Blessed Peter of Luxembourg

At the age of ten, he was sent to pursue his studies in Paris, where, in a few years, he made great progress, both in the humanities and in philosophy and canon law, which he learned perfectly. He was nevertheless interrupted in his course by an unfortunate accident: the captivity of Valéran, his elder brother, who had become Count of Saint-Pol, and who was taken prisoner of war by the English in a battle between the troops of the King of France and those of the King of England. No sooner had the Blessed Peter learned this news than he left everything to go to Calais, where he agreed with the enemies to remain with them as a hostage while his brother would go himself to gather the sum they demanded for his ransom. This affair lasted nine months, during which the holy young man so won the hearts of the English that they gave him the freedom to go wherever he wished on his word of honor. The King of England even asked him several times, through very obliging letters, to come and meet him in London, where he assured him he would be welcome.

But the Count of Saint-Pol having finally returned with the sum that was to restore their freedom, our Saint let his obligations take precedence over his curiosity and resumed the road to Paris to complete his studies; he returned to his exercises of piety with more fervor than ever, and accompanied them with new mortifications, afflicting his body with fasts, vigils, disciplines, and other austerities that he practiced with invincible courage. It was then that he formed a close friendship with Philippe de Maizières , former chancellor o Philippe de Maizières Former chancellor of Cyprus, friend and spiritual advisor to Peter among the Celestines. f the kingdoms of Cyprus and Jerusalem, who, having recognized through a thousand experiences the vanity of the grandeurs and pleasures of this world, had retired to the Celestin es of Paris, where Célestins de Paris The primary religious order to which Jean Bassand belonged. , under a secular habit, he led a penitent and religious life. This excellent man moderated a little the ardor with which our blessed student was inclined toward bodily austerities; but at the same time, he helped him greatly to profit in the life of the spirit, to advance in the practice of prayer, and to make the presence of God and humble and loving conversation with Him familiar and almost continuous.

On the other hand, the Count of Saint-Pol, his brother, who later became Constable of France, fearing that this pious assiduity in the Celestines' convent might withdraw him entirely from the world and his family by engaging him in monastic life, procured for him a canonry in the cathedral church of Paris, while waiting for his age to allow for a more significant ecclesiastical dignity. The Saint accepted this benefice with respect, as an honor of which he deemed himself unworthy, and he behaved there with such humility that one day, when the clerk who was to carry the cross in a procession refused to do so out of pride, he took it with incredible joy and ardor, and carried it in such a modest manner that he drew upon himself the esteem and admiration of all the Parisians; it seemed, upon seeing him, that one was looking at an angel in human form, and sparks of a celestial fire emanated from his eyes and his entire face, which clearly showed that his heart was entirely filled and possessed by divine love. His holiness and the distinction of his family led several prelates to attach him to their Church through some dignity. Thus, he was successively named archdeacon of Dreux, in the diocese of Chartres, and of Brussels, in the former diocese of Cambrai. The antipope Clement VII, w ho was recognized as t L'antipape Clément VII Avignon pope during the Great Western Schism, he appointed Pierre as bishop and later as cardinal. he true Pope in France, where he had established his seat in the city of Avignon, being informed of his eminent holiness, and desiring moreover to have great men on his side to authorize his party, had no difficulty in creating him Bishop of Metz, although he was only six Metz City where the saint received his theological training. teen years old. Our holy Canon did what he could to defend himself against a charge that he believed exceeded his strength and should even strike terror into the Angels, as Saint Bernard says. Believing himself nevertheless obliged to obey the one whom his good faith led him to recognize as the head of all the faithful, he bowed his head under the yoke and submitted his shoulders to the weight of this burden.

