PETER, Deacon, Saint. - Roman deacon at the time of St. Gregory the Great, d. in 606. Still young, after distributing all his patrimony to the poor, he withdrew 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 properties first in Sicily and then in Campania, as is evident from numerous letters addressed to him in those places by St. Gregory himself. He was subsequently made cardinal deacon and lived at the court, becoming the confidant of the Pope, who also makes him an interlocutor of his Dialogues. His fidelity to St. Gregory was revealed above all at the death of the great Pope, whom he defended from unjust attacks; but the account that John the Deacon gives of the affair 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 properties, and consider him a cleric and not a monk.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: Gregorio Magno, Registrum epistolarum; PL 77, 442 ff. passim; id., Dialoghi, ed. U. Aboteca (Fonti per la storia d'Italia), Roma 1924; Giovanni Diacono, Vita s. Gregorii, II, cap. 11; PL 75, 332 ff.; J. Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum O.S.B., I, Parigi 1667, p. 497.

Ambrogio Mancone

@incollection{ec9_pietro_diacono_santo, author = {Mancone, Ambrogio}, title = {Pietro, diacono, santo}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {IX}, pages = {1435}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/pietro-diacono-santo} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Peter, Deacon, Saint

About this entry