Saint Peter II of Tarentaise

When he had reached the age of twenty, he obtained his father's permission to enter the abbey of Bonnevaux, which had just been founded in the Dauphiné, under the austere rule of Saint Bernard. During the ten years he spent there, he edified the entire community and, through the reputation of his holiness, attracted his father, his two brothers, and seventeen lords to it. As he had perfectly fulfilled the principal duties of the cloister that had been entrusted to him, and as he knew well how to obey, he was judged worthy to command. He was charged with the f monastère de Tamié Monastery founded by the saint in Tarentaise. oundation of the monastery of Tamié, in the diocese of Tarentaise, between the mountains that separated the province of Genevois from Savoy proper: this place was, in the 11th century, the main passage from Switzerland to Italy; it was a wilderness regarded as uninhabitable, where one could, consequently, render great services to travelers. Peter came to establish himself there in 1132, with a few religious, or rather, he established charity itself there. The monks of Tamié had for food only a little bread and water, with poorly prepared herbs, into which a few grains of salt were thrown; but what care for the poor, the pilgrims, the travelers! Peter served them at the table himself, gave them clothing, and accompanied all this with some pious reflections for the salvation of souls. Thus, the reputation of the Saint flew in all directions; people came to consult him on difficult matters: the Count of Savoy, Amadeus III, sometimes went to Tamié himself to receive his advice. The gift of miracles especially brought him great celebrity: he publicly healed a paralytic; when his community lacked bread, he had only to pray to God to obtain it.

The Archbishopric of Tarentaise having become vacant (1143?) due to the deposition of Isdraël, who had governed it as poorly as he had unjustly usurped it, the Abbot of Tamié was unanimously elected by the entire clergy of that church. A burden so heavy, especially in a century as corrupt as that one, was quite contrary to the inclinations and humility of Peter: he could only be made to accept it at the General Chapter of Cîteaux, where all the Fathers and abbots of the Order, and particularl y Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairv saint Bernard, abbé de Clairvaux Abbot of Clairvaux and spiritual master of Raoul. aux, ordered him to submit to the will of God.

The new archbishop found his diocese in the saddest state: he undertook its reform with as much zeal as prudence.

The clergy of his cathedral were poorly regulated and negligent: Peter replaced them with regular canons of Saint Augustine, whom he instructed and governed as a father would his children, attending all pious exercises with them. He retrieved the property of the ecclesiastics from the hands of those who had usurped it; he provided the churches with everything necessary for divine worship, so that, in this country which was nevertheless so poor, he did not leave, upon his death, a single chapel that did not have a silver chalice. The poor and the sick were the principal object of his solicitude; he founded a hospice in Moutiers, restored and endowed that of the Little Saint Bernard, and, extending his charity beyond his diocese, built two other refuges, one on the Mont de la Lésion, the other on the Mont-Jura, places that were almost uninhabitable. His house was an asylum, where the indigent, strangers, and the sick were received at all hours. When he visited his diocese, he carried modest provisions for his sustenance, and never used them before sharing them with the poor. So good to others, he was very harsh to himself: dressed as a monk, despite his episcopal dignity, he led the life of the cloister; he slept little, he ate only herbs and brown bread. He performed long prayers during the night and afflicted his body with extraordinary mortifications.

We shall not recount all that the charity of Peter led him to undertake, nor shall we repeat everything that historians have said of it, but we cannot remain silent regarding a charitable institution that bears a particular character, both of the Saint and of the locality; which, without being a true foundation, has all the consequences of one, and has given rise to acts that have rendered it historical.