He therefore came to his diocese and made his public entry in to M Metz City where the saint received his theological training. etz, not with the majesty of a prince nor with the pomp and splendor of a great lord, but barefoot, mounted only on a donkey, like a humble disciple of Jesus Christ. Having taken possession of the episcopal dignity, he applied himself generously to fulfilling all its duties, and God giving him, at such an early age, the wisdom and maturity of an old man, he worked throughout his diocese with wonderful success to strengthen the faith, to disarm vice, and to put into effect the holiest laws of Christianity. His charity then appeared in all its brilliance: for, being persuaded that the revenues of bishops and benefice-holders are the goods of the Church and the poor, he divided his into three equal parts, destined the first to repair ruined temples and to build new ones, and then to provide them with the vessels and ornaments necessary for the celebration of the divine Mysteries; he consecrated the second to the support of the poor, widows, and orphans, and took for himself and his entire household only the third, from which he even quite often cut something to increase the portion of the needy and all those he saw in misery.

Some cities revolted against him and chose new magistrates without his participation, which was an attack on a right that his predecessors had always enjoyed. The Count of Saint-Pol, his brother, had no sooner been informed of this than he advanced with troops to bring the rebels back to their duty. The holy Bishop was extremely mortified by this incident, and with his own patrimony, he even compensated the rebels for the losses they had suffered. Such charity won him all hearts.

However, as the report of a life so full of wonders continued to spread on all sides, Clement VI I wished to Clément VII Avignon pope during the Great Western Schism, he appointed Pierre as bishop and later as cardinal. have him at his court to shower him with new honors. It was only with reluctance that the blessed Peter left his diocese to go to Avignon to be with him; but, ho Avignon City of which Saint Rufus was the first bishop and founder of the church. lding him to be the legitimate Pope, as he was held in France, Spain, and other places, he believed himself still obliged to submit to his orders. As soon as he arrived, His Holiness created him Cardinal of the title of Saint-George in Velabro, thinking that such a brilliant and beneficent star should be placed in a part of the Church that was in the sight of all the faithful, so that they could receive its light and feel its favorable influences. Peter remained quite confused by an honor of which he deemed himself unworthy, and which no motive other than obedience would ever have been capable of making him accept. Also, fearing that the pomp and delicacies of the Avignon court might inspire him with vanity and softness, he redoubled his vigils, prayers, fasts, and other mortifications; on the days of fasting commanded by the Church, he contented himself with bread and water; he also fasted very rigorously throughout Advent, and on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays of each week; the use of the hair shirt, the cilice, and the discipline was also very common for him; finally, he reduced himself to a way of life so austere that those who were informed of it were astonished that he could survive with such great rigor. Clement, being warned that if he did not intervene, he would soon lose this excellent subject whom he had just elevated, and who could be so useful to the Church in the future, sent for him to remonstrate with him. When this blessed penitent entered, he appeared to the Pope, as well as to the Cardinal of Cambrai who was speaking with him, all radiant and surrounded by light. Clement, having dismissed the cardinal, said to Peter: "I am happy to see that there are still holy people in the Church who enlighten the faithful with the pure lights of their interior, breaking, so to speak, through mortification and penance, the fragile vessels of their bodies; as for you, you honor me by the holiness that shines in all your actions: for everyone, upon seeing you, applauds the choice I made in naming you cardinal. However, I cannot approve of the great rigor and inexorable severity that you exercise against yourself, in the rank to which divine Providence has raised you! You must live less for yourself than for the souls redeemed at the infinite price of the blood of Jesus Christ; you must preserve yourself for them, instead of committing suicide through indiscreet austerities; I therefore exhort you and even command you to bring moderation to this severity, to treat your body henceforth, not as an enemy, but as a faithful companion in your labors, for fear of becoming a homicide of yourself and guilty before God by giving it more burden than it could bear." The humble Peter, confused by these words, replied modestly that he was only an unprofitable servant, and nevertheless promised to do what His Holiness ordered; then he threw himself at his feet to receive his blessing. Clement embraced him as his brother by the episcopal dignity, and as his son because of his youth and his quality as a sheep of Jesus Christ; but he was very surprised, while embracing him, to smell an excellent odor that emanated from his whole person. He thought at first that his clothes had been perfumed; but, having inquired if this were so, he learned that, far from wearing perfumed clothes, he did not even allow any of his own to use scents to make themselves more agreeable; thus, he recognized that the one he had smelled while embracing him was a supernatural odor that came from the purity of his soul, which reflected onto his body: he later assured a cardinal of this, who was himself surprised that the blessed Peter always smelled so good, and that one could not approach him without being perfumed.

