Commentary Par XXI 106-126

The seven tercets dedicated to the life of Peter Damian (1007-1072) are reminiscent of the earlier saints' lives that we have heard in Paradiso.  Once again we begin with a geographical indicator (the mountain called Catria, in the Apennines, that rises some five thousand feet above sea level, near the town of Gubbio).  Peter's narrative is brief and self-abnegating (those of Francis [Par. XI] and of Dominic [Par. XII] are considerably more full, but then they are narrated by praiseful others, not by their abstemious selves).  Peter's is modesty itself, concluding with the ironic and bitter reflection on his having been made to give over the life of prayer that truly pleased him for that of 'administration.'

'St. Peter Damian, proclaimed doctor of the Church by Leo XII in 1828; born of an obscure family at Ravenna c. 1007.  In his childhood he was much neglected, and after the death of his parents was set by his eldest brother to tend swine.  Later on, another brother, named Damian, who was archdeacon of Ravenna, took compassion on him and had him educated.  Peter in gratitude assumed his brother's name and was thenceforth known as Peter Damian (Petrus Damiani).  After studying at Ravenna, Faenza, and Parma, he himself became a teacher, and soon acquired celebrity.  At the age of about 28, however, he entered the Benedictine monastery of Fonte Avellana on the slopes of Monte Catria, of which in 1043 he became abbot.  In this capacity he rendered important services to Popes Gregory VI, Clement II, Leo IX, Victor II, and Stephen IX, by the last of whom he was in 1057, much against his will, created cardinal bishop of Ostia.  He appears to have been a zealous supporter of these popes, and of Hildebrand (afterwards Gregory VII), in their efforts to reform Church discipline, and made journeys into France and Germany with that object.  After fulfilling several important missions under Nicholas II and Alexander II, he died at an advanced age at Faenza, Feb. 22, 1072.

'Dante represents Peter Damian as inveighing against the luxury of the prelates in his day; the commentators quote in illustration a passage from a letter of his to his brother cardinals, in which he reminds them that the dignity of a prelate does not consist in wearing rare and costly furs and fine robes, nor in being escorted by troops of armed adherents, nor in riding on neighing and mettlesome steeds, but in the practice of morality and the exercise of the saintly virtues' (Damiano, Pietro).  While he was never formally canonized, he was venerated as a saint from the time following his death in several places in Italy and at Cluny.

For possible points of contact between this part of the poem and Peter Damian's own writings as well as twenty or so of the legends that accumulated around his life, see Capetti (Cape.1906.1).