "Alexander, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, to G., then to the Archbishops of Gaul, Archbishop of Rheims; R., of Sens; B., of Tours; M., of Bourges; T., of Bordeaux: greeting and Apostolic benediction. Your holy brotherhood is not unaware, dearest ones, that by the authority of the Apostolic See, over which the divine mercy has placed us, though unworthy, the governance and ordering of the entire universal Church rests upon us. Since therefore, occupied with many affairs of the Churches, we cannot come to you in person, we have taken care to send you such ^a man with an illustrious commendation from the Pontiff, as whom there is no greater in the Roman Church after us -- namely, Peter Damian, Bishop of Ostia, who is indeed our eye and the immovable firmament of the Apostolic See. To him, therefore, we have committed our full authority with complete right, so that whatever he shall decree in those matters, with God's help, shall be held as ratified and firm, as if it had been promulgated by the special judgment of our own examination. Wherefore we admonish your venerable holiness with fraternal charity, and moreover command you by Apostolic authority, to receive so great ^a man with fitting devotion as if he were our own person, and to obey his judgments and decisions with humility out of reverence for Blessed Peter, the Prince of the Apostles. For whoever, puffed up with the pride of arrogance (God forbid), shall stand as ^a contradictory or adversary of his judgment, shall not have our grace or that of the Roman Church until he has made worthy satisfaction. Because when we sent Girelmus to you, we in no way yet hoped that we could obtain the coming of the aforesaid Lord Peter, we wish that if Girelmus has begun anything among you, it should come to the authority of Lord Peter, and through his hand whatever is to be done should be done." Thus far the epistle of Alexander II. Among other things splendidly accomplished by Blessed Peter in Gaul at that time, ^a sentence of execution was passed together with other Bishops against Reginald, the invader of the monastery of St. Medard, which Alexander II confirmed in epistle 22 addressed to Gervasius the Archbishop and his suffragans, and commanded to be executed. The epistle I omit for the sake of brevity.

[34] Again Blessed Peter was sent as legate across the Alps to King Henry, when the latter, carried away by youthful fury, had resolved to repudiate his wife Bertha, whom he had married two years before. Lambert of Hersfeld, who was living at that time, narrates the event in his Chronicle at the year 1069, in which it occurred, as follows: afterward to Henry, King of Germany, at Mainz, "After Pentecost, the King held ^a conference with the Princes of the realm at Worms. There he first treated the matter secretly with the Bishop of Mainz and earnestly implored his help to accomplish what he was plotting in his mind... He appointed ^a synod at Mainz to settle the matter in the week following the feast of St. Michael... When the day appointed for dissolving the King's marriage was imminent, the King hastened eagerly to Mainz. And behold, on the way he learned that ^a Legate of the Apostolic See was awaiting his arrival at Mainz -- one who would forbid the divorce to take place and would threaten the Bishop of Mainz with the sentence of Apostolic censure for having promised to be the author of so nefarious ^a separation. Immediately dismayed at having lost from his hands the thing he had long desired, he wanted to return to Saxony the way he had come. Yet with difficulty, and barely overcome by the counsels of his friends -- lest he disappoint the Princes of the realm, whom he had ordered to meet him at Mainz in great numbers -- whom he prevents from divorcing his wife: he went to Frankfurt and there ordered those who had assembled at Mainz to come to him. When they had come in great numbers, Peter Damian (he was the Legate of the Apostolic See, ^a man very much to be reverenced for his age and the innocence of his life) set forth the mandates of the Roman Pontiff: that the thing he was contriving was ^a most wicked deed, utterly abhorrent from the name of ^a Christian, to say nothing of ^a king. If he was not frightened by human laws or the sanctions of the Canons, let him at least spare his own fame and reputation, lest the poison of so foul an example, taking its beginning from the King, corrupt the entire Christian people, and he who ought to have been the avenger of crimes should become the author and standard-bearer of wickedness. Finally, if he was not moved by counsels, he would of necessity apply ecclesiastical force and prohibit the crime by the law of the Canons. Furthermore, he would never with his own hands consecrate as Emperor one who, by so pestilent an example, had as far as in him lay betrayed the Christian faith." This was the sum of Blessed Peter's legation, which the Princes judged fair, and the King himself, at last broken, admitted the Queen to the partnership of the realm and of the marriage bed, and begot from her an heir and successor of the kingdom.

[35] Henry's mother was Agnes, daughter of William IV, Duke of Aquitaine, crowned Empress by Pope Clement II together with her husband Henry, son of Conrad the Salic, in the year 1046, as we said above. She too had resented that Pope Alexander II had been created without her permission and that of her son, he is the Confessor of the Empress Agnes: and had adhered to and favored the pseudopope Cadalous against him. To expiate this offense she came to Rome to the threshold of the Apostles, where, having taken the counsel of Blessed Peter Damian, whom she adopted as her spiritual father, she confessed to him all her sins committed from earliest infancy. This Blessed Peter himself testifies in opusculum 56, On the Fleeting Glory of the World and the Contempt of the Age, inscribed to her, chapter 5. There also exist four epistles of his to this Empress in book 7, in the last of which he exhorts her, having departed for Germany, to return to Rome -- which she did, and remaining in Rome, conspicuous for holiness, she departed from life in the year 1077.

Section VI: The legation of Blessed Peter to the Florentines and the people of Ravenna. Death, burial. Veneration.

LIFE

by St. John of Lodi, his disciple, edited from two manuscripts by Constantinus Caietanus.

Peter Damian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia of the Holy Roman Church, Prior of the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, at Faenza in Italy (Blessed).

BHL Number: 6706

By St. John of Lodi.

PROLOGUE

To the Lord Liprando, Prior, and to the other seniors of the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, John.

[1] The marvelous work, Fathers, which your holiness has seen fit to impose upon my insignificance, I myself clearly perceive to be exceedingly arduous for my powers and unequal to my talent. But because I do not presume to refuse anything to your command, The author writes this Life compelled by obedience, although the dullness of my sense shrinks from committing the illustrious deeds of so great ^a man to an inert style, lest, in attempting what is beyond him, he seem to provoke the reader to nausea rather than to reading; yet trusting in your holy prayers and in the gracious merits of our pious Father Peter Damian himself, to whose deeds you summon my obedience to set down in writing, I shall devoutly undertake to comply with your commands. For I myself had judged it more prudent and lest the memory of so great ^a man perish: that I should meanwhile record these things in however rude ^a style, so that, being afterward worthily elucidated by more skilled writers, they might profitably reach the knowledge of posterity, rather than, by too greatly avoiding the reproach of unskillfulness, to leave them entirely untouched: lest perchance, being shortly afterward shrouded in the mist of oblivion, they should slip altogether from the memory of all, to no small peril of my own soul. For since it is evident to all that no one who is aware of the deeds of illustrious men can, without the stain of fault, cover them in idle silence, how much more will it be established that I am liable to no small offense, I who was the inseparable companion of so great ^a Father, albeit in nearly the last times of his life, if I should prefer to pass over his wondrous deeds in silence rather than to make them known.

[2] [He writes things related to him by Blessed Peter himself, narrated by those who knew him, or seen by himself.] Of those things, therefore, which I am about to relate, I recall having received part from his own lips, part from certain of my fellow-disciples who had adhered to his company more familiarly before me; some things, moreover, I heard from ^a certain kinsman of his, ^a man of gravity and honor, namely those things which preceded his conversion; the rest indeed I myself noted down from my own presence. But now let the course of our discourse turn to the beginning of the history itself.

CHAPTER I

The birth of Blessed Peter: his infancy and boyhood tested by adversities. Studies in letters.

[3] The man of God, then, surnamed Peter Damian, ^a citizen not unknown of the most famous city of Ravenna, thoroughly imbued with the liberal disciplines, when he had barely passed the crossroads of the Pythagorean letter, Blessed Peter born at Ravenna: wisely abandoning the left path which he had taken, he prudently seized the right; and in the very fervor of youth, inspired by divine grace, renouncing worldly pomp, he eagerly hastened to monastic perfection. He indeed, born of honorable parents, began from the very cradle of his birth to be pressed hard by adverse circumstances. For when his mother, already wearied of her children, the house being filled with heirs, had borne this last child, one of his brothers, who had by then already grown to some size, complained with an outcry: For shame! We are already so many rejected by his mother on account of her numerous offspring: that we are scarcely contained in this house! And how ill do ^a crowd of heirs and an inheritance agree! At whose words the mother, more violently indignant and inflamed with the spite of feminine jealousy, clasping her hands together, cried out that she was wretched and unworthy to live any longer. Immediately she weaned him, so to speak, almost before she had nursed him, and as if she would never again touch him with her hands, uttering certain ill-omened imprecations upon herself, she utterly banished him from her presence. Thus she emancipated her son before he had learned to live, and disinherited him from the only possession he could have -- the possession of his mother's breast.

