Saint Peter of Tarantaise (1102-1174)
Image: All Saints & Martyrs
(EWTN) Born in France Rhone Alps, Peter had a strong inclination of learning, assisted by his genius and happy memory which carried him successfully through his studies.
At 20 years of age, Peter took the Cistercian habit at France Bonnevaux, a Monastery that had been lately filled by a colony sent by St. Bernard from Clairaux. They employed a great part of their day hewing wood and tilling the ground in the forest in perpetual silence and prayer. They ate but once a day and their fare was herbs or roots–mostly turnips of a coarse sort.
Four hours in the 24 day was their usual allowance of sleep, rising at Midnight, they continued in the Church until morning and returned no more to rest, which was the primitive custom of that Order.
In 1142 according to Franciscan Media Peter was named Archbishop of Tarantaise, replacing a Bishop which had been deposed because of corruption.
Bishop Peter, tackled his new assignment with vigor, bringing reforms into the diocese, replaced lax Clergy and reached out to the poor–Bishop Peter, visited all parts of his mountainous diocese on a regular basis.
After about a decade as Bishop, Peter ‘disappeared’ for a year and lived quietly as a Lay-Brother in the Cistercian Abbey in Switzerland according to SQPN as he had badly missed the life of a Monk. When Peter was discovered, he was persuaded to return to his post, again focusing many of his energies on providing assistance to the poor.
Bishop Peter was sent by the Pope to the King Louis VII, to endeavor to bring reconciliation between the King and his son Prince Henry II but his journey did not have the desired effect.
On Bishop Peter’s return home, he fell sick and passed away at Bellevaux Monastery–Bishop Peter was Canonized in 1191 by Pope Celestine III
Tweet