All-powerful God, help us to follow the teachings and example of Peter Damian. By making Christ and the service of His Church the first love of our lives, may we come to the joys of eternal light.
St Peter Damien was the soul of the "Riforma gregoriana", which marked the passage from the first to the second millennium and whose heart and driving force was St Gregory VII. It was, in fact, a matter of the application of institutional decisions of a theological, disciplinary and spiritual character which permitted a greater libertas Ecclesiae in the second millennium. They restored the breath of great theology with reference to the Fathers of the Church and in particular, to
With his pen and his words he addressed all: he asked his brother hermits for the courage of a radical self-giving to the Lord which would as closely as possible resemble martyrdom; he demanded of the Pope, Bishops and ecclesiastics a high level of evangelical detachment from honours and privileges in carrying out their ecclesial functions; he reminded priests of the highest ideal of their mission that they were to exercise by cultivating purity of morals and true personal poverty.
In an age marked by forms of particularism and uncertainties because it was bereft of a unifying principle, Peter Damien, aware of his own limitations - he liked to define himself as peccator monachus - passed on to his contemporaries the knowledge that only through a constant harmonious tension between the two fundamental poles of life - solitude and communion - can an effective Christian witness develop.
(Pope Benedict XVI, Letter to the Camaldolese Order, 20 February 2007)
A brief bio of this important Benedictine saint
What does the picture mean?? what is the legend of saint peter Damian?
Hello Charbel, Greetings! Thanks for the note. You ask a very good question. I do not know the intentions of the artist in portraying St Peter Damian as he did except to say that Peter Damian was heart and mind of of Pope Gregory's reform of the Church at that time, he was a monk and founder of a monastic tradition, he was a theologian and a pilgrim often sent on mission (official) work for the Church in various places. Moreover, Peter was a bishop and a cardinal hence the red cardinal's hat on his head and on the ground. I would re-read the text I posted with the prayer and the also re-read the biography I linked to the post. These works don't speak to the painting but they give a clearer sense into the person of Peter Damian which may give you a clearer sense of the painting. They helped me. Sorry I couldn't be more help to you.