February 21

Bishop and Doctor of the Church
1007-1072

Peter was born at Ravenna, Italy orphaned early, and after a youth spent in hardship and privation, showed such signs of remarkable intellectual gifts that his brother, Damian, who was archpriest at Ravenna, took him away to be educated. Adding his brother's name to his own, Peter made such rapid progress in his studies of theology and Canon law, first at Ravenna, then at Faenza, finally at Parma, that when about twenty-five years old he was already a famous teacher at Parma and Ravenna. Peter was a reformer and if he were alive today would no doubt encourage the renewal started by Vatican II.

"...Let us faithfully transmit to posterity the example of virtue which we have received from our forefathers." (St. Peter Damian).