Peter Damian

Profile

Peter Damian presents himself to Dante in Paradiso XXI, declaring that he lived at Fonte Avellana, a monastery which, as he recalls, was accustomed to yield a plentiful harvest of saints for paradise. Born in 1007 in Ravenna, he entered the hermitage of Fonte Avellana in 1035, attracted by the solitary and contemplative life; he became its prior in 1043, and under his guidance the hermitage flourished, with dependent houses founded throughout central Italy. Alongside the mystic, the man of action was at work in him, leading him to assist the popes in guiding the Church against the corruption of the clergy. Made bishop of Ostia and cardinal in 1057, he was entrusted with missions to Milan, Cluny, Florence, and Ravenna, obtaining in 1066 permission to return to his hermitage. He died at Faenza in 1072, was venerated as a saint, and was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Leo XII. In his works, animated by strong passion, the twofold personality of mystic and politician is reflected, from the celebrated Life of Saint Romuald to the violent polemical treatise Gomorrhianus on the customs of the clergy.