PETER, DEACON, Saint. — A Roman deacon in the time of St. Gregory the Great, d. in 606. While still young, after distributing all his patrimony to the poor, he retired to the monastery of St. Andrew on the Caelian Hill in Rome, where he lived together with St. Gregory.
He was administrator of the Church’s goods first in Sicily and then in Campania, as is evident from numerous letters addressed to him in those places by St. Gregory himself. Later he was created cardinal deacon and lived at the papal court, becoming the Pope’s confidant, whom he also served as interlocutor in his Dialogues. His fidelity to St. Gregory was especially evident at the death of the great Pope, whom he defended against unjust attacks; yet the account of the episode given by John the Deacon in the Life of Gregory is legendary. His cult dates from time immemorial. Some scholars do not identify him with the steward of the papal patrimony and consider him a cleric rather than a monk.