Saint Damian, Courageous Reformer, Monk, Cardinal & Doctor of the Church

February 21 marks the feast of Saint Peter Damian, Patton Saint of sleep difficulties,  was an Italian reforming Benedictine monk and cardinal. Dante placed him in one of the highest circles of Paradiso as a great predecessor of Francis of Assisi and he was declared a Doctor of the Church on 27 September 1828. Saint Peter Damian spent himself, with lucid consistency and great severity, for the reform of the Church of his time. He gave all his spiritual and physical energies to Christ and to the Church, but always remained, as he liked to describe himself, Petrus ultimus monachorum servus, Peter, the lowliest servant of the monks.

 "One of the most significant figures of the 11th century, ... a lover of solitude and at the same time a fearless man of the Church, committed personally to the task of reform." - Pope Benedict XVI 

Peter was born in Ravenna, the youngest of a large but poor noble family. Orphaned early, he was at first adopted by an elder brother who ill-treated and under-fed him while employing him as a swineherd. After some years, another brother, Damianus, who was archpriest at Ravenna, had pity on him and took him away to be educated.  Peter made such rapid progress in his studies of theology and canon law, first at Ravenna, then at Faenza, and finally at the University of Parma, that, around the age of 25, he was already a famous teacher at Parma and Ravenna.

At around1035, Peter gave up his secular calling and, avoiding the compromised luxury of Cluniac monasteries, entered the isolated hermitage of Fonte Avellana, near Gubbio. As novice and as a monk, his fervour was remarkable but led him to such extremes of self-mortification in penance that his health was affected, and he developed severe insomnia.

Once he recovered, Peter was appointed to lecture to his fellow monks. Then, at the request of Guy of Pomposa and other heads of neighboring monasteries, he lectured to their brethren. At  about 1042, Peter wrote the life of Romuald for the monks of Pietrapertosa. Soon after his return to Fonte Avellana, he was appointed manager or housekeeper of the house by the prior, who designated him as his successor. In 1043 he became prior of Fonte Avellana and remained so until his death in February 1072.

A zealot for monastic and clerical reform, Peter introduced a more severe discipline, including the practice of flagellation that became a model for other foundations, even the great abbey of Monte Cassino. There was much opposition outside his own circle to such extreme forms of penitence, but Peter's persistent advocacy ensured its acceptance, to such an extent that he was obliged later to moderate the imprudent zeal of some of his own hermits.

Petrt also added of the daily siesta, to make up for the fatigue of the night office. During his tenure of the priorate, a cloister was built, silver chalices and a silver processional cross were purchased, and many books were added to the library

Although living in the seclusion of the cloister, Peter Damian closely watched the fortunes of the church, and like his friend Hildebrand, the future Pope Gregory VII, he strove to reform the church. After almost two centuries of political and social upheaval, doctrinal ignorance and petty venality among the clergy had reached intolerable levels. When the scandalous Benedict IX resigned the pontificate into the hands of the archpriest Gregory VI in 1045, Peter hailed the change with joy and wrote to the new pope, urging him to deal with the scandals of the church in Italy, singling out the wicked bishops of Pesaro, of Città di Castello and of Fano.

Peter communicated with the Emperor Henry III. He was present in Rome when Clement II crowned Henry III and his consort Agnes, and he also attended a synod held at the Lateran in the first days of 1047, in which decrees were passed against simony.

Peter, a prolific writer published a number of open letters on a variety of theological and disciplinary controversies. About 1050, he wrote Liber Gomorrhianus addressed to Pope Leo IX, containing a scathing indictment of the practice of simony, as threatening the integrity of the clergy. Meanwhile, the question arose as to the validity of the ordinations of simoniacal clerics. Peter wrote a treatise, the Liber Gratissimus, in favour of their validity, a work which, though much combatted at the time, was potent in deciding the question in their favor before the end of the 12th century. 

Prayer to Saint Peter Damian

Saint Peter Damian, who sacrificed sleep for the love of God, understands the struggles of sleeplessness. Just as you faced long nights filled with prayer and penance, seeking solace in God's presence, I ask for your intercession as I seek rest and peace in the quiet of the night.