[4] When therefore that frail little creature, deprived of all the attentive offices of ^a nurse, was growing dark with hunger and cold alike, and ^a feeble sound, not so much ^a voice as ^a kind of wheeze, barely rasped from his still scarcely palpitating little chest: being persuaded by another woman, he is taken back: ^a certain priest's woman, who was ^a kind of familiar of the paternal household, came upon the scene and reproved the inhuman hardness of his mother with ^a stern rebuke, insofar as she was able. "Is this, my lady," she said, "the manner of ^a Christian mother, which is not approved even of ^a tigress or ^a lioness? Those beasts nourish their whelps when they bear them, and shall we cast away those begotten of our own bowels, who are made in the image of God? And perhaps this child, who is now so cast aside, if he reach the increase of age, will obtain ^a place not the lowest among his kin. Beware also, lest you who scorn to be his mother be rightly judged ^a child-murderer." With such words indeed the priest's wife discharged the office of ^a priest, for she both softened the mother's heart to piety and restored the dying son to life. Forthwith, then, the vigorous woman, no sluggard, freed her arms from her flowing garments, spread out the infant limbs upon ^a skin laid near the fire, and by anointing the little body all over, she expended no small quantity of grease. You might then have seen the tender limbs drinking in the nourishment of the melting fat, and growing ruddy as vital warmth returned, and thus the bloom of early infancy suddenly reflourishing in him. Where it should be noted that his mother had become ^a Herodias, and that woman had become an Elijah: He is weaned; orphaned of his parents: and thus through the zeal of ^a sinful little woman, both the desperate child was drawn back from the jaws of death and the mother was freed from the guilt of infanticide. She indeed, now recognizing herself as ^a mother, recalled with the affections of maternal bowels to the embrace of pious love the child whom she had cruelly cast out as though he were ^a stranger, and she did not cease to bestow upon him diligently every attentive care of ^a nurse. The boy, however, enjoyed this care until he was weaned; but shortly afterward, orphaned of both parents while still within his childhood years, he was prematurely deprived of it.

[5] He being therefore left to the care of his brothers (O incomprehensible mystery of divine dispensation!), one of them, who lurked fierce among the others, who were endowed with honorable character, like ^a wolf in sheep's clothing, suffers cruel treatment from ^a brother and his wife: undertook to raise him in place of his father, with ^a now fraudulent piety; and while he pretended to adopt him as ^a co-heir, he subjected him to cruel servitude as though he were ^a purchased slave. To him clung his wife as ^a partner, who differed in no respect from his savagery for want of any bowels of compassion. Both of them, therefore, raging upon the innocent boy with unanimous ferocity, treating him with ^a stern and stepmotherly aspect, injured his frail strength with harsh afflictions. They sustained him constantly with the food of servants, and with what would better suit pigs, and with wretched, sour drink. He went barefoot, clad in ragged garments, was flogged with beatings, and subjected to frequent blows of fists and kicks. Moreover, when he had already grown somewhat, though oppressed under such unjust burdens, he was cast out to feed swine, he feeds swine: and was subjected indiscriminately to the other conditions of bondservants. But what is to be considered in all this, except that the Lord permitted this soldier of His to be sharply afflicted for this reason: that he might learn to be more strictly trained for the combat of spiritual warfare, so that his virtue might afterward endure all arduous things the more robustly, inasmuch as he himself had already experienced such things from boyhood? Here also we think it not idle to relate briefly ^a certain noteworthy incident.

[6] One day, while he was still laboring under the aforementioned destitution, he found ^a coin by chance; and as if suddenly made rich, rejoicing, he began to revolve long in his mind what he could most fittingly purchase with it: [having found ^a coin, he arranges for ^a sacrifice of the Mass to be offered for his father:] for indeed, being in want of all pleasant things, sweet appetite drew his childish mind through all manner of delicacies. But while this deliberation went on at length, and he was uncertain what to choose, at last divinely inspired, he said: "Why do I deliberate? Whatever of these things I take, its pleasure will not be lasting. It is better, therefore, that I give it to ^a priest, who may offer sacrifice to God for my father." What could be more prudent than this boy's simplicity? What more frugal than this destitute orphan? Spurning all things which he knew would perish, he chose only that which he hoped would endure forever. Moreover, what should we think this was, if not ^a certain presage of things to come, namely that by the desire of eternal things he would despise those which flatter but for ^a time?

[7] But to return to the order of our narrative: after it pleased the Lord, who does not forsake the care of His own, to deliver him, now nearly consumed, even from the aforesaid calamities, He mercifully drew him from the mauling of the wicked and placed him at last in the bosom of another brother, He is excellently treated by his brother Damian: named Damian, to be at last soothed and cherished. This brother, then, embracing him with ^a sufficiently dear affection, bestowed such diligent care upon him that he seemed to exceed ^a father's love. And when the boy was already somewhat grown, he is set to studies: he handed him over to be instructed in the elements of letters, and subsequently in the liberal studies, in which indeed he was found so docile and so industrious that he was held in wonder by his very teachers. And when he had finished learning, being proficient in every liberal science, he soon began most zealously to teach others, he teaches others. as ^a throng of students flocked from every quarter to the fame of his learning.

CHAPTER II

The various deliberation and self-testing undertaken by Blessed Peter concerning the monastic life.

[8] Meanwhile, indeed, while he was being carried along by popular favor, while he was being heaped with abundance of riches, he could almost have been drawn away by the enticements of worldly pomp or entangled by the allurements of sensual pleasures. He deliberates concerning the state of life: But since no one at all can be diminished from the number of the elect, being immediately prevented by the divine regard, he began to reason thus with himself: "And why should I delight in present things, as the flesh suggests and age demands? But ought I to cling to these perishable things, and not rather, renouncing them, provide for better ones? But if perhaps I promise myself that I will do this hereafter, is it not much more precious, and much more acceptable to God, to strive to do it now, while age flourishes, while prosperity soothes?" And indeed after these reflections he began gradually to be withdrawn from worldly pursuits and to gird himself for the service of God; and although by the outward appearance of his dress he still seemed to cling to perishable things, yet with the entire affection of his mind he aspired to eternal goods. Under soft garments, therefore, he wore ^a hair shirt; he applied himself diligently to fasting, vigils, and prayers. And because, while youth burned hot, he subdues the flesh with ^a hair shirt, fasting: he was sharply goaded by carnal urges, in the middle of the nights he would rise from his bed and immerse himself in river waters, in which he remained with naked body so long until his freezing limbs grew rigid and the noxious heat receded. Then returning thence, he immerses himself in waters: chanting the psalms as he made the rounds of all the venerable places, he completed the entire psalter before the office of the hours. He also devoted himself to constant almsgiving to the poor and fed them at frequent banquets, liberal toward the needy: rejoicing to minister devoutly to them with his own hands, as though to Christ.

[9] Among these things, truly, I think it should not be passed over, what I do not doubt will be profitable for the edification of many. One day he was dining privately, and no one was reclining with him except ^a certain blind pensioner, he invites ^a blind man to his table: who as ^a daily table-companion was accustomed to sit beside him according to custom. It happened, however, that at that time there was no more than one loaf of wheaten flour. This, then, was set before him alone; but what could be given to his table-companion, who was not accustomed to be fed with different food from his own, was not at hand. A coarse loaf was therefore set before the other -- that is, ^a secondary loaf, of the second kneading; and this indeed he did not regard with favorable eyes, and he bore it grievously. But gradually fear crept upon him, and he began to think within himself: he permits ^a worse loaf to be given to the other when bread is lacking: "Is Christ my inferior at my table? Shall I eat, as it were, the lord's bread, delicate and fine, and shall he be fed with the bread of my servants?" While he turned over these and similar thoughts in his breast, the idea occurred to him that he should exchange the other's bread for his own, and his own for the other's. What then should he do? Which way should he turn? Should he take the other's bread? But shame stood in the way. Should he eat his own? But conscience stung. What more? At length the flesh conquered, and the mind, feebly struggling, succumbed. Both therefore began to eat: the one, as master and prince of the table, the fine bread; the other, in the manner of dependents or slaves, the coarse.

[10] But as he ate, fear gradually came upon him, and an exceeding horror shook the very depths of all his bowels; for he dreaded lest the sentence of the divine displeasure should be awakened against him; he certainly suspected that sudden vengeance of just severity was imminent -- and so it came to pass. He is tormented by ^a fish-bone lodged in his throat: For ^a bone of ^a fish clung pestilently to his throat, which by no efforts at all could be drawn inward. He swallowed food deliberately -- it would not descend; he hawked -- it was all the same; he tried to expel it -- but the fixed affliction remained equally immovable. Yet he was ashamed to speak of what he was suffering within; ^a hidden hook held him, and like an unwary fish was dragging him by the gullet to death. On every side his distresses were increasing, and it was not so much death as the shamefulness of such ^a death that terrified him. For he would have preferred that swords should pierce him through, rather than that ^a foul death from an itching gullet should disgrace him. His spirit panted in anguish, and clouds of sorrow rolled about his eyes. Why do I delay with further details? At length he gave way to Christ, and plainly recognized that he was unequal to Him, if not in bread, having offered the better bread to the other, he is freed, yet certainly in power. He hastily set his own morsel before the poor man, and placed the other's before himself by way of exchange; and (O God, placable over our wickedness!) immediately at the first taste of the received bread, that pestilence passed through, and the intercepted fragment, falling away, was cleared into his interior. The delicate bread, therefore, had become ^a plague to him; but the coarse and hard bread, ^a medicine. He changed his food, and the snare that had fiercely bound him was loosed. He laid aside his pride and perceived the heavenly medicine of humility and the remedy of supernal compassion; and when he perceived that he had obtained it so wonderfully, he burst forth immediately into praise of his liberator with ^a speech of this kind: "Blessed be almighty God, who comes to the aid of those in peril and turns sorrow into joy: he gives humble thanks to God: He treads down arrogance, humbles the proud, and bestows mercy, so that He Himself also invites us to mercy: 'Be merciful,' He says, 'even as your heavenly Father is merciful.'" And the peril of his tribulation, which he had until then hidden out of shame, and makes the event known. he now narrated to all with joy. Luke 6:36 For what the force of pain could not accomplish, the greatness of gladness wrested forth. And indeed he himself inserted both this incident and the other which I related above concerning his rejection as ^a newborn, recording them in his opuscula.

