Saint Peter Damian and the wounds of the Church

In 1298, Pope Boniface VIII decided to name four saints as Doctors of the Church to recognize their excellence as teachers of the Catholic faith and to honor the enduring impact of their thought on the Church.¹ Since then, eighteen other popes have conferred that same title on thirty-three other men and women.²

Some saints, such as Augustine of Hippo and Thomas Aquinas, earned the designation of Doctor of the Church through their many writings about theology and philosophy. Athanasius of Alexandria, on the other hand, was honored for his tireless defense of the faith against a wildly popular heresy. Thérèse of Lisieux charmed the world by pointing out that the path of holiness is a “little way”, a way of humility that is available to everyone. Peter Canisius, among other things, wrote catechisms. Doctor of the Church Catherine of Siena, ironically, never went to school and only learned to read with supernatural help.³

Saint Catherine also famously begged, encouraged, and corrected popes. In that respect, she has something in common with another Doctor, Saint Peter Damian, who is remembered by the Church on February 21st and is sometimes nicknamed the “Monitor of the Popes”. After all, he corresponded with nine of them during his long life.⁴

Peter (c. 1007-1072) was born the youngest child in a large family in Ravenna, Italy. Both his parents died when he was young, and he was shuffled between the homes of his older brothers and sisters for years. One brother treated him like a servant, giving him only menial chores to do. Fortunately, another brother rescued him from a life of drudgery, recognized his intelligence, and paid for him to be educated. Out of gratitude, Peter took that brother’s name as a surname, which is why he became known as Peter Damian.

Peter was an excellent student and soon became a professor. But he also took his faith seriously and quietly practiced many mortifications, such as fasting, spending long hours in prayer, and giving alms to the poor. Soon, he recognized that God was calling him to devote his life to God’s service as a Benedictine monk.

The religious community that Peter decided to join was a reformed branch now called the Camaldolese Benedictines. Peter and the other monks lived as hermits in separate cells, performed many acts of penance, and spent most of their time in prayer and sacred studies. Peter became an exemplary monk, and everyone in his community recognized his wisdom, piety, and leadership potential, except Peter himself. His abbot had to make Peter promise, out of obedience, that when he died, Peter would accept the role of abbot for the community.

When his abbot died, Peter became an excellent spiritual father to his monks and founded other religious communities. Even though he was a hermit, his influence gradually extended outside his monastic walls. Over the years, he wrote spiritual poetry, corresponded with many important figures, composed treatises about theological topics, and wrote open letters about contemporary controversies.

Other Church leaders took notice of Abbot Peter’s abilities, and he was, unwillingly, named a cardinal. As a cardinal, he was ordered to live in Rome to advise the pope, an order which he lamented but dutifully obeyed. He was also named a papal legate and served as the pope’s representative on sensitive diplomatic errands. For example, on one occasion, Peter was sent to remind a king that he could not abandon his wife for his mistress. Peter also managed to bring about a reconciliation between the king and queen. On another occasion, Peter was sent to clear up a scandal caused by an unscrupulous and excommunicated archbishop. The bishop died before Peter arrived, but Peter convinced the bishop’s accomplices to publicly admit their guilt and accept appropriate punishment. Apparently, Peter had a knack for bringing people to repentance.

The Catholic Church in the eleventh century could be credited with many worthy accomplishments, such as beautiful churches and the growth of monasticism. But it had its weaknesses, just like today.

The central role of the Catholic Church in medieval Christian life made the positions of abbot and bishop both lucrative and powerful. This led to the widespread practice of simony, the buying and selling of Church offices. Men and even boys were appointed to be bishops and abbots, not because they wanted to serve as good shepherds of God’s people, but because they (or their families) wanted the prestige and money associated with the office. In a similar way, many men and boys entered religious life simply because their parents had more sons than they could afford to establish in a career, whether the sons thought they were suited to a life of celibacy or not.

Peter Damian’s writings cover a wide range of important topics, and he is often favorably compared to John the Baptist for his courage in speaking out about the need for Church reform and for personal repentance. But sometimes people focus only on Peter’s Letter 31, which was an open letter that examined potential punishments for monks and clergy who participated in homosexual acts. In today’s culture, Peter’s strong language about those with same-sex attraction seems cruel. However, we shouldn’t be afraid to examine this letter, sometimes called the Book of Gomorrah. In this letter, written to the pope himself, Peter lists the kind of sexual sins that are being committed by monks and clergy, evaluates the seriousness of these acts, and asks the pope to make a decision about appropriate punishments.

Peter was remarkably explicit about these sexual acts. That was not done for the sake of providing gratuitous sexual content, but because he recognized that different physical acts indicate different levels of involvement in sin. As he explained to the pope, someone who engages in occasional acts of masturbation should be treated differently than someone who has engaged in homosexual acts with multiple men for many years. Peter also pointed out that some of the punishments commonly recommended for those who committed homosexual acts were not equitable compared to those involving heterosexual acts.

Peter, following traditional Catholic teaching about same-sex attraction, pointed out that these acts were an offense against the order of God’s Creation. Whatever cause we may attribute today to the experience of same-sex attraction in a particular individual, the central point of Peter’s argument remains valid: every human body points to the truths given to us in the first few chapters of Genesis. That is, God created us as male and female, created the reproductive act itself, and created matrimony for one man and one woman to be united with Him as co-creators. When we misuse our bodies, we are misusing gifts that God has given us.

Peter was certainly aware that monks and clergy were also committing heterosexual sins, and he used that fact to make an interesting point. If, Peter asked, a priest committed a sexual sin with his own goddaughter—using that spiritual relationship to facilitate a sinful relationship—would that not be an act of spiritual incest? By that same argument, monks and clergy who committed sexual sins with their spiritual children were also committing a kind of spiritual incest. Since many boys were educated at monastic schools at the time, this problem directly affected those children, as well as adult monks who were under the spiritual authority of others.

Pope Leo IX found Peter’s letter so helpful that he tacked a cover letter on it and circulated it throughout the Church. Peter’s willingness to examine deep wounds that existed in the Church, pour the healing light of the Gospel into those wounds, and propose solutions made him a leader in Church reform, and not just for this one sensitive topic.

Another modern term—whistleblower—could be applied to Peter himself. In Letter 31, Abbot Peter dared to expose a dirty little secret that some monks, deacons, priests, and even bishops were ignoring or actively trying to hide, even though it was leading to sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, scandal, and the abandonment of religious vows.

At the end of this controversial letter, Peter asked the pope to clarify what criteria should be used to determine when a clergyman should be irrevocably expelled from holy orders. Today we would call that forcible laicization, and we don’t have to go back any farther than February, 2019, to see that this problem is still with us.

In that sense, it is easy to see why Peter was named a Doctor of the Church. Even if some of his arguments and word choices have not stood the test of time, human nature is still as weak as ever. We will always need wise, fearless, holy men and women who are willing to prescribe strong medicine to help us be healed of our sins, by the grace of God, whether we like it or not.

Saint Peter Damian did not earn the title of Doctor of the Church because he wrote blunt letters about sin, but because he cared about the eternal salvation of other men, women, and children more than their temporal happiness. And so should we.

(Editor’s note: This essay was posted originally on February 20, 2024.)

• Related at CWR: “St. Peter Damian’s battle against clerical homosexuality offers useful lessons for today” (Feb 21, 2019) by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman

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