The months preceding the harvest being those in which the people experience the greatest need, the Saint provided for them through a general distribution of soup and bread that he had made every day. These were, says Geoffrey, his historian, a kind of agape, to which the archbishop admitted all who presented themselves without distinction. By this means, he assisted a great number of the poor,

Blessed: these three brothers and pious lords ceded, as a foundation, the property of Tamié and its dependencies to the Abbot of Bonnevaux. John the Blessed, in the presence of the Abbot of Hautecombe (Saint Amadeus of Lausanne), of our Saint Peter, then a young monk, and with the assistance of Saint Peter IV, who then occupied the see of Tarentaise. (Bessou, Preuves, p. 251.)

not only for a month and during his lifetime, but for centuries; for his successors imitated his example and continued to make, in the cloisters built by Saint Peter, a similar distribution, mainly during the month of May. This alms, known by the nam e of May br pain de mai Charitable food distribution institution established by the saint. ead, became more and more an object of veneration because of its antiquity and especially because of its origin: the child of the poor found himself there beside the child of the rich; the latter gave generously with one hand what he received piously with the other.

It took nothing less than the great revolution to destroy a custom whose first link went back to Saint Peter II. There is more than one old man who still speaks of it as a pious memory of childhood, which leaves in the soul I know not what of the traditional, the respectable, and the holy. Like that of so many other precious things that perished then, the memory of this tradition is lost day by day as the men who lived in the two centuries disappear.

While crossing the Alps during a very harsh winter, he met a very old, sick woman, shivering with cold and bathed in tears; he stripped himself of his religious robe to clothe her, keeping only the cloak called a cowl; he thus exposed himself to dying of cold, and indeed arrived very ill at the hospice of the Little Saint Bernard. His charity was rewarded, even in this life, by countless miracles that he performed in Italy, Savoy, and Burgundy. At Saint-Claude, the crowd that pressed around him to obtain the graces of heaven, of which he was the distributor, was so great that measures had to be taken to avoid accidents: Peter retired to the church tower, to which two staircases led: by one, the pilgrims and the sick ascended, and when they had received the Saint's blessing, they descended by the other. During this stay, three strangers came to thank him for their deliverance: "They were," they told him, "locked in the prisons of Lausanne; the account of his virtues and his miracles converted them; they invoked him as one invokes a saint who reigns in heaven; he appeared to them in the prison, broke their chains, and, taking them by the hand, miraculously led them out, passing unseen through the midst of the guards, who were playing dice."

Seeing himself overwhelmed by so much glory, Peter was frightened and resolved to return to the obscurity of the cloister (1155). Having exchanged his clothes for the rags of a poor man, he fled, accompanied by only one servant, and went to the depths of Germany to be received into a convent of his Order. At the news of this flight, the desolation was universal. One of his young diocesans, raised in his palace, undertook to search for him until he had found him. Indeed, after having visited many monasteries for a year, he finally arrived at the one where his archbishop was; he stood in the path of the religious as they went to work, recognized Peter, and threw himself at his knees, begging him to return to his diocese. The other religious were very surprised: they also threw themselves at the feet of the prelate, apologizing for not having treated him according to his dignity and his merits. His return was a true triumph: he found more honors than he had fled (1157).

God called him back, because He had, if we may speak thus, need of him to defend His Church and reconcile princes. An immense role awaited our Saint. The Church was then torn by schism. Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, who claimed to place the entire world under his absolute dominion, finding no obstacle to this design other than the legitimate Pope, the ordinary defender of the rights of peoples and of the Church, established an antipope, Victor IV. The Archbishop of Tarentaise was almost the only subject of the empire who dared to declare himself openly for the legitimate Pope, Alexander III : he took his Alexandre III Pope who proceeded with the canonization of Bertrand in Toulouse. side in several councils, he traveled through several regions to have his authority recognized, among others Alsace, Burgundy, Lorraine, and Italy: the entire Order of Cîteaux followed this noble example; now, it counted at that time several bishops, seven hundred abbots, and an almost innumerable multitude of monks: these thousands of voices, which proclaimed the same Pope at the same time in all the regions of Europe, contributed not a little to the triumph of truth. Peter did not fear to speak in favor of Alexander III to Frederick himself: "Cease," he said to him, "to persecute the Church and its head, the priests and the religious, the peoples and the cities that show themselves favorable to the legitimate Pope. There is a King who governs kings themselves and to whom you will render a rigorous account of your conduct." The Emperor, who had exiled several partisans of Alexander, was not offended by the remonstrances of the holy prelate, so much did he respect his virtues or fear his influence over the people. One of his courtiers having expressed his surprise to him, and trying to excite his indignation against Peter, Frederick replied: "I oppose men, it is true, because they deserve it, but do you want me to declare myself openly against God?"