[11] But now, that our discourse may return to its proper order, this recruit of Christ, raising the flame of his breast to higher things with constant aspirations, he aspires to the monastic life: intensely desired to fulfill what he had conceived in his mind: namely, to renounce this world utterly and to assume the habit of the spiritual soldiery. Yet he altogether refused to do this within the borders of his native land, lest the affection of kinsmen or acquaintances should produce some obstacle harmful to one who wished to strive toward perfection.

[12] While he was meditating upon this and beseeching with constant prayers that the way of salvation might be opened to him by the Lord, behold, two Brothers from the hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, he reveals his desire to the hermits of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana: whose fame had already become well known to him, arrived, having been sent thither. When by divine appointment he had met them on his way and had begun to hold with them the conversation he had so long desired, he revealed the secret of his breast. They, hearing gladly what was disclosed, strengthened and kindled him to the same purpose with pious counsels. He inquired, therefore, whether the holy Abbot of their community, whose praiseworthy fame had already reached his knowledge, would receive him if he wished to come to his fellowship. They indeed assented and further persuaded him to this course. He offers them ^a silver goblet: He promised that, with God's grace helping, he would come to them as quickly as possible, so that he might fulfill his desire; to them he offered ^a silver goblet, asking that they receive it and convey it to the Lord Abbot. But they, beholding the size of the vessel, objected to its weight, pleaded the impediment of ^a longer journey, saying that they could not be burdened with so great ^a load or impede the path of ^a lengthy journey. And when he pressed them with entreaties to accept it, they said: "If, then, you so greatly compel us, and do not allow us to depart entirely empty of your gift, provide something else of this kind, which we may bear more lightly on your behalf, without detriment to our journey." Hearing this, he began to marvel greatly, to be astonished, and to say within himself: he is amazed that it is not accepted: "Who are these men, who, while they appear poor and destitute, so despise the things of this world that they scorn to undertake even the least labor in carrying so fine ^a vessel? Shall I not truly call them free and truly blessed, who are seen to have shaken from their necks the yoke of ambition with such fortitude, and to have trodden down the vain pomp of the world with such excellence of mind?" Wherefore, greatly edified by this, he was more vehemently kindled to contempt for worldly pomp.

[13] From this time, therefore, greatly anxious about his promise, he first wished to test he shuts himself in ^a certain cell for forty days. whether he could endure the labor of the cell which he had heard about. He therefore entered ^a certain cell, in which indeed for forty days, after the pattern of that eremitic rule, he was not idly exercised. Strengthened exceedingly by this experience, he now began to fear nothing of that eremitic austerity; nay rather, he desired it ardently with his whole affection.

CHAPTER III

The monastic life of Blessed Peter in the hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana.

[14] When, therefore, the desired time had come at which he could fittingly accomplish this without the knowledge of all his family, taking from his goods what he wished, he secretly seized the road. When he had arrived at the hermitage, He hastens to the hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana: opening the desire of his mind to those seniors, he devoutly requested to be received into their fellowship; and what he so salutarily requested was gladly granted, and he was committed to one of the Brothers to be instructed in the manner of novices. He is admitted; he is clothed in monastic garments: When the Brother had conducted him to ^a cell, forthwith, as he had been ordered, he stripped him of his linen garments, clothed him in ^a hair shirt, and led him back to the Abbot, who commanded that ^a cowl be put over him without delay. But he, marveling at this, said within himself: "What has happened to me? Ought I not first to have taken trial of this discipline, and afterward to have come forward voluntarily requesting to receive this habit? He steadfastly resists temptation: Am I able to obey, thus suddenly anticipated?" And while he was turning this over within himself, immediately coming to himself, he began to rebuke himself vehemently and to say: "What if the occasion should demand that you ought to be put to death for Christ -- would you so flee, or stubbornly resist? Was not what has happened exactly what you were just before firmly promising yourself, that you would endure all things? Why are you not afraid to succumb so feebly and so quickly? But if perhaps you judge that course harmful, then accept this one the more gladly; so that the harder you endure, the more sweetly you may receive in recompense." By these self-reproaches, therefore, brought back to himself, he immediately acquiesced in the command of his senior, and peacefully and gladly obeyed.

[15] Having assumed the habit, he was immediately kindled with such fervor that, despising bodily care, he desired only the things of the spirit; he compelled the flesh to serve the spirit with all his powers; rejecting all things delicate or sumptuous, he sought whatever was harsh and contemptible. Moreover, what I say you can perceive by the following example: He seeks the vilest things: Once, when he was about to set out with his master, he was ordered to put on ^a softer scapular and to mount ^a horse more handsome than he would have wished. He therefore began with humble entreaties to beg his master not to deign to command him what he himself greatly abhorred as unseemly. His master, however, would not yield to his entreaties, lest he seem to slight ^a disciple whom he loved as his only one, if he should allow him to proceed with him in so unkempt ^a state according to his desire. But the disciple, thinking far otherwise he blushes on ^a journey because of ^a softer garment and ^a finer horse: and turning everything in the other direction, was exceedingly ashamed to appear smart before worldly men, lest he, who had once been seen to renounce the world, should be thought still to seek worldly pomp in ^a carnal manner. Yet he preferred to suffer that reproach rather than to incur the mark of disobedience, which indeed he dreaded more vehemently to incur. For it seemed to him, as he himself used to relate, that whosoever saw him riding in so trim ^a fashion would point him out with ^a finger and mock him as carnal, and would apply to him not the name of ^a monk but of ^a bridegroom. Whence so great ^a blush had suffused his face that he could scarcely lift his head or direct the gaze of his eyes upon anyone. But when they were returning and had arrived at the monastery of St. Vincent, to which the neighboring cliff called Pietra Pertusa gave its name, now the servant of the Lord could no longer endure the ignominious adornment of the smart garment; having therefore found an occasion to linger there ^a little while, his master continued on the begun journey toward the hermitage, while he himself procured and put on another scapular, he obtains ^a cheaper garment: humbler in thread and color; and thus, as if relieved of an immense burden that had weighed him down until then, he returned as quickly as possible after his master to his own monastery. For he could in no way revisit those who wore squalid garments while he himself was clad in fine ones, since they desired to be adorned in character rather than in clothing.

[16] But to return to the foregoing matters: the good recruit of Christ immediately began to wear himself down with such labors of fasting, vigils, and other afflictions He applies himself to fasting, vigils, and other exercises of the place, that those who had already been exercised by long practice, beholding his manner of life and conduct, were compelled to hold their own deeds in contempt. For while he strove to uproot inveterate vice from its very foundations, he ardently desired with all his powers to fulfill every kind of moral exercise prescribed by the practices of that place, with untiring labor of work. Now the rule of the place is known to be of this manner: that dwelling two by two in separate cells, day and night, as though standing in battle array, to prayer, they did not relax their arms from spiritual combat. For girded with the unconquerable weapons of psalmody, prayer, reading, abstinence, and obedience, they fought implacably against the powers of the air. The mode of abstinence was this: that on four days of the week, content with bread and water, to abstinence: on Tuesday and Thursday they took ^a small portion of vegetables, which they each cooked in their own cells. On fast days, indeed, no one was permitted to take bread at his own pleasure, but only what the fixed measure provided. Moreover, what shall I say of the use of wine, when, except for the sacrifice or perhaps for ^a sick person, wine is reported to have been entirely lacking there at that time? They practiced going barefoot throughout the hermitage at all seasons; indeed, in their cells they did not even put on leggings. As for the other spiritual exercises -- the disciplines of prostrations, of striking the palms upon the ground, to penances: and of prolonged extensions of the arms -- they applied themselves diligently, each as his fervor and strength allowed. Moreover, they observed this custom of vigils: that when the signal for the hour sounded, they completed the entire psalter after the office and before dawn. Peter, however, far anticipating this common signal by his wakefulness, strove to pass in continuous vigil whatever of the night remained after the office, he prefers the prescribed rule to voluntary devotion: lest he should seem to relax the common rule, he who endeavored to extend himself even to things not commanded. For he knew it to be more sacred what is assessed by public rule than what is paid out by private practice; and that gratuitous gifts, however great, can by no means absolve the offerer from the obligation of the law's command, so that he should not diligently strive to fulfill what has been fixed by law. For while it is permissible to add whatever one wishes out of devotion, one may not thereby set aside the regulations of the elders. Voluntary offerings can indeed rightly augment, but they can by no means excuse from what belongs to the law.

[17] Finally, while keeping such nocturnal vigils, he contracted so great an affliction of the injured brain he is tormented by ^a headache that he could scarcely be refreshed by even ^a little sleep; and after he had recovered from the contracted affliction by applied remedy and divine help, he then learned to act with such discretion that he strove both to avoid the torpor of laxity and to restrain by prudent moderation the headlong rush of excess. he is freed from it: And indeed, while he observed the station of his cell with rigid discipline, and after the customary payment of psalmody, prayers, and devotions, devoted himself to reading with diligent meditation, he is distinguished for knowledge of Sacred Scripture. he became so renowned for his knowledge of the divine Scriptures as he had not formerly been renowned for knowledge of secular letters.

CHAPTER IV

The sermons of Blessed Peter delivered in various monasteries. The administration of Fonte Avellana. Various monasteries built.

