Adapted from various sources, including Butler's Lives
and The Liturgical Year by Dom Prosper Guéranger OSB.
St. Peter of Tarentaise, Archbishop († 1174; Feast – May 8)
He was a native of Dauphiné. A strong inclination to learning, assisted by a good genius and an excellent memory, carried him very
successfully through his studies. At twenty years of age he took the Cistercian habit at Bonnevaux, a monastery that had been lately
filled by a colony of monks sent by St. Bernard from Clairvaux. They employed a great deal of the day in hewing wood and tilling the
ground in the forest, in perpetual silence and interior prayer. They ate but once a day, and their fare was herbs or roots,
mostly turnips of a coarse sort. Four hours a day was the usual allowance for sleep; so that, rising at midnight, they stayed
in church till it was morning, and returned no more to rest – which was the primitive custom of that Order. St. Peter practiced
the greatest austerities with fervor and alacrity; he was most exactly obedient, obliging to all, humble and modest.
His pious parents, after the birth of four children, lived in perpetual continence, the practice of rigorous abstinence,
much prayer, and large alms-giving. Their house they seemed to turn into a hospital, so great was the number of poor and strangers
they constantly hosted – whom they furnished with good beds, while they themselves slept on straw. The father and his two other sons
at length followed St. Peter to Bonnevaux, and the mother and a daughter embraced the same Order in a neighboring convent.
The year after St. Peter had taken the monastic habit, his example was followed by Amadeus, a near relative of
Emperor Konrad III, his son and sixteen other persons of wealth and distinction. Amadeus, indeed, having made there his solemn
profession with the rest, by the advice of persons of great virtue and discretion, spent some time at Cluny, the better to
superintend his son's education in the school established there for the education of youth. He returned after some time to
Bonnevaux and made it his request, at his readmission, that he might be employed in the lowest offices in the house.
To this the Abbot, for his greater advancement in humility and penance, consented. The Earl of Albion, his uncle,
coming one day to see him, found him in a sweat, cleaning the monks' dirty shoes and, at the same time, so attentive
to his prayers as not to perceive him. The Earl, remembering in what state he had seen him in the world,
was so struck and so much edified at this spectacle, that he ever after retained the deep impression which it made
on his mind, and published it at court.
Amadeus built four monasteries of his Order: among which was that of Tarentaise (or Tamié), for which he
procured his intimate friend, St. Peter, not quite thirty years of age, to be appointed the first Abbot in 1138.
Amadeus worked with spade and mattock in building some of these monasteries, and died at Bonnevaux in the odor of sanctity
around 1140. His son Amadeus, for whose education in piety he had always the greatest concern, after having spent part of
his youth in the court of his kinsman, the Emperor, became a Cistercian monk under St. Bernard, at Clairvaux,
and died as Bishop of Lausanne. Both father and son have been honored as Beati (with the title of Blessed) by the Cistercian Order.
The monastery of Tarentaise (image below seemed a house of terrestrial angels; so constantly were its
inhabitants occupied in the employment of the angels, paying to God an uninterrupted homage of praise, adoration, and love.
St. Peter, with the help of yet another Amadeus – the third of that name to be Count of Savoy, founded in it a hospital
to receive all the poor sick person of the country, and all strangers (in those days hospitals were houses of hospitality,
not just infirmaries); and would be himself its servant to attend them.
In 1142 the Count of Savoy procured St. Peter's election to the Archbishopric of Tarentaise, and he was compelled by
St. Bernard and the general chapter of his Order to accept that charge – though much against his own inclinations.
Indeed that diocese stood extremely in need of such a pastor, having been usurped by a powerful, ambitious wolf named Idrael,
whose deposition left it in a most desolate condition. The parish churches and tithes were sacrilegiously controlled by laymen.
The clergy, who ought to have stemmed the torrent of iniquity, contributed but too often to the irregularity by their own wicked
example. The sight of these evils drew tears from they eyes of St. Peter, with which he night and day implored the divine
mercy upon the souls entrusted to his care. He directed all his fasts, his prayers and labors for the good of his flock;
being persuaded that the sanctification of the people committed to his charge was an essential condition for procuring his own salvation.
He altered nothing in the simplicity of a monastic life, and looked on the episcopal character as a laborious employment
rather than a dignity. His clothes were plain and his food course; for he ate nothing but brown bread, herbs and beans,
of which the poor always had their share. He made the visitation of his diocese his constant employment; he everywhere
exhorted and instructed his whole flock with unwearied zeal and invincible patience. He provided the several parishes
of his diocese with able and virtuous pastors.
