St. Peter Damian

St. Peter Damian (born 1007, Ravenna [Italy]—died February 22, 1072, Faenza; feast day February 21) was a Roman Catholic cardinal and a forceful figure in the Gregorian Reform movement. His personal example and many writings exercised great influence on religious life in the 11th and 12th centuries. In 1828 Pope Leo XII declared him a doctor of the church, a title granted to saints whose writings and teachings are of particular importance. He is venerated as the patron saint of church reformers and of people experiencing insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Early life and career

Little is known for certain about Peter Damian’s early life before his entrance into the hermitage of Fonte Avellana in the diocese of Gubbio (now Cagli-Pergola, Italy) in the Apennines. The facts must be pieced out primarily from his surviving letters and from his biography by John of Lodi. These documents reveal that Damian’s parents died shortly after his birth and that an older brother raised him and gave him his initial education in Ravenna. Beginning in his early teens, Damian spent at least 10 years studying the liberal arts at Ravenna, Faenza, and Parma. His writings throughout his life indicate a broad knowledge of classical and Christian works, training that helped make Damian one of the finest Latin stylists of the Middle Ages. Eventually he taught rhetoric at Ravenna, remaining in that position for about five years before becoming a hermit.

While teaching in Ravenna, Damian seems to have been influenced by the ideas of St. Romuald, who was instrumental in promoting the eremitical ideal in Italy in the late 10th and the early 11th century. Not only did Damian write Romuald’s biography, but about 1035, having possibly already become a cleric, he entered the hermitage of Fonte Avellana, which had been established by Romuald’s disciples. By the mid-1040s Damian had become the prior of this house, which combined the essential elements of Benedictine monasticism with the higher calling of eremitical asceticism. At Fonte Avellana he emphasized the ideal of apostolic poverty, which later became so important in Western spirituality. Going forth, he founded a number of monasteries and reformed others according to the practices established at Fonte Avellana.

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His reform efforts drew the attention of both the pope and the German emperor Henry III. As a result, Damian was actively involved in the imperial efforts to transform the papacy in the late 1040s and worked with Pope Leo IX (reigned 1049–54) to spread that reform throughout the church in the West. The ideals of the reform movement are particularly evident in Damian’s tract Liber gratissimus (1052; “Most-Favored Book”), which treated the problem of simony (the purchase of ecclesiastical offices) and the validity of the sacraments bestowed by a simoniac cleric. Although he strongly condemned the purchase of office by clergymen, Damian defended the validity of the sacraments they administered.

In Liber Gomorrhianus (“Book of Gomorrah”), written about 1051, he addressed the other central concern of reformers during this period, the question of celibacy versus clerical marriage (nicolaitism). His rhetorical advocacy of celibacy was so excessive, however, that Pope Leo chose not to give it the unconditional support he offered to Damian’s tract on simony. Despite this setback, Damian’s efforts in support of the reforming papacy were rewarded by Pope Stephen IX, who appointed him the cardinal-bishop of Ostia in 1057. Damian immediately became one of the most important members of the College of Cardinals and played a significant part in preparing the decree on papal elections of April 1059, in which the cardinals declared their right to select the pope and the manner in which the selection would be made.

(How is the pope elected?)

Damian’s extraordinary knowledge of canon law, in particular of the Decretum of Burchard of Worms, and his dedicated service to the papacy and the universal church made him an excellent choice to serve in papal embassies. In 1059–60, for example, he undertook a mission to the troubled archdiocese of Milan to arbitrate the struggle between the archbishop and the Patarines, who were overzealous in their attacks on clerical concubinage. In 1063 he traveled to the monastery of Cluny (now in France) to serve as arbiter in the dispute between Abbot Hugh (St. Hugh of Cluny) and Bishop Drogo of Mâcon in the matter of Cluniac exemptions from episcopal control. Damian also represented the papacy in 1069 in an effort to dissuade Henry IV of Germany from divorcing his wife, Bertha. His final mission, so appropriate as his last act of service for the papacy, was in 1072 to Ravenna, the place of his birth, where he tried to restore harmony between that see and Rome. On his return later that year, he died in the monastery of Faenza. His missions to Germany and Ravenna, however, were exceptions to the routine of his later years, for he had established himself in semiretirement at Fonte Avellana after 1067.

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Writings and legacy

In addition to many letters and theological tracts, Peter Damian’s abundant and varied writings include 53 sermons, 7 vitae (saints’ lives), and liturgical pieces. Two tracts in particular merit special note. The first, a tract against the Jews, must be viewed in the light of the growing antisemitism of the 11th century. The other, his most important theological tract, De divina omnipotentia (“On Divine Omnipotence”), reveals both the profundity of his thought and the extraordinary eloquence of his pen.

His legacy is also evident in his work in the service of the papacy. As a member of the College of Cardinals, he not only served frequently as a papal ambassador but also was a confidant of Popes Stephen IX, Nicholas II, and Alexander II. His positions on the issues of simony and nicolaitism were very important in shaping the papal stances on these matters. From 1055 to 1072, Damian, Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida, and Cardinal Hildebrand (the future Pope Gregory VII) formed a powerful trio in the College of Cardinals who helped to lay the foundations for the medieval papacy and give structure to the church of the central Middle Ages and beyond.

Moreover, Damian’s championship of the eremitical ideal helped to establish firmly the link between Byzantine eremitism and the Western Benedictine ideal. In so doing, he prepared the way for the individual spirituality seen in the vita apostolica (“apostolic life”), the supreme example of which is St. Francis of Assisi.