[18] When the time had come, therefore, that the lamp of the Lord's house, set upon ^a candlestick, should give light to all, at the command of his master, he began to deliver words of exhortation to those few Brothers. He preaches to his own community. And since his reputation, having already spread more widely, was growing, the venerable Abbot Wido of Pomposa, ^a most holy man, sent his legates to his Abbot requesting that, out of fraternal charity, he might send him to his monastery and permit him to stay there for some time, then to the monks of Pomposa, so that he might bestow upon the Brothers who requested it the nourishment of the sacred word; and his pious petition, by divine disposition, was by no means frustrated of the charity it sought. For he was sent thither, where the company of Brothers was said to number ^a hundred. And having been detained there for nearly two years, and having, as ^a faithful worker, brought forth no small fruit to the Lord from the seed of the word sown, he received his Abbot's command, to which was also attached the word of obedience requiring him to return. Though bound by many entreaties, he could in no way be detained any longer; but as ^a man full of God, subject to obedience in all things, and fearing to disobey his master, he returned to him in haste. For he used often to tell us, when the occasion of discourse seemed to demand it, in order to provoke us more effectively to obedience by his own example, as it were from close at hand: that if ever anything was commanded to him with the addition of obedience, the word immediately shook his inmost being with such terror that no difficulty of the imposed task could retard him from its execution. When, therefore, the allotted time had been spent with his confreres, he was again ordered to go for the same purpose and the Brothers of the monastery of St. Vincent: to the monastery of St. Vincent, of which we made mention above. This monastery, indeed, the more it was seen to abound in the number of monks and in the breadth of its resources, the more it declared itself to be the narrower in the standard of monastic discipline. There too, having tarried for some time, he did not rest idle from the cultivation of the Lord's vineyard, until, with the Lord cooperating, he bestowed the abundant fruit of his service.

[19] His master, then, considering his great prudence and zeal, he is made Procurator, rejoiced that he had received so capable ^a disciple, to whom he could safely entrust the governance of the hermitage. Having therefore taken the counsel of his disciples, he commanded him, though he refused and resisted, to undertake after him the administration of the hermitage.

After the departure of his master, taking up the governance of the place, then Prior of Fonte Avellana: he builds five monasteries: he enlarged it considerably in both spiritual and temporal cultivation. And because divine grace had kindled his mind to ^a more abundant harvest of souls, he began to seek out other places where he might gather ^a company of monks to serve God. In the diocese of Camerino, therefore, he found, as ^a careful searcher, ^a certain place suitable for the dwellings of hermits, near ^a cliff adjoining his own; and having gathered Brothers there, founded an oratory, and appointed ^a Prior under whom they should serve God, he proceeded again to investigate another place. He came therefore to Monte Pregio, in the territory of Perugia, and there founded other hermit dwellings, where indeed he found ^a certain cell in which Blessed Romuald was said to have once dwelt. Having placed other Brothers in that place, therefore, he moved on again to another, and in the County of Faenza found ^a suitable place which is called Gamonium; where, having prepared dwellings, he established others to serve God. But he also built ^a nearby monastery called Acereta. And another in the territory of Rimini, in ^a place called Murciano. He rejoiced to devote himself to such pursuits with constant zeal, seeking not his own interests, but those of Jesus Christ.

[20] Moreover, although the prudent servant of God was intent on carrying out these things, he often visits the hermitage of the Holy Cross: yet the beloved place and community of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, which he loved above all others as his only one, he took care to visit frequently, wherever he might turn aside. He could by no means forget those with whom he had lived from the beginning of his conversion and whom he remembered had been commended to him by his master's command. Though indeed neither did he allow the other disciples, he cares for the monasteries he has built, and for others. whom he had gathered in various places, to be long deprived of his visitation, but, now by his personal presence, now by letters, now by sending some of the spiritual disciples who adhered to him, he visited them all with paternal solicitude at fitting intervals. This solicitude, indeed, he did not cease to impart not only to his own foundations, but also to many other places, both of monasteries and of canonical houses, as ^a common father of all, as each seemed to require. But setting these aside for ^a little while, let us now speak of certain things which the Lord is said to have done through him; in the relating of which, God helping, I shall take the utmost care not to mingle any falsehood, as though of my own invention, faithfully carrying out the account of those who said either that they had been present at the events themselves, or that they had received them from those who had been present, or also that they said the events they recounted had occurred in regard to themselves.

CHAPTER V

Various miracles wrought by the merits of Blessed Peter.

[21] On ^a certain day, therefore, at the aforementioned Gamonium, while he was in his cell, he ordered the Brother who attended him to bring him ^a drink from the spring. The Brother immediately went in haste and fulfilled the command. Water drawn by ^a disciple is changed into wine. When the master tasted it, it was found to be wine. He therefore began to rebuke the disciple for having brought him wine instead of water. But when the disciple asserted that he had drawn from the spring what he had offered, the master handed the same drink to him, ordering him to taste it himself, so that, convicted by his own testimony, he might be proved ^a deceiver. Although upon tasting it seemed to be wine, the disciple nevertheless, being well aware of the truth, affirmed that he had drawn that drink from the spring. And since no credence was given him, another Brother was sent to the same spring, whose steps were ordered to be observed, lest he too might similarly deceive. He, therefore, quickly drawing from the same spring with ^a full vessel, returned in haste and handed the drink he had drawn to the master. But when this too was tasted, it was proved equally to be the finest quality of wine. again, drawn by another: The Brothers also who were with him tasted from the same and, finding it to be excellent wine, all praised God with joy. To them Peter immediately prostrated himself and begged -- nay, under obedience forbade and commanded -- that while he lived in the flesh, they should reveal to no mortal at all what they had witnessed. the miracle kept secret, Whence it came about that it could by no means reach our knowledge before his death; but after we had celebrated his burial at Faenza, and returning thence had lodged at his aforementioned monastery of Acereta as our first stopping-place, there we chanced to learn not only this known only after his death: but also certain other things which, as the Lord wrought them, we shall take care to append to this miracle; the same being related by certain Brothers of that same monastery, as well as of the aforesaid hermitage, who had then gathered there.

[22] Once, the man of God had ^a cask of wine stored at ^a certain chapel of his. It happened, however, that one day ^a troop of soldiers passed near that chapel; and as they burned with thirst, they asked the priest whether he could provide them with wine. He replied that no wine at all was to be had in that place, soldiers can draw nothing from the wine cask, except one barrel belonging to the Lord Peter, which he himself would not dare to touch. Hearing this, the one who commanded the others, and who, as they say, bore ^a certain grudge against that man of God, replied, saying: "Indeed, if it belongs to the Lord Peter, I shall drink from it all the more gladly." And he immediately ordered his attendants to take care to pour from that wine for himself and his companions. They indeed ran eagerly, as that kind of men are wont to do, to perform such ^a service, but when the spigot was pulled, they received no wine at all; they turned to another tap, and found the same result; then they opened all the holes, and (O marvel!) the openings of the cask gaped wide, yet the liquid within lay as still as if it were something solid. They therefore opened the bung on top and, searching curiously whether any wine was contained within, found the vessel only half ^a palm less than full. Amazed, therefore, at such an outcome, yet supposing that perhaps some obstruction lurked within they try various things in vain. which impeded the flow of the liquid, they thrust rods through the open apertures; when these were withdrawn, they observed them to be wet, yet the wine within remained enclosed nonetheless. That power indeed which had once suspended the flowing waters, like walls, to the right and to the left, for the Israelite people treading the depths of the Red Sea, had restrained the flow of this liquid. Exodus 14. And He who then powerfully drowned the hostile ranks of adversaries in the waters, lest the steps of the faithful be impeded, now wonderfully opposed the insolence of these men, lest they harm His servant. confounded with shame they depart: For as the ravenous hunger of those enemies could not be sated by the plunder of spoils after the destruction of God's people, so the mad thirst of these men could not be quenched by the pillage of His servant. When therefore they perceived their insane attempts to have been mocked and frustrated by heavenly power, yielding to the divine power, they departed confounded and parched.

[23] When they had gone, ^a certain traveler arrived and begged the same priest that he might deign to assist him with however small ^a cup of wine. The priest answered him with the same words as to the former men. The priest draws wine for ^a pious pilgrim: And when the traveler pressed with entreaties that he would help him from the same supply, out of charity, the priest took care to narrate to him in order what had happened to those soldiers, so that the man should not persist in importuning him further. Yet the traveler did not desist from his petition but said that he now hoped all the more to obtain from the generosity of him from whom the arrogance of plunderers had been thus denied, since he himself had long been well known to him and had often shown his good will. The priest, therefore, moved by so earnest ^a request and softened by faith, approached the cask, albeit timidly; and since, as it is written, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble," the flow of liquid readily followed the hand of the one who drew it. James 4:6 And so the gentle unarmed man obtained what had been denied to the armed and proud.

[24] In ^a time of great scarcity of bread, an abundance of food is divinely provided: One day at evening, when the same Father had returned weary from the forest with the same Brother who related this to me, only ^a quarter-loaf of bread with raw vegetables was set before him at supper. He bestowed the whole loaf upon his companion and, eating only the vegetables, exhorted his table-fellow to bear that poor supper patiently, assuring him that he would have ^a richer table on the morrow. And so it happened. For on the following day so great an abundance of food was brought that it could suffice for several days for all who dwelt there.