Alexander III desired to see the one who defended the papacy with such success; he summoned him to Rome: this journey of Peter was a preaching, a procession, a triumph, a series of miracles. He evangelized and edified Tuscany; at Vercelli, he reconciled the two parties that divided the city; at Bologna, he restored health to the bishop by laying hands on him, and sight to a blind man by making the sign of the cross over his eyes. Everywhere he passed, he was asked to preach and to consecrate altars. The Pope and the city of Rome received him with the greatest testimonies of esteem and veneration.

In 1170, the Pope charged our Saint with reconciling Henry II, King of England Henri II, roi d'Angleterre King of England who brought Hugh to found Witham. , and Louis VII, King of Fran Louis VII, roi de France King of France involved in the peace negotiations led by the saint. ce, who were at war. Despite his advanced age, Peter immediately set out to fulfill this mission: he preached and performed numerous miracles in every place he passed through. At the Cistercian monastery of Prully, in the diocese of Sens, he renewed the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves to feed the strangers whom his reputation attracted there in crowds.

As soon as he approached a town or village, the news would spread: "Here comes the Saint," people said on all sides; immediately the population would stir, the road would be covered with foliage, people would rush to meet the thaumaturge, kissing his feet and hands; he was obliged to stop to listen to the complaints of all those who suffered and to console them, to heal them, and to make the word of God heard by the people.

The kings of France and England had sent lords from their courts far ahead to meet him; Louis VII and Henry, heir presumptive to the crown of England, and the Count of Flanders, awaited him at Chaumont, in the Vexin, on the borders of France and Normandy. As soon as Henry caught sight of him, he dismounted from his horse and ran to meet him. After kissing the prelate's cloak, he begged him to give it to him: this garment was tattered and almost in pieces, so many fragments had been detached from it out of veneration. The Abbot of Clairvaux, who accompanied the holy pontiff, having asked Henry what use this old garment would be to him, the prince said: "You would not speak thus if you knew what marvelous effects the belt I obtained from the Saint a few years ago has produced on the sick." The King of France and his retinue arrived during this time; but the princes disappeared into this crowd and before the Saint: one saw only him, people pressed around him. A woman, leading her blind son by the hand, tried in vain to reach the prelate; he noticed her and had a path made for her. The mother asked for the healing of her son; the Saint, wetting his fingers with saliva, rubbed the child's eyes and head with them, made the sign of the cross, and began to pray. The princes and other witnesses to this scene wondered what the outcome would be; suddenly, the child looked up and cried out, joyful and surprised: "I see my mother, I see trees, men, and everything that is here." Everyone was delighted. The mother, beside herself, threw herself at the Saint's feet, shedding tears of joy, without having the strength to speak. The King of France prostrated himself before the child to adore the divine power that had just manifested in him, kissed his forehead and eyes with respect, and made a generous offering.

