Peter the Venerable

From his youth, he was called "the doctor and master of the elders," and later, "the support of the monastic Order." A theologian, poet, orator, and a skillful and formidable controversialist, he joined to vast knowledge in all divine and human sciences the purity of a spotless life, a profound humility, and an unction and tenderness of heart without equal; he was to the Order of Cluny what Saint Bernard was to the Order of Cîteaux. His stature was elegant, his face handsome, his manners grave; his voice, most harmonious, delighted those who heard him. He was elected Abbot of Cluny in 1 122, at the a ge of thirty.

His name, having become so famous, is constantly intertwined with the great names and great events of the 12th century, and it can be said that he holds one of the most eminent places among the most eminent figures of his era, which produced so many. He was one of the most illustrious defenders of the Church; it was he who ca used Abe lard to retract and led him to embrace the Institute of Cluny. It was also he who extirpated the schism of Pontius, and who established a learned, regular, and complete reform in several monasteries of his Order. Confidant and advisor to popes and kings, consulted by the most learned doctors, intimate friend of Saint Bernard, called upon and admired at the Council of Pisa and the Second Lateran Council, he was the peacemaker of the Pisans and the Lucchese, the mediator between the King of France Louis the Younger and A madeus of Savoy, between the Sovereign Pontiff Eugene III and the King of Spain; finally, the ornament of the religious state and of the Church; and when this great man had thus accomplished the highest missions commanded by the good of the Church and the State, he would come humbly to hide, to recollect himself, and to rest in the modest cell of the religious, and to apply himself with ardor to study and to monastic virtues.

We have from him several works, which are: six books of very precious Letters, four dogmatic Sermons, Hymns, and some small Treatises. However, we have lost three books of his immortal Controversy. Only the general table of contents contained in the first four books has been recovered; it is a bibliographic curiosity to consult. His letters are imbued with freshness and purity of style, finesse, gentleness, and sentiment. In general, they are beautiful and written with clarity, ease, and elegance; delicate sentiments abound throughout.

Peter the Venerable fought against the doctrines of the Mahometans, and was the first to have the Qura n translated. It was a marvel for the time. He also wrote agai nst Peter of Bruys, from whom the Petrobrusians took their name. But his final moments were arriving, and his glorious career was reaching its end; his death had long been known by the holiness of his life; it occurred in 1157, in the sixty-fifth year of his age; he had governed for thirty-five years the abbey he loved. Unanimous regrets shed light on this immense loss. One could not yet believe to be deprived of him while seeing him dead, so much pure beauty and serenity had his face retained! It is impossible to say with what respect his relics and his memory have been surrounded!

Although Peter the Venerable was not canonized, several public monuments give him the title of Saint.

Excerpt from the Spirit of the Saints, by Abbé Grimes.