PETER THE VENERABLE, BL.

Ninth abbot of Cluny (see cluny, abbey of) and a significant personality in the monastic and literary renaissance of 12th-century Europe; b. Auvergne, c. 1092; d. Cluny, Dec. 25, 1156. Committed to Cluniac life as an oblate at an early age by his noble parents, Peter made his profession at Cluny under St. hugh (1109). During the troubled administration of Pons de Melgeuil (1109–22) he was advanced to claustral prior at vÉzelay, then to conventual prior at Domène, and finally swept by acclamation to the abbatial throne, Aug. 22, 1122, to rule the 300 to 400 monks at Cluny and the 2,000 dependent houses throughout western Europe. Although unable to check Cluny's decline beyond his lifetime, and eclipsed by St. bernard of clairvaux in ecclesiastic as well as monastic spheres, Peter struck a note, remarkable in a polemic age, of peace and reasonableness in official and personal contacts and through the letters, tracts, and other writings by which he is known (Patrologia Latina, 189:15–1072). He was the last of the great "holy abbots,"—humane administrator, a controversialist, and an "occasional" theologian—and was much esteemed as a counselor. He won reconciliation for Peter abelard after the Council of Sens (1140), but his attempts to divert the crusading spirit from combat and conquest to dialogue and conversion went unheeded. He was called "venerable" in his lifetime by both St. Bernard and Frederick Barbarossa; his cult at Clermont was approved by Pius IX in 1862.

Feast: Dec. 29.

Bibliography: g. constable and j. kritzeck, eds, Petrus Venerabilis, 1156–1956: Studies and Texts Commemorating the 8th Anniversary of His Death (Studia anselmiana, 40; 1956), bibliog. of classic sources and continuing study. d. knowles, The Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 39 (1956) 132–145. g. constable, ed., The Letters of Peter the Venerable (Cambridge 1967). j. martin and g. constable, eds., Peter the Venerable: Selected Letters (Toronto 1974). Pierre Abélard, Pierre le Vénérable, proceedings of colloquium at Cluny Abbey, July 2–9, 1972 (Paris 1975). Petrus Venerabilis, Adversus ludaeos, ed., Centre de Traitement Electronique des Documents (CETEDOC), Catholic University of Leuven (Turnhout 1985). j. l. baudot and l. chaussin, Vies des saints et des bienheureux selon l'ordre du calendrier avec l'historique des fêtes, (Paris 1935–56) 12:674–678, bibliog. j. kritzeck, Peter the Venerable and Islam (Princeton 1964). j. p. torrell and d. bouthillier, Pierre le Vénérable, Abbé de Cluny (Chambray 1988).

[p. edwards]