After such wonders, could one not see in the holy archbishop the envoy of God himself? The King of England, Henry II, went to the meeting that had been proposed to him by the prelate; it took place between Trie and Gisors, and on September 29 of the same year, Henry II was reconciled, at Amboise, with his sons and with the King of France; but, by that date, Saint Peter was already in heaven. After the meeting at Gisors, he had headed toward the Abbey of Mortemer, in the diocese of Rouen, where he solemnly distributed offerings on February 6 to Louis VII and his son-in-law, Henry of England. He felt that he had only a short time left to live; this was a motive for him to redouble his zeal; thus, these last days of his life were filled with good works and miracles performed in France. He went first, at the request of the Queen of France, to the monastery of Haute-Bruyère, of the Order of Fontevrault, where he consecrated an altar and restored sight to a blind young girl by making the sign of the cross over her. In the Abbey of Lière, where he spent a few days, he healed two deaf men and a paralytic. The charity that animated him seemed to give him wings. In a few weeks, he was seen at the convent of La Chassagne, where he concluded several matters of the highest interest; at that of La Bussière, where he consecrated the church and where he healed, by the mere imposition of hands, a deaf-mute and two blind men; at the castle of Montmorency, where he inaugurated the chapel; at Longuet, where, at the prayer of the Bishop of Langres, he dedicated an altar to Saint Bernard, who had just been canonized; at Besançon, where, after discussing Church affairs with Archbishop Ehrard, he finished enlightening him on the schism that Frederick had incited, confirming and strengthening him in obedience to the legitimate Pope. Saint Peter was awaited at the Abbey of Bellevaux with lively and pious impatience. He departed for this monastery, int ending to appear th abbaye de Bellevaux Place of death and initial burial of the saint. ere with the simplicity of a religious. Before arriving at the convent, his strength failed him; an indisposition forced him to take a little rest; he stopped by the side of the road, near a spring that descended from a nearby hillside. This place, known in the region by the name of Saint-Justin, would henceforth be consecrated by the agony of the illustrious legate; a cross would be planted on the banks of the fountain; the pure water that revived the Saint in his faintness, the earth that he watered with his final sweat, would be from century to century the object of the inhabitants' veneration. Saint Peter was seventy-three years old.

Transported to the convent of Bellevaux, our Saint fell asleep in the Lord on May 8, 1174. His body remained exposed for three days to the veneration of the people, then was deposited under an altar dedicated to the Blessed Virgin; Ehrard, Archbishop of Besançon (Bellevaux is very close to this city), presided over his funeral. Soon, the tomb of Saint Peter of Tarentaise became, through numerous miracles, a place of pilgrimage. He was canonized in 1191 by Pope Celestine III.

He is depicted speak ing to the kings pape Célestin III Pope who confirmed the election of Albert and appointed him cardinal. of France and England to reconcile them; to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to bring him back from the schism, etc.

## RELICS OF SAINT PETER OF TARENTAISE.

The relics of the Saint, which Savoy and France disputed, were divided by the Pope: the church of Tarentaise obtained the head; the abbey of Tamié, the left arm; that of Citeaux, the right arm. These precious relics were partially lost during the troubles of the French Revolution and the wars that followed; but the remainder, which had stayed at Bellevaux, was saved; the inhabitants of Cirey bought the Saint's altar, his tomb, and the bones contained therein for four hundred livres, and transported everything to their church on June 24, 1791; but, in 1793, an administrator of the district of Vesoul violently seized this treasure: t he Sai Vesoul City where a portion of the relics was saved during the Revolution. nt's bones were carried off with contempt, at the bottom of a hod, to Vesoul, to be burned there; but the people of Vesoul showed such respect for these sacred relics that no one dared to profane them: these demagogues, spreading the rumor that they had been removed, relegated them to the district offices, where they were carefully collected when the freedom of this Catholic land was restored to France, and they were placed in one of the chapels of the parish church of Vesoul.

In 1812, Claude Lecos, Archbishop of Besançon, granted two considerable portions to the inhabitants of Cirey. A colony of Trappists, living according to the strict Observance of Sept-Fonds, established themselves at Bellevaux in 1816, and obtained, in 1819, half of the relics that had been deposited at Vesoul, that is to say, the thigh, the leg, and the left foot of the Saint: it is noted, in the official report drawn up on this occasion, that the precious remains of Saint Peter were in their natural state, without corruption, covered with skin, but merely dried out by the effect of time. Driven out by the Revolution of 1830, the Trappists of Bellevaux took refuge in Switzerland, carrying with them, as a consolation in their exile, the relics of Saint Peter; they brought them back in 1834, when they came to settle, again in Franche-Comté, at Val-Sainte-Marie: since then, the main seat of the community having been transferred to the abbey of La Grâce-Dieu, a chapel in the magnificent church of this abbey was dedicated to Saint Peter of Tarentaise. It is there that his relics rest today in a beautiful reliquary: one sees there, besides the bones of which we have spoken, a portion of the Saint's mantle, his mitre, and his chalice. The abbey of La Grâce-Dieu having recently founded a colony at Tamié itself, the mother ceded to the daughter a part of the relics of the one who had once governed it. As for saying that the relics, once given by the Pope to Savoy, were all lost, that is not completely accurate. Here is what M. Bérard, canon, archdeacon, and vicar-general of Moûtiers, writes to us:

