Saint of the day for February 21: The story of San Pietro Damiano

Perhaps because he was an orphan and had been treated badly by one of his brothers, Pietro Damiani was very good to the poor. It was normal for him to have a poor person or two with him at the table and he enjoyed personally assisting their needs.

Pietro escaped the poverty and neglect of his brother when his other brother, archpriest of Ravenna, took him under his wing. His brother sent him to good schools and Peter became a professor. Even in those days Peter was very strict with himself. He wore a T-shirt under his clothes, fasted strictly and spent many hours in prayer. Soon he decided to abandon his teaching and devote himself completely to prayer with the Benedictines of the reform of San Romualdo in Fonte Avellana. Two monks lived in a hermitage. Peter was so eager to pray and slept so little that he soon suffered from severe insomnia. He found he needed to be cautious in taking care of himself. When he wasn't praying, he studied the Bible.

The abbot ordered that Pietro succeed him on his death. Abbot Pietro founded another five hermitages. He encouraged his brothers to a life of prayer and solitude and wanted nothing more for himself. The Holy See periodically called him, however, to be a peacemaker or problem solver, between two disputing abbeys or a cleric or government official in some disagreement with Rome. Finally, Pope Stephen IX appointed Peter cardinal-bishop of Ostia. He worked hard to wipe out simony - the purchase of ecclesiastical offices - and encouraged his priests to observe celibacy and even exhorted the diocesan clergy to live together and maintain scheduled prayer and religious observance. He wanted to restore the primitive discipline between religious and priests, warning against useless travel, violations of poverty and too comfortable life. He even wrote to the bishop of Besançon complaining that the canons sat down while they sang the psalms in the divine office.

He wrote many letters. There are about 170 of them. We also have 53 of his sermons and seven lives, or biographies, which he wrote. He preferred examples and stories rather than theory in his writings. The liturgical offices he wrote testify to his talent as a stylist in Latin. He often asked to be allowed to retire as cardinal-bishop of Ostia, and eventually Pope Alexander II agreed. Peter was happy to once again become just a monk, but he was still called to serve as a papal legate. Upon returning from a similar post in Ravenna, he was seized with fever. With the monks gathered around him reciting the Divine Office, he died on February 22, 1072. In 1828 he was declared a Doctor of the Church.

Reflection: Peter was a reformer and if he were alive today he would undoubtedly encourage the renewal initiated by Vatican II. It also applauds the increased emphasis on prayer which is shown by the growing number of priests, religious and laity who gather regularly for prayer, as well as the special houses of prayer recently established by many religious communities.