PETER DAMIAN, Saint. - Doctor of the Church, b. at Ravenna in 1007, d. at Faenza on 23 February 1072. After a troubled childhood (see the sad episodes narrated by St. John of Lodi, Vita b. Petri D., 1: PL 144, 115-16) he found in his sister Roselinda a second mother (Ep. Agneti imp., ed. A. Wilmart, in Rev. bénéd., 44 [1932], p. 128) and in his elder brother Damian (from whom perhaps his second name) a guide and support in the niache, against that of Card. Humbert of Silva Candida (cf. L. Saltet, Les réordinations..., Paris 1907, p. 190 ff.).
When his companion on the legation to Milan, Anselm of Baggio, was created pontiff under the name Alexander II (1061-73), he warmly supported his cause against the antipope Cadalus (Ep., I, 20, 21: ibid. 144, 237-54), though in his zeal he took steps disapproved of by his own (Ep., I, 16: ibid. 144, 235). He thought, as is evident also in the Disceptatio Synodalis, his most directly political work, written in 1062 (in MGH, Libelli, I, ed. cit., pp. 76-94), that harmony between Papacy and Empire should be maintained at all costs, when, on the contrary, the greatest difficulties for the longed-for reform derived precisely from the Empire and from the laity. Disappointed, he yearned for the peace of the cloister, and succeeded first in obtaining permission to return to his hermitage of Avellana and later that of renouncing the see of Ostia. But from time to time he was called for new missions: in 1063 to Cluny for the defense of the privileges of the Congregation against Drago, bishop of Mâcon (De gallica profectione: PL 145, 863-80); shortly afterward (1063) to Florence for an inquiry into Bishop Peter, accused of simony and absolved by him for lack of evidence (Op., 30: ibid. 145, 523-30); in 1069 to Mainz to dissuade Henry IV from divorcing Berta of Turin, a mission crowned with temporary success; in 1071 to Montecassino for the consecration of the church; in 1072 to Ravenna to reconcile it with the Apostolic See, after the interdict imposed on the city for the partisanship of Archbishop Henry for the antipope. On his return he died at Faenza in the monastery of S. Maria fuori Porta, in the night between 22-23 February. He was universally venerated as a saint from the moment of his death. Leo XII honored him with the title of doctor (1 Oct. 1828, const. Providentissimus Deus, in Decreta auth. Congr. S. Rit., Rome 1898-1912, n. 2663). Dante places him in the seventh heaven among the contemplatives (Par., XXI, 43-99). Some Dante scholars have wished to find, perhaps not entirely without reason, in certain passages of the works of St. P. D. one of the Poet's sources for the De Monarchia and the Divine Comedy (cf. E. Anzalone, Dante e P. D., essay, Aciresle 1903; P. Amaducci, La diretta dipendenza della Divina Commedia...S. Marino 1934; L. Cicchitto, Alcuni riscontri tra s. P. D. e Dante, Rome 1948).
P. D. as a writer arouses interest as a philosopher (an enemy, however, of dialectic applied to dogma), greater as a theologian (above all in the question of reordinations, and in sacramental and Mariological questions in general) and as a jurist; but above all as an ascetic writer (he is the theorist of the eremitic life), and as a historical source for his times. On the whole, in his century, so poor in writings and writers, he must be considered the greatest in the various fields of the theological sciences, though without having works of great bulk. His writings, often polemical, consist of certain Vitae Sanctorum (of which the most celebrated is the Vita Romualdi), of numerous letters and opuscules, which constitute the most conspicuous part; of certain Carmina et Preces and various Sermones.
Of these last the authenticity is much debated: 19 are given as certainly spurious and assigned to Nicholas of Clairvaux (cf. I. I. Ryan, St Peter D. and the sermons of Nicholas of Clairvaux: a clarification, in Medieval Studies, 9 [1947], pp. 151-61). It is further known that St. P. D. had been urged by his friend Hildebrand to compose a Collectio canonica to document better the truth and antiquity of the privilegium Romanæ Ecclesiae, that is, of the primacy and sovereign independence of the Roman Pontificate (Op., 5: PL 145, 89-90, 92).
It may be held that this work is the Collectio that goes under the name of LXXIV Titulorum which Michel, with internal arguments alone, claims for Card. Humbert of Silva Candida (cf. A. Michel, Die Sentenzen des Kard. Humbert..., Leipzig 1943).
Bibliography16 works
The principal source for the biography is the Vita, written by the disciple John of Lodi: PL 144, 113-46. To be noted as the most remarkable work for the life: F. Neukirch, Das Leben des Petrus D., Göttingen 1875; for the chronology of the works: F. W. E. Roth, Der hl. Petrus D. nach den Quellen neubearbeitet, in Studien und Mitteilungen aus dem Benedictiner u. dem Cistercienser-Order, 7 (1886), fasc. I, pp. 110-34; fasc. II, pp. 357-74; fasc. III, pp. 43-66; fasc. IV, pp. 321-36; 8 (1887), fasc. I, pp. 56-64; fasc. II, pp. 210-16.
For the whole bibl. concerning the Saint, prior to 1907, cf. U. Chevalier, Répertoire des sources historiques du M. A., Biobibliographie, II, 2nd ed., Paris 1907, coll. 3708-10; cf. also under Gregory VII, and furthermore: R. Biron, S. P. D., Rome 1909; L. Kühn, Petrus D. u. die weltliche Anschauungen über Staat u. Kirche, Karlsruhe 1913; H. Schubert, Petrus D. als Kirchen politiker, in Festgabe von Fachgenossen u. Freunden K. Müller, Tübingen 1922, pp. 83-102; M. Mende, Petrus D., I, Breslau 1933; S. Baldassarri, La marialogia in s. P. D., in Scuola cattolica, 61 (1933), pp. 304-12; J. Denis, Les théories politiques de Pierre Damien, Paris 1934; P. S. Leicht, In locum quendam Petri D., in Acta congr. iuridici int., II, Rome 1935, pp. 303-307; I. Cavigioli, De sententia s. Petri D. circa absolutionem complicis in peccato turpi, in Apollinaris, 12 (1939), pp. 35-39; J. De Ghellinck, Littérature latine au moyen âge..., II, Paris 1939, pp. 69-73; A. De Girolamo, La teologia sacramentaria di s. P. D., Naples 1942; V. Vailati, La devozione all'umanità di Cristo nelle opere di s. P. D., in Divus Thomas, 46 (1943), pp. 78-93; A. Glabbani, Lo spirito della regola di s. Benedetto e la vita monastica eremitica secondo s. P. D., in Benedictina, 1 (1947), pp. 135-36; O. J. Blum, S. Peter Damian, his teaching on the spiritual life, Washington 1947; P. Palazzini, Note di diritto romano in s. P. D., in Studia et documenta historiae et iuris, 13-14 (1947-48), pp. 253-68.
Pietro Palazzini