« This is unfortunately only too true regarding the distinguished relic assigned to the then-metropolitan church of Moûtiers. But I am happy to be able to affirm that we possess in the same church, our current cathedral, the left arm that was formerly at the abbey of Tamié. The authenticity of this relic was recognized in 1805 by Mgr Irénée-Yves de Solics, Bishop of Chambéry and of all Savoy, during the pastoral visit he made to this city and the main parishes of Tarentaise, assisted by M. the Dean de Maistre, his vicar-general, previously dean of the metropolis of Tarentaise, and vicar-general of this archdiocese on whose territory the abbey of Tamié was situated. It would be difficult for us to say how this precious relic arrived at Moûtiers, and from Tamié, enclosed in its large reliquary surmounted by a statue of the holy bishop, during the troubles of the Revolution, nor how it was preserved. But it is certain:

« 1° That Mgr de Maistre, who always took the keenest interest in what remained of the old diocese of Tarentaise, was better able than anyone to ensure the authenticity of this relic;

« 2° That he had the seal of Mgr de Solics affixed to this reliquary;

« 3° That in the official report of this pastoral visit of September 22, 1805, one reads: « We have had our seal affixed to all the relics whose authenticity has been guaranteed to us ».

« 4° That the seals of Mgr de Solics were found intact during the opening that Mgr Turinaz, Bishop of Tarentaise, had made very recently of this same reliquary to draw from it, if possible, more ample information on the authenticity of this relic;

« 5° That upon the examination of this relic made in my presence by the surgeon-physicians, Loisons father and son, it was well recognized that this bone, still covered with dried nervous filaments, and even portions of flesh prodigiously preserved, despite their eight hundred years, and on which it is written in old sigla: ex ossibus sancti Petri II, archiepiscop. Tarentasiensis, it was recognized, I say, that it was indeed the bone of the left arm.

« In the same reliquary is also found a pair of white silk gloves, medieval style, bordered in their upper part with a wide gold thread braid, which, for this reason, we believe to be the gloves of the same Saint.

« We also possess:

« 1° The portion that Canon Chevray declares, on page 215 of his History of Saint Peter, to have ceded to our cathedral from the quite considerable one he had obtained in Franche-Comté through the mediation of Canon Thiéband, secretary-general of the Archbishop of Besançon;

« 2° The crozier of this Saint, religiously preserved first in the abbey of Tamié, then transported, in 1819, to that of Novalaise (after the great French Revolution), from where it came to us, in 1856, through the benevolent mediation of Mgr Vibert, Bishop of Maurienne ».

The other relics, the reader will recall, are at Vesoul and Cirey. In the parish church of this village, where pilgrims still come to deposit their prayers and offerings, one sees the marble mausoleum that was behind the high altar of the abbey of Bellevaux; the debris of a wrought-iron grille, which closed the mausoleum, and which bears the Saint's cipher; seven small reliquaries, hidden from the searches of the revolutionaries, in which one notices gloves, a key, and various other objects that belonged to the holy archbishop of Tarentaise.

We have rewritten the history of this Life, too incomplete in Father Giry, by using, above all, the Life of the Saints of Franche-Comté, and the Life of the Saint, by Canon Chevray, in-8° which appeared in Baume in 1841.