If he had had so much charity for the poor before his episcopate and during his stay in his diocese, it seems that he wanted to practice this virtue to the highest degree since he saw himself promoted to the cardinalate. Indeed, not content with having destined, by an express vow, the third part of his income to the relief of the suffering members of Jesus Christ, nor with having applied another third to the repair of churches, he also stole from himself and from the comforts of his house almost all the rest that he had reserved for his own use, in order to spread it upon the needs of his neighbor; and, as he knew what Our Lord prescribes in the Gospel, to give one's alms in secret as much as possible, he sometimes disguised himself to go and throw to the poor, through their windows, what his mercy inspired him to give them. The one who had the care of his expenses, seeing that these excessive liberalities sometimes made him lack the necessities for food and clothing, took the liberty of expressing his feelings to him and telling him that, in truth, it was a very praiseworthy thing to provide for the needs of the poor, but that one must, in this, avoid excess and not take the bread from oneself to give it to those who could have it elsewhere. But the blessed Peter, to whom this prudence of the flesh was unknown, replied without being moved: "That his house would never lack anything, provided that it established its treasure in heaven, and that it was from there alone that it should expect its needs and its abundance." Also, despite this remonstrance, he always remained firm in his charitable practices. He had this holy custom, when he went out, of having alms given to all the beggars who appeared at his door. One day, seeing one of his men treat one of these unfortunates a little harshly, he reprimanded him strongly, and, from that time on, he gave charity himself without relying on anyone. Another time, while going through the city, a poor man addressed him directly, and, exposing his misery and hunger, begged him, in the name of God, to give him charity. He had no money at that time; but, unable to turn away a member of his Savior, he immediately sent to sell the ring from his finger: which served to relieve this unfortunate man and many others who presented themselves afterward.

If his love for the poor was so ardent, the one he had for poverty was no less so; although he was born in the splendor of an illustrious and opulent house, and his rank in the Church obliged him to live in the midst of the splendors of a court, he nevertheless never had more than one habit, and did not leave it to take another until it was completely worn out. His table was extremely frugal, his furniture common, and his savings were so empty that after his death only twenty sous were found in his coffers, the hands of the poor having carried the rest of his treasures into heaven. He extended this zeal for poverty even to the ceremonies of his burial: he chose it in the cemetery of the poor, and ordered that his body be covered only with a sheet of coarse cloth, marked on it with a red cross, and that only three lighted candles be carried, two at the head and one at the feet, to honor the most Holy Trinity.

There is no doubt that a man of such high perfection loved mental prayer greatly, and that he spent his most precious hours of the day and night in it. One cannot describe the extraordinary graces he received in private during this exercise, because his humility caused him to keep them secret; but Our Lord wished to give us some samples of them through two raptures that occurred to him in public following an intense application to the mystery of the Passion and the wounds of the Savior. One day, as he was going from his palace to the church of Saint-Pierre in Avignon, Our L ord, having surrounded Saint-Pierre d'Avignon City of which Saint Rufus was the first bishop and founder of the church. him with a great light, appeared to him on the cross and filled him with a marvelous ardor and unction; his heart melting with devotion, he fell into a faint in the hands of those who accompanied him; they were obliged to carry him into the nearest house, which is believed to have been the hospital of Saint-Antoine, where he remained in ecstasy for half an hour. The other ecstasy happened to him at Neufchâtel, near Avignon, following Clement: finding himself suddenly covered in light and consoled by the presence of Our Lord, who again had the kindness to visit him, he knelt in the middle of the mud to adore Him, and remained there for a long time in a state of rapture, without his clothes being soiled in the least.