[25] A certain great man, exceedingly devoted to the man of God, was accustomed to send him gifts of fish laden for the principal feast days. A man setting out at night to bring fish to Blessed Peter: It happened, however, that on one occasion, as the Lord's Nativity drew near, he had been altogether unable to find fish of the kind he could worthily send to him according to custom. And while he was troubled by no small vexation on this account, at last, on the very sacred night of the Lord's Nativity, ^a great fish was brought to him. Overjoyed, therefore, and greatly gladdened, he ordered that it be carried to the man of God immediately. But the night, thickened with dark shadows, radiated no light of the stars; the road, too, was extremely laborious and difficult, for slippery, muddy snow had entirely covered it. Yet the bearer of the fish was by no means permitted to wait for the light of day, despite any difficulty. He falls into the water: As he therefore pursued the path of his begun journey, he came to ^a certain dark and deep bank; and while, as one unfamiliar with the place, he followed its edge too closely, his feet suddenly slipping, he was hurled headlong into the depths. And though the fall was so great that all the joints of his entire body might have been broken, yet by the merits of the man of God and by divine power, he was preserved entirely uninjured. Sound, therefore, and strong, he joyfully resumed the burden shaken from his shoulders, He escapes free from the peril of death: and thus hastened cheerfully to the man of God, offered his lord's gift, and gave thanks that by his merits he had been snatched from the jaws of death. To whom the Father said: "Do not, my son, do not ascribe to ^a sinful man what God has deigned to bestow upon you by His compassion alone. Give thanks for the gift of the salvation conferred upon you only to Him, who never fails those who serve Him in tribulation."

[26] Once he sent one of his disciples to ^a certain abbot; and when the Brother had not found him at the monastery, he anxiously inquired where the abbot had gone. Having done this, his return was so greatly delayed that he could by no means come back on the day he was expected. And since he had begun to tremble on account of the correction he would receive, he took ^a companion and set out on his journey under the darkness of the silent night. A monk, abandoned at night by his guide, And when they had proceeded ^a little way together, his travel-companion gradually withdrew and secretly stole away. Thereupon, the monk, wholly ignorant of the road he had taken, began to be greatly distressed, since he could neither go forward nor retrace his steps, for he did not know the way by which he had come. Finding himself, therefore, in ^a strait, he asks that his journey be directed through the merits of Blessed Peter, he made this supplication to the Lord: that He would deign to direct his journey through the merits of him to whom he was striving to render obedience. And when, having made his prayer, he had begun to go on, he came upon ^a certain fork in the road, where, having paused ^a little while and deliberated which path he should take, he at last chose one which he thought would be the more suitable for him. But when he tried to direct his mount into it, the beast would not consent; instead, it began to go obstinately along the other path. The rider, however, with all his effort pressed with spurs and blows to bring it around to his own choice; he is rightly guided by the beast: but it still tended where it had begun to go. When this struggle had continued for ^a long time, and yet the rider could by no means recall the beast to obedience, at length suspecting that perhaps the brute animal was resisting him contrary to its usual nature by divine instinct, he gave it full rein, so that it might now go freely wherever God wished to direct it. And so, when morning came and day was just dawning, he raised his eyes and beheld familiar surroundings, and recognized that he had been directed by divine favor along the most direct path. Knowing, therefore, that his prayers had been heard through the merits of his master, he gave joyful thanks to God, and also to his master, whom he perceived to be so worthy in God's sight.

[27] At another time also he was sending ^a certain messenger to ^a certain bishop; and when the messenger had come upon ^a stream of water on the way, he crossed it easily enough, but immediately upon his exit, his horse became so deeply mired in mud his messenger is rescued from the mire by his merits, that by no effort could it rise therefrom. The rider, seeing himself thus trapped and having no idea what to do, implored the Lord that He would deign to help him through the merits of him whose obedience he knew himself to be carrying out. When this supplication had been poured forth to the Lord, the horse immediately leapt up and bounded out onto dry ground, and having covered the distance swiftly, it reached the city with agility. When, however, the messenger had arrived at the bishop to whom he had been sent, he did not find the bishop he was seeking; but having found ^a certain kinsman of the bishop's, he was honorably received by him. This man, he is seized by nocturnal terror. out of reverence for so great ^a man, with his entire household, served him most officiously. In this one respect, however, he committed no small offense against him: that when he had placed him in his bed, all having withdrawn, he left him lying alone in that spacious room. When indeed the messenger perceived this, so great ^a horror invaded him that he could scarcely admit even the slightest sleep that night.

[28] Yet neither did that young man escape unpunished who had shown such negligence toward him. the author of which is reproved by Blessed Peter in ^a vision. For that very night, while the young man lay asleep in his bed, the man of God Peter rushed violently upon him and, brandishing stout rods, sternly terrified him, because his negligence had so cruelly distressed his legate. When this vision was complete, he awoke immediately and began anxiously to await the light of day, so that he might revisit and speak with his guest. Therefore, at the first light of dawn, hastening to him, he diligently inquired what negligence or what fault had been committed concerning his service, that the Lord Peter had shown himself so terrible against him and had upbraided and terrified him with so many threats and reproaches. To whom the messenger immediately replied: "So greatly did I fear last night, when all of you had withdrawn and I was left alone, that with heavy distress I passed almost the entire night sleepless." When these things had been mutually revealed, they marveled at the power of the man of God and glorified God, who shows Himself wondrous in His saints and servants by such prodigies. He joyfully gives thanks to God with the other, and becomes ^a monk. And indeed the one who had been sent was so moved with wonder at this sign that, returning to the man of God, he immediately committed himself to him, promising that he would now renounce the world and assume the religious habit from his blessing, to serve God. This indeed he fulfilled shortly afterward, and the same man narrated this entire matter to us in order, as we have set it down.

CHAPTER VI

The Bishopric of Ostia conferred upon Blessed Peter. His zeal in administering it.

[29] Since, therefore, the fame of his great sanctity and prudence could no longer remain hidden, it was brought clearly to the ears of the Holy Roman Church; and because so great ^a man was judged worthy of the priesthood and most necessary for ecclesiastical affairs, he was brought before the Supreme Pontiff, then Stephen the Ninth, Blessed Peter is summoned before Pope Stephen IX, and was urged to accept the episcopal chair, both by the other bishops and ecclesiastical men and by the Supreme Pontiff himself. But he, not unmindful of the solitary quiet in which he had been accustomed to devote himself sweetly to divine reading and contemplation, he deprecates the offered bishopric: dreading exceedingly to lose it and to return to the din of civic life, resisted their urgings with the greatest and every effort. But when they saw that nothing at all was accomplished by their exhortations or their entreaties, they began to threaten him with the sentence of excommunication should he presume to resist obstinately any further. What more? The Lord Apostolic at last determined to add one thing that could by no means be despised by him. For under the command of obedience he ordered him to yield to the Brothers and peacefully to accept what was commanded. And forthwith, seizing his right hand, he endowed him at once with the ring and the staff: by obedience he becomes Bishop of Ostia: by which pledges he wedded to him the Church of Ostia. When the bishopric had been assumed in this manner, he immediately recognized as fulfilled in himself what had been revealed to him in ^a vision three years before. The vision, moreover, had been of this kind: he thought that ^a most illustrious bride was being given to him in dowry, previously instructed by ^a vision. whom he could not touch nor even behold with ^a steady gaze; yet he in no way dared to renounce her, as though she were joined to him by right. This we perceived to have perfectly corresponded to the present matter. For we knew him to have complained very many times about this, yet never to have presumed to shake from his shoulders the burden of the obedience imposed upon him, however onerous.

[30] When, therefore, he perceived himself thus bound by the bonds of such ^a yoke, and that it was no longer permitted to him freely to devote himself to his accustomed contemplation, he judged that the losses of the past should be compensated by the gains of the future, so that the fruitfulness of Leah might be compared to the beauty of Rachel. As ^a faithful and prudent servant, therefore, knowing himself appointed steward of the Lord's household, he began diligently to see to it that he should so discharge the ministry entrusted to him he diligently fulfills the ministry committed to him: that he could await the Lord's coming without fear, and might exhibit to his fellow-servants so full and perfect ^a measure of food that, when the Lord came, he might deserve to hear: "Well done, good servant, enter into the joy of your Lord." Nor did he judge it sufficient for himself if he extended the care of his administration only over the people of the one church over which he presided, since he knew himself to be obliged to all his fellow-servants enrolled in the same household with him; at ^a solemn gathering of the people he preaches: he showed himself solicitous, and, desiring to win all to God, as ^a shrewd searcher of ^a fish-laden stream, he diligently investigated wherever ^a multitude of people might gather for any solemnity, so that, casting the line of the divine word, he might catch more and, as it were, lift them from the depths of the worldly sea to the heights of celestial love. For the sake of such gain, indeed, we have often seen him anticipate the light of day by far, if such an assembly were held at some greater distance, lest the fitting hour for preaching should pass him by. Very often, too, we have known him, even when consumed by fevers, wasted by sharp fevers during the night, to enter the church as soon as the sun rose, to begin the solemnities of the Mass, and, extending his sermon in ^a loud voice to the ears of the entire congregation until nearly the sixth hour, to have afforded us no small cause of wonder, since we beheld him more vigorous in strength and more clear in eloquence than the man we had already suspected was about to collapse. Whence indeed it was to be understood that no other was preaching through his mouth than He who, teaching His disciples, said: "For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you." Matthew 10:20 His words, indeed, overflowing as from the most generous vein of ^a fountain, he offered proportioned to the capacity of each listener. without weariness to the hearers: These, indeed, even if they were sometimes more lengthy, could nevertheless be burdensome to none. For what burden could there be in the sermons of one to whom all listened with rapt ears, as though moved by divine affections? Or could the words be fruitless of one whom the grace of the Holy Spirit aided? By no means.