When he came to his bishopric, he found the chapter of his cathedral full of irregularities, and the divine services
performed in a very careless manner; but he soon made that church a pattern of good order and devotion. He recovered the tithes
and other revenues of the church that had been usurped by certain powerful laymen; made many excellent foundations for the
education of youth and the relief of the poor; repaired several churches, and restored everywhere devotion and the decent
service of God. The author of his biography, who was the constant companion of his labors and the witness of the greater
part of his actions after he was made bishop, assures us that he wrought many miracles in several places, chiefly in curing
the sick, and multiplying provisions for the poor in times of great distress – so that he was regarded as a new
Thaumaturgus (Wonder-worker).
The confusion his humility suffered from the honors he received, joined to his love of solitude, made him resolve
to retire from the world. Accordingly in 1155, after he had borne the weight of the episcopal character thirteen years,
having settled his diocese in good order, he disappeared suddenly and made his way to a secluded monastery of Cistercians in Germany,
where he was not known. In the mean time, his family and his diocese mourned for the loss of their tender father.
Strict inquiry was made in all the neighboring provinces, especially in the monasteries, but in vain; till after some time,
divine providence discovered him by the following accident. A young man, who had been brought up under his care,
came to the monastery in which he lay concealed, and upon observing the monks as they were going out of the church to their work,
he recognized his bishop, and made him known to the whole community. The religious no sooner understood who he was,
than they all fell at his feet, begged his blessing, and expressed much concern for not having known him before.
The Saint was inconsolable at being discovered and was meditating a new escape, but he was so carefully watched that
it was not in his power; so that he was forced to go back to his diocese, where he was received with the greatest
demonstrations of joy.
He applied himself to his functions with greater vigor than ever. The poor were always the object of his special care.
He was twice discovered to have given away, with hazard to his own life, in extreme cold weather in winter, the waistcoat (vest)
which he wore. For three months before the harvest he distributed general alms among all the inhabitants of the mountains,
provisions being always scarce there at that season. He founded hospitals in the Alps, to shelter and care for poor travelers;
because at that time, many perished for want of such assistance.
To preserve in his heart the spirit of devotion and penance, he continued to practice, as much as possible,
all the austerities and other rules of his Order, only commuting manual labor for the spiritual functions of his charge.
By his conversation with the God of peace, he imbibed an eminent spirit of that virtue, and learned by humility and charity,
to be truly the man of peace; having also a singular talent for extinguishing the most implacable and inveterate enmities.
He often reconciled sovereign princes when they were at variance, and prevented several bloody wars.
The Emperor Frederick Barbarossa set up Octavian, a schismatic anti-pope under the name of Victor,
against the true Pope Alexander III. St. Peter was almost the only subject of the Empire who had the courage openly to
oppose his unjust endeavor, and he boldly defended the cause of justice in presence of the tyrant, and in many councils.
The Emperor, who banished others that spoke in favor of that cause, stood in awe of his sanctity; and St. Peter,
by his mild counsels, frequently softened the Emperor’s fierceness, and checked the boisterous sallies of his fury,
whilst like a roaring lion he spread terror on every side. The Saint preached in Alsace, Burgundy, Lorraine,
and in many parts of Italy; and confounded the obstinate by numerous miraculous cures of the sick,
performed by the imposition of his hands and prayer.
He was ordered by the Pope to go into France and Normandy, to endeavor a reconciliation between the
Kings of England and France, who had made peace in 1169, but quarreled again the next year. Though then very old,
he preached wherever he went. King Louis VII of France sent certain gentlemen of his court to meet him at a great distance,
and received him with the greatest marks of honor and respect – but honors and crowds were of all things the most
troublesome to the Saint. The man of God restored the use of sight to a blind man in the presence of the
Count of Flanders and many other noblemen loyal to the King. Louis examined carefully all the circumstances and
declared the miracle to be evident and incontestable.
St. Peter went from Paris to Chaumont, on the confines of Normandy, where Henry II, King of England,
met him. When he arrived in sight of the holy man, he alighted from his horse and coming up fell at his feet.
The people stole the cloak or hood of St. Peter, and were going to cut it in pieces to divide the scraps,
being persuaded that they would perform miracles; but the King took the whole cloak for himself, saying:
I have myself seen miraculous cures performed by his girdle, which I already possess.
In the King's presence
St. Peter restored the use of speech to a girl who was dumb. On Ash Wednesday in 1171,
St. Peter being at the Cistercian Abbey of Mortemer, in the diocese of Rouen, the King of England came
thither with his whole court, and received the ashes from his hands. The Archbishop prevailed upon the
two Kings to put an end to their differences by a treaty of peace, and to procure councils to be assembled
in their dominions, in which Pope Alexander's title should be solemnly recognized.
The holy man hereupon returned to his diocese, but was later sent again by the Pope to the King of England,
to endeavor to pacify the dispute between him and his son; but his journey had not the desired effect.
He fell sick on his return, and died the death of the just at Bellevaux, a monastery of his Order in the diocese of Besançon,
in 1174, being 73 years old. He was canonized by Pope Celestine III in 1191.
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