[31] For hence it is that the Day of the Cross is celebrated in abstinence throughout this entire province by countless faithful, out of reverence for the Lord's Passion. He introduces the fast of Friday: This observance he indeed exhorted, preaching it everywhere to all. Hence likewise it is established that the offices of all the Hours in honor of the gracious Mother of God the office of the hours of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are known to be celebrated in most churches with the greatest devotion, and that we behold the clergy of the mother churches gathered from throughout the Roman Province on every side near to him, and we applaud them for imitating some footsteps of canonical observance, by God's favor: the common habitation of the clergy. who, having formerly abandoned all canonical institutions and entirely departed from the order of the common life, had been living in ^a worldly manner in their individual houses together with their women.

CHAPTER VII

The Church of Milan reconciled through Blessed Peter.

[32] Against the stain of simony and the heresy of the Nicolaitans, too, he labored in no small measure to eradicate them: which pestilences, indeed, had prevailed by so pernicious ^a custom and had He combats the Simoniac and Nicolaitan heresies, defiled with such impunity almost the entire Church throughout the whole Roman world, that they scarcely dreaded any reprover, as though they were lawful. Which pestilences, O Lord, O good Jesus, we now rejoice, with Your cooperation, to have been eliminated through this Your distinguished warrior and the few others adhering to him, and we exultingly trample upon the prostrate foes. For the sake of driving these out also from the Ambrosian Church, how great ^a peril he plunged himself into, we think should by no means be passed over in silence. And so, as the same man clearly expressed in ^a certain book of his which he published on this particular matter, raging especially at Milan: to which he gave the title The Milan Acts, according to its subject matter: on account of these twin heresies, namely the Simoniac and the Nicolaitan, no small sedition had arisen between the people and the clergy of the aforesaid church. For this twin and execrable pestilence had so taken root among them, and had assumed such liberty, that for the carrying out of its foul wickedness it no longer sought ^a hiding-place, but exercised itself publicly as if it were lawful and honorable business. For if anyone was to be promoted to any ecclesiastical order, he could by no means approach the hand of the one consecrating -- or rather, contaminating -- without the commerce of venality. The foulness of the other heresy, moreover, had poured itself forth so shamelessly that the marriages of priests seemed to differ in nothing from the ambition of secular persons. Whence it happened that the zeal of the faithful laity, touched by divine impulse, was kindled with pious fervor against these detestable stains, He is sent to Milan by Nicholas II: so that for the cleansing of such great crimes they sought the aid of the Apostolic See.

[33] To accomplish this, therefore, the Supreme Pontiff Nicholas II took care to send this man, whom he knew to be endowed with the authority of wisdom as well as of sanctity. When he had set out, and had been received with the reverence fully due to himself and to the Apostolic See, he made known the purpose of his embassy to the ears of the entire Church. Whence it happened that immediately after the second day, by the faction of the clerics, ^a murmur suddenly arose among the people: he is warned that danger threatens from the tumultuous populace: that the Ambrosian Church ought not to be subject to Roman laws, and that no right of judging or disposing belonged to the Roman Pontiff in that see. "It is most unworthy," they said, "that ^a church which under our forefathers has always been free should now, to the disgrace of our confusion, be subject (God forbid) to another church." At last the clamor of the rioters was raised; from all sides they converged upon the episcopal palace; then bells resounded; with blasts of trumpets the whole city thundered. They threatened him, so to speak, with every kind of death; and it was suggested to him by certain of his well-wishers, who mourned for him in sympathy, that some thirsted for his blood.

[34] When therefore the clergy and people had been assembled in the church, he ascended the pulpit. When they were at last barely quieted, he began with these words: he delivers ^a learned address: "Let your charity know, most beloved, that I have not come here for the honor of the Roman Church, but am seeking entirely your glory: to procure for you salvation and grace, which is in Christ Jesus, with His help, if you permit. For in what way does one who has received the praises of commendation from the mouth of the Savior Himself need the honor of ^a little man? And what province throughout all the kingdoms of the earth is found to be foreign to the dominion of one by whose authority even heaven itself is both bound and loosed? Matthew 16 For the other churches of whatever dignity, whether ^a king or any man of whatever condition, ^a mere man, has established, and according as his will or resources allowed, has fixed for them the rights of special prerogatives. But the Roman Church, He alone founded and upon the rock of the faith just being born He raised it, He teaches that the Roman Church was founded by Christ, who committed to the blessed doorkeeper of heaven, Peter, the rights of both the earthly and the heavenly empire at once. Therefore it enjoys his privilege; it is supported by his authority. Whence there is no doubt that whoever deprives any church of its right commits injustice; but whoever attempts to take away the privilege of the Roman Church, bestowed by the very supreme Head of all churches, this man assuredly falls into heresy. For he violates the faith who acts against her who is the mother of the faith; and quiets the tumult: and he is found contumacious against Him who is known to have placed her above all churches." With these and very many other reasons concerning the prerogative and primacy of the Apostolic See having been set forth, the people were rendered entirely well-disposed and unanimously promised to carry out whatever he should be pleased to enjoin.

[35] Why do I linger over many details? There came that very great assembly of clerics who had been convened from the entire Ambrosian diocese, as if for ^a synod. Each one, therefore, was questioned both collectively and individually, and scarcely from so great ^a number was anyone found who had been promoted to orders without payment. Here, therefore, He examines the clergy coming from all quarters: who can explain with how many cares he was afflicted, by how many stings of anxious thought he was wearied? For to profane, so to speak, all the churches of so broad ^a diocese, so noble ^a city -- to use his own words -- of their sacred mysteries, seemed the overthrow of the Christian religion. But it was also contentious to grant indulgence to ^a few, when the guilt was common to almost all; nor did it seem lawful for ^a different sentence to be pronounced upon them, when the case was the same for all. This also increased his distresses, about to put an end to the heresies. because unless this case received some calculus of decision, the quarrels of the raging populace would not be calmed without great slaughter of men. Placed therefore in ^a strait, because he could not correct the evils of that church by the mere authority of the canons, he endeavored at least to put an end to its perverse usages he binds the Archbishop and his officials by an oath: and to provide for the order of gratuitous promotion in future times. He therefore exacted not only from the Archbishop but also from all his officials, to whom it seemed to pertain, an inviolable guarantee by written documents, by the touching of the consecrated hand, and finally by an oath upon the Gospels, that the Simoniac stain and the Nicolaitan heresy should from that time forward be forever destroyed and faithfully uprooted from their very foundations with all their powers.

[36] When these things had been thus accomplished, the authority of the canons of very many holy Fathers was sought out; and when these had been considered, it seemed good, with the moderation of necessary discretion, [he arranges for the clergy to be reconciled during Mass, and only the worthier to be restored to their offices:] that all those clerics, having received ^a penance, should be reconciled during the solemnities of the Mass, receiving their vestments from the hand of the Bishop, by the authority of the Council of Toledo. When they had been thus reconciled, it was decreed that their office should not forthwith be restored indiscriminately to all, but only to those who were both learned in letters and chaste, and appeared to be honorable in gravity of character. For the rest, it should suffice that they had been again, by divine grace, grafted into the Holy Church, from which they had been hitherto cut off by the torch of divine judgment. Those Bishops, moreover, to whom the license of ministering was restored, were not repaired to their lost office by virtue of their old ordination, badly purchased, but rather by that most efficacious authority of the blessed Prince of the Apostles, which he employed suddenly upon Blessed Apollinaris, saying: "Rise, receive the Holy Spirit, and at the same time the Pontificate."

[37] These things, moreover, I have taken care to set forth briefly, so that the rest of his deeds may be perceived by the inspection of them. For in what manner could I express his acts one by one, he who never ceased in the Holy Church to overturn whatever was crooked, whatever was unusual, and to establish for the glory of Christ whatever was found to be pious and religious? In which works, indeed, no small endowment divinely accompanied him, since the judgment of his authority weighed what should be admitted and what should be done according to canonical sanctions in the Church. To this assertion, indeed, the entire Church of the city of Rome bears witness, he illumines the city of Rome with his teaching and exhortations: which, once illumined by the splendor of his teaching and supported by his authority, now laments that by his departure it has been almost struck dumb from the word of exhortation and has lacked the defense of irreplaceable authority. For his authority confuted all errors; confirming those who wavered, it established what was doubtful; bridling the mouths of litigants, it crushed the necks of the proud; and animating the minds of the humble, it strengthened them.

[38] As for works of mercy also, who could speak worthily of what manner and how great ^a man he was? Who indeed was more devoted to the practice of almsgiving? Who was more devout in washing the feet of the poor? Who could ever have been more prompt than he in clothing the naked, in refreshing the hungry, in visiting the sick? liberal toward the poor, For scarcely any day was free from such works for him, wherever the fitness of time or place permitted. And while he did not cease to do these things wherever he was, what should one think when he was at the bishop's residence? There indeed, with ^a throng of poor daily frequenting the episcopal threshold, some were refreshed with food set before them, others went away having received their alms; especially when residing at the bishop's residence, and from among them, having chosen twelve, he washed their feet constantly. Moreover, at his little banquets, which he always shared by custom with guests, if any needy persons were lying on their beds throughout the surrounding region, they could by no means be forgotten by him, declaring himself ^a minister and steward of ecclesiastical revenues: since he always had someone of his own people, whom he knew to be more strictly God-fearing, specially deputed to the service of these poor. Persisting, indeed, in such pursuits with constant exercise, he rejoiced to stuff the resources of the Church into heavenly treasuries with such bearers, which resources he most scrupulously avoided taking for his own expenses. For he used to say that he had been established as ^a minister, not ^a master, of the Lord's goods; ^a steward, not ^a possessor.

[39] But in order also to kindle the devout minds of his dependents to the faithful exercise of these things, he strove to admonish them frequently with words of this kind: "You should know, my sons, that all these things are sacred, and the price of sins; whence the utmost care must be taken lest anything of them be subtracted from the poor of Christ he stirs up others to almsgiving by his counsels: through avarice or any carelessness of negligence, to whom all our surplus is owed without diminishment. Since, therefore, the means are at hand by which the needy and wretched may be restored, seek diligently, consider with pious attention, who in the neighboring regions are sick, who labor under the anguish of hunger or any want, so that by compassionately ministering to their needs, you may acquire for yourselves and for us ^a common fruit of eternal reward in the heavens. For if now, in the sowing, you prove faithful cooperators with us, you will assuredly rejoice with us in the common fruit at the blessed recompense." With counsels of this kind, indeed, the pious Father urged his household to works of mercy. Hence it must certainly be considered what manner of man he is believed to have been in providing for the needs of his confreres, especially pious toward religious men. who is known to have shown such great kindness toward all. But why should I speak of those who adhered to him, since toward all servants of God established in the profession of the sacred soldiery, he was bound by so great an affection of love that he took greater joy in their consolation than in his own?

CHAPTER VIII

The return of Blessed Peter to the monastic life. The observance of strict discipline. The commendation of the Friday fast.

[40] Moreover, when he had resolved to return from these external activities, holy and pleasing to God though they were, to the sweet seclusion of the hermitage, Having returned to the monastery, both for the refreshment of his mind and for the cleansing of whatever dust he might have contracted, he mortified himself in the prison of his cell with excessive fasting, fasting daily except on feast days, eating bran-bread with yesterday's water; and not sparing his body, already worn out by old age and everywhere constrained by many earthly bonds, he devotes himself to fasting, penances, and prayer: from the strokes of disciplines and palmatae in their proper turn, and persisting constantly in the study of chanting, praying, reading, and composing. Nor should it be passed over that in the same little basin in which he washed the feet of the poor, he would, taking his meal, eat his bread; and upon ^a bare rush mat he would take his rest of sleep.

[41] Moreover, when he had sometimes determined to come to the Chapter of the Brothers, having delivered an exhortation, he would immediately rise from his seat and accuse himself of his own failings; for which, receiving the judgment of the discipline according to custom, he was scourged with twin rods on both sides. He gives counsels, some to the younger, Then returning to his place, he did not cease to instruct them with his discourses, speaking now to these, now to those, now to all in common. To the younger, therefore, he used to say: "You should know, my sons, that each of you ought to begin the first exercises of this sacred warfare with such fervor and vigor, and to exert himself with such labor in striving toward lofty things while bodily strength avails, that the entire course of the life to follow may be shaped for acting bravely, as by the impression of ^a true seal." To the more advanced, others to the more advanced: however, he would discourse somewhat more subtly concerning the conflict of vices, the discernment of thoughts, the grace of compunction or contemplation, and the attaining of purity of mind. Moreover, when in his discourses an occasion would arise by which the minds of the Brothers ought to be roused to whatever is more strenuous, he used to say this: "Every vigorous superior of the divine soldiery, in every spiritual contest, ought to know his own strength. For it is exceedingly disgraceful for ^a monk both to hold the profession of the spiritual soldiery and, through the sloth of not putting himself to the test, to be ignorant of what he can do in combat."

[42] And indeed, what he urged by speaking these things, he clearly showed to his disciples by his examples: For forty days he abstains from all things prepared by fire: of which I think the following deserve to be recalled by us, and not to no purpose. For I saw him for forty days take nothing as food that had passed through fire, but to have been content only with fruits and raw plants of the earth, without any drink whatsoever. This indeed I myself witnessed in person. For forty days he eats only soaked legumes: Another thing which I am about to relate I heard from my senior fellow-disciples, who reported it: that at another time, for the same number of days, he refreshed himself with no food except ^a meager portion of legumes soaked in water. Yet if he happened to see himself excessively worn out by austerity of this kind, he by no means thought it contemptible to provide some relief to bodily weakness through ^a moderate relaxation of discretion, so that, having recovered his strength, he might return the more vigorous to another combat. He used to say it should be ascribed not to vice but rather to virtue if one relaxes weary arms for ^a little while in order to rise afterward the more robust for acting bravely. Moreover, it was his custom He chants standing: that during the divine offices, both nocturnal and diurnal, he would not lean against any reading-desk while chanting. Also at the beginning of each of the two Lents, he abstained entirely from food for three days; he abstains from all food for three days: and although he himself persuaded no one to this practice, yet he thought something should be handed down for the advancement of spiritual pursuit to those who sought it, by which they might commend themselves to the Lord at the very beginning of the fast they had undertaken.

[43] This rule of voluntary observance he instituted, by stirring them up, in certain monasteries that embraced it with pious devotion: namely, that during the aforesaid three-day fast, the entire community of Brothers together should preserve the rigor of silence in the cloister. [He introduces in monasteries the rigor of silence, mortification, and the Friday fast:] Nor should anyone put on shoes except from unavoidable necessity, until they had completed the psalter together each day. They should all receive the discipline of birch-rods in the chapter house and abstain together on bread and water alone. But he also prescribed for them the observance of every Friday throughout the year, except the paschal season and other solemn days, under the same rule of both discipline and abstinence, out of reverence for the Cross. And indeed all his exhortation is known, with the Lord's cooperation, to have borne such fruit that even that famous monastery of Monte Cassino embraced it with such fervor that it determined all the aforesaid prescriptions should be written down among its regular mandates.

[44] Here, moreover, we by no means think it idle to recount certain memorials of revelations a fast confirmed by ^a vision given to an old man, which the same man himself wrote, by which that holy man was entirely and firmly established in this observance of Friday. Let us set down, therefore, his very words: "In the cell of the sick, there was ^a certain aged Father named Leo, who applied himself more attentively to fasts, psalms, and prayers; and although he was weakened in bodily strength, he was yet robust with the youthful vigor of ^a fervent spirit. On the night immediately preceding the day on which this rule of fasting was to be established, he saw in ^a dream ^a great choir of Brothers standing in the church, who, clothed brilliantly in splendid white garments, were singing with the sweet and honeyed melody of harmonious music, namely that Alleluia: 'Sweet the wood, sweet the nails,' etc. He also saw that loaves had been set upon all the tables of the refectory, both bright in appearance and sweet with the flavor of ^a nectarous taste. Among the Brothers, too, reclining on every side, there was ^a man, if I remember correctly, exceedingly distinguished and conspicuous in remarkable beauty, who, when asked whence such loaves had come, the likes of which they had never before seen, said: 'These are the loaves with which the children of Israel, receiving manna from heaven, were nourished in the desert.' This man also took the Abbot's table, which had been placed toward the west, and set it at the eastern end of the refectory, where indeed an image of the crucified Lord had been depicted in ^a painting on the wall. Consider, then, the mystery, and understand the sacrament of the mystical revelation. For what does it mean that the choir of those chanting was resounding with melodious voices the praises of the Cross, if not that it was about to happen that, when they instituted ^a solemn fast in honor of the Cross, they would sweetly sing to Him such sweet measures of praise? For he who celebrates ^a fast on that very day on which Christ was suspended upon the Cross chants ^a hymn in honor of the blessed Cross. And what does it mean that the loaves on the table appeared to be of honey, if not that they should eat the sweet nourishments of the spirit, while through the bitterness of the flesh they sounded sweet measures of praise to God? For the sweeter is the taste that arises on the palate of the heart, the greater is the bitterness of austerity that disturbs the wantonness of the flesh. What does it also mean to place the Abbot's table at the feet of the crucified Redeemer, if not to dedicate the entire refectory by the sign of the saving Cross through the Friday fast, which is the Day of the Cross? And what does it mean to sit at the feet of the crucified Lord, if not to follow in His footsteps and to walk continually along the path by which He has gone before us?"

[45] "But to commend this more firmly, it also most fittingly happened another vision given to another monk: that ^a certain other holy Brother, Peter by name, was absent when this was being established. He afterward returned on ^a certain Thursday, and that same night he saw in ^a dream that the Lord Peter was inviting him to dinner and that he himself was reclining as ^a fellow guest. On the following day, coming to the chapter house, he received with the rest of the Brothers the discipline of the new observance, and thus, made joyful and glad, he exulted in the Holy Spirit, saying: 'Behold, thanks be to God, the dinner to which the Lord Peter Damian had called me.' And not without reason is the affliction of our flesh called ^a table or ^a refreshment; for the more our body is worn down through continence, the more our spirit is fattened with the richness of supernal grace."

[46] When all plainly recognized through such revelations that the things which had been newly promulgated to them through the lips of the most blessed man had been handed down to them from heaven, he is asked to prescribe further perfection. they were not only more fervently kindled to their observance, but they also asked him in addition to enjoin upon them whatever still seemed lacking among them, to remove whatever was superfluous, and to correct whatever needed correcting, with the applause of all. Whence it happened, among other things, that they cast away the caps with which, as with ^a kind of bonnet, they had been covering their heads, so that henceforth they might be content with cowls alone, according to the honorable custom of monks. They also determined that they would no longer buy garments of greater price from foreign fabrics, but would rather procure cheap, homespun ones from the looms of country folk.

CHAPTER IX

The visit of Blessed Peter to the monastery of Monte Cassino and the cities of Ravenna and Faenza. His death, burial.

[47] When the same Lord Peter had once visited the aforesaid monastery of Monte Cassino according to his custom, and while he was there, the basilica of the most blessed Benedict was being founded -- Boys laboring at Monte Cassino, vexed by demons, which, adorned now with gold and precious stones, is clearly to be seen -- he found there some boys who had come for the hauling of stones, seized by demons and violently tormented. Though their limbs were small, such great strength was reported to be imparted to them by the demons that they could scarcely be held at all by two or three of the most robust men, each one seized individually. When it happened one day that the Lord Peter went out to inspect that work, he forbids them to be sent to his lodging, Desiderius, the venerable Abbot of that same monastery of Monte Cassino, addressing him genially by name as was his custom, said: "Lord Peter, why do you not care for these workers of ours?" To whom he replied: "They have here the presence of the most holy Benedict, who, if he wills, is able to confer upon them the remedy of salvation. For what am I?" The Abbot nevertheless thought of sending some of them to his lodging, so that, seeing their torment, he might pray for them more attentively out of compassion. But Peter absolutely forbade this -- not indeed from the harshness of inhumanity, but from the guardianship of preserving humility, which should rather be considered. Yet when it happened that he remained there for about twenty days on account of the Brothers' charity, he is believed to have freed them by his prayers: and during that same span of days all those possessed persons were completely cured, who would not faithfully believe what those monks at that time were asserting, namely, that he had prayed for them in secret and had thus obtained their healing from the Lord?

[48] But since it is difficult, indeed impossible, for us to narrate all his deeds, we think it opportune now to direct our pen to his final days, and to set forth, with the Lord's help, how he completed his course and departed hence to the realms above. While, therefore, the pious priest of Christ was ardently persevering in such pursuits of winning souls, sent to Ravenna by Alexander II: and the labor of this present life was already nearing almost the final boundary-line, at the command of Pope Alexander II he was ordered to set out for Ravenna, his native city, to accomplish ^a matter most necessary for the salvation of the whole city, both clergy and people. For at that time the Archbishop of that city had died, who for his contumacy had formerly been deprived of communion by the sentence of the Roman Synod. Yet since he had by no means, with excessive boldness, and not in the least shaken by the sentence imposed upon him, abstained from the archiepiscopal office, he had wretchedly defiled with his contagion the people who supported him, the citizens, bound by censures on account of the Archbishop's crime, and had profaned the entire Church by his illicit ventures. At length, when the profaner had been removed from their midst, the aforesaid Apostolic Pontiff, moved with fraternal compassion for the mortal contagion of so numerous ^a people, determined to send so great ^a Father thither, who by Apostolic authority should absolve them by reconciling them. He judged no one worthier or more apt for carrying out this work, both because Peter was supported by no small authority and because he was, through the grace of regeneration, ^a son of that same Church, and had also been frequently prompted to this clemency by his own urging. and he absolves the penitents: This legation he undertook with eagerness, although already worn out by age, as ^a valiant son not ungrateful for his mother's benefits. For he rejoiced that he had at last found something by which he could discharge his debt of filial service to his pious mother. When he had arrived there with ^a prosperous journey, the Lord assisting, received into the hands of the citizens with immense joy, he disclosed the cause of his coming. The citizens, exceedingly gladdened at this, offered boundless thanks to God, who had looked upon them, and to the Vicar of Christ, who had sent to them such ^a man, so great and so distinguished; and they humbly performed the penance for their transgression. Whence they deserved to receive, with gratitude, both the pardon for their guilt which they had humbly sought, and absolution from the gift of Apostolic authority. When, therefore, the entire Church had been absolved from the bond of that excommunication and the gift of maternal grace had been granted, an immense exultation arose throughout the whole city.

[49] When these and certain other affairs, which it befitted so great ^a man to transact, had been accomplished, At Faenza he falls ill with ^a fever at the monastery of St. Mary: he departed from his legation and began to make his way toward the City. When he had reached Faenza at his first stopping-place, he was fittingly received at ^a certain venerable monastery of the Blessed Mary, Mother of God, which is called "outside the gate," and there, seized by ^a fever, he took to his bed. As the fever grew worse day by day, about the middle of the silence of the eighth night, which was leading in the anniversary celebration of the Feast of the Chair of the Blessed Apostle Peter, recognizing that the hour of his departure was drawing near, he immediately ordered us who stood about his little bed [after his community has recited the matins for the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, he dies:] to perform the entire nocturnal or matutinal office: wishing, that is, first to discharge his vows for the Apostolic solemnity, and only then to depart in peace. When the entire office had therefore been completed, shortly afterward he rendered his holy spirit, now freed from bodily bonds, to the Lord, so that on that very day on which the present Church had merited to seat Peter upon the pastoral throne, on the same day the heavenly court might receive Peter's disciple into ^a blessed seat.

[50] When, therefore, his passing had been immediately announced in the city -- by those who were keeping watch around that house, lest the lifeless body should be carried off by stealth by his monks who had come from ^a nearby monastery of his -- the entire city at once hastened joyfully, with an immense throng, to his funeral rites. His obsequies celebrated with great concourse of the people, When the church in which he had been placed was suddenly filled with their multitude, those who eagerly strove to approach the pious bier first were pushing one another back like waves, and the more hastily anyone tried to arrive by pressing forward, the slower was the access open to him. But whoever was able to approach him and to touch his bier gratefully fixed pious kisses, bringing their offerings, upon his feet or upon the very linen cloths. Meanwhile, ^a mausoleum was being prepared with the utmost care. From another basilica situated at some distance, an enormous stone coffin of bright whiteness was brought with marvelous ease and remarkable speed -- not without the wonder even of those who carried it -- as if it were the lightest material of any kind; and it was fittingly placed in the very basilica of the blessed Mother of God, in front of the choir, he is buried in front of the choir. that is, beside the steps by which one ascends to the altar. And there the venerable body of the priest of Christ was reverently laid to rest, with the highest exultation of all, while all raised their voices on high in psalms and hymns, and rendered worthy praises of thanksgiving to God with all their powers, rejoicing that by His gift they had been enriched with so great ^a benefit. To Him be glory, praise, power, honor, and majesty, and dominion now and always, and through every age. Amen.

APPENDIX

The Apparition of Blessed Peter Damian.

Peter Damian, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia of the Holy Roman Church, Prior of the Hermitage of the Holy Cross of Fonte Avellana, at Faenza in Italy (Blessed).

BHL Number: 6707

By St. John of Lodi.

[51] In the year one thousand and eightieth of the Incarnation of the Lord, in the month of August, in the fourth Indiction, after the decease of the aforesaid Lord Peter Damian, there was ^a certain monk who had formerly been Abbot of the venerable monastery of St. Gregory, situated in the territory of Rimini. [He appears in ^a vision among Bishops to Abbot Ugano: he reproves his ingratitude:] This man saw the Lord Peter, vested in episcopal regalia, seated among ^a multitude of white-robed Bishops, holding ^a pastoral staff in his hand, and teaching them the things that pertain to God. When the same Abbot had greeted him with ^a lowered countenance, the Lord Peter said to the other Bishops: "This monk, whom I greatly loved, but who, after he departed from me, never returned to me; and not only he, but also many others whom I reared and nourished, have proved ungrateful for the benefit." Then he said to him: "Why," he asked, "did you not come to me in the place where I was?" And the Abbot said: "O my Lord, since you departed from us, we do not know the place where you dwell; how, then, could I come to you?" Then the Lord Peter said to him: "O dullard, do you not know that I dwell in the Chamber of the Blessed Virgin Mary and reside in her sanctuary? For I dwell in her house, and I profess myself to be her Chamberlain." After he had seen him, he was immediately awakened from sleep.

[52] Then, after ^a little while, falling asleep again, he saw the same Lord Peter speaking these words to him (for it seemed to him as though he had heard these same words from him some days before): "Did I not tell you," he said, "to come to me? And why did you not come?" But the Abbot, as though mute, began merely to stand there. Then the Lord Peter, as if in anger, struck him beneath his left ear with the tip of the staff which he carried in his hand; by which blow he felt himself to be so shaken as if he had been pierced by the point of ^a lance or bored through by ^a terrible augur. His entire jaw together with his throat swelled so greatly that his life was almost despaired of. He is punished with ^a swelling of the throat. Then, therefore, prostrated before the altar of that church and converted to God with his whole heart, with ^a great groan he said: "Lord God Almighty, who created heaven and earth and all things that are in them, if the service of my Lord Peter, as we believe, has been pleasing to You, deliver me through his merits from the present pain which I suffer." He said this and began to stand. And behold, after no long time, all the swelling and pain fled from him, healed by his merits, as if someone had come and with his hand removed the very wound from his jaw or throat. He immediately began to glorify God and His servant Peter Damian, who had first deigned to chastise him and then to heal him.

[53] On the following day, therefore, rising well chastised from the beating, he went to Faenza; he makes ^a pilgrimage to the body of St. Peter. and coming before the altar of St. Mary outside the gate, where the body of the Lord Peter had been interred, prostrate upon the ground and with his face bathed in tears, he adored and praised and blessed God for the judgments of His justice. Then, going outside to his Brothers, he began to narrate to the Provost and the rest of the Brothers all that had befallen him. They, hearing this, praised and blessed God, who had deigned to display such wonders through His servant. Then the Provost, together with the aforesaid Abbot Ugano -- for that was his name -- and the Brothers, entered the church of the holy Mother of God, rang all the bells, and placed wax torches with lamps before the tomb of the same St. Peter Damian; and, celebrating Masses, they offered solemn sacrifices to God as ^a sweet savor, for the absolution of his soul. Amen.

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