It was to be wished that such an adorable life would continue for a long time to enlighten and edify the faithful; but God, who had advanced the holiness of His servant by giving him, at eighteen years of age, what the greatest Saints had difficulty acquiring in sixty years, also wished to advance his crown. Thus, ten months after his promotion to the cardinalate, he was seized by a fever that was first attributed to his penances, but which the doctors soon judged to be dangerous and mortal. They advised him to change the air and to be carried to Villeneuve, on the la Villeneuve Place of death of Blessed Pierre. nds of France, beyond the bridge of Avignon; he consented very willingly, not that he desired health, but to distance himself further from the troubles and storms of the court, the air of which was unbearable to him. He was also obliged to take baths, which he did not refuse, because he was so dead to his own will that he let himself be led blindly in all things. And since then, the water in which he had been bathed served for the healing of many sick people. Great as his illness was, he did not fail to recite his entire office, or, if the violence of the malady and his extreme weakness prevented him from pronouncing the words, he had it recited in his presence, so that by hearing it, he would have new help to raise himself to God and to produce acts of the most excellent virtues; and it was noted that while his tongue, all burning with the ardor of the fever, remained without speech, his heart, even more inflamed with the flames of divine love, sent forth continuous sighs toward heaven, where all his happiness and all his hope lay. He also received communion every day, and confessed twice a day, morning and evening, in order to receive the grace of interior purity with greater abundance. His illness having increased and leaving no hope of recovery, he received the holy Sacrament as Viaticum, which he did with a fervor and devotion worthy of his piety. Then, having caught sight of one of his brothers, named André, who was later Bishop of Cambrai, he gave him very salutary instructions for his conduct, and, recommending their beloved sister, Jeanne de Luxembourg, to him, he asked him to give her a small Treatise on perfection that he had composed in her favor. It is this sister to whom he had made a vow of virginity at the age of twelve, and who always led a very exemplary and very salutary life.

Our holy cardinal also performed, in his final moments, a very surprising act of humility and penance; having summoned all his servants before him, he asked their pardon for not having always edified them and for having treated them as his servants and not as his brothers, although they were in truth his brothers, since they were the children of God and the members of Jesus Christ, and he obliged them absolutely to strike his shoulders with his discipline. It is easy to judge that they defended themselves from it as much as they could; but they could not refuse this punishment to his prayers and tears, especially since he had made them promise beforehand that they would do what he asked of them. Then, he gave them the kiss of peace and his blessing, and, shortly after, having his spirit raised to God, and his heart all burning to possess Him, he rendered his beautiful soul, which had not been eighteen years in his chaste body, on July 2, 1387.

Clement VII, informed of this death, immediately traveled to Villeneuve to honor this great servant of God. Thus, he himself witnessed the extraordinary beauty that appeared on his face and the wonderful fragrance that emanated from his limbs, which surpassed all the sweetness of the perfumes of the earth: this led him to say many things in praise of the holy deceased. If one is to believe some authors, while he was looking at him fixedly, the blessed cardinal cast a glance at him that filled him with astonishment and dread and forced him to withdraw the following night to the Charterhouse of Villeneuve, where he spent it in prayer; it was perhaps to warn him that, recognizing then the truth of his schism, which he had not known while he was on earth, he no longer had for him the veneration he had held until his death, and to exhort him to put an end to the division and to restore peace to the Church. Be that as it may, Clement, knowing that he had ordered in his will to be buried in the cemetery of Saint-Michel in Avignon if he died in the county, and in the cemetery of the Holy Innocents in Paris if he died outside the county, had his body transferred to Avignon, where he was interred in the place he had chosen for his burial.

Blessed Peter of Luxembourg is represented: 1st in prayer, dressed in his pontifical vestments; 2nd crowned by an angel: beside him are seen the insignia of the cardinalate; 3rd barefoot and mounted on a donkey, making his entry into his episcopal city; 4th seeing Jesus crucified appearing to him to reward him for his spirit of detachment, which he pushed to the highest degree; 5th near the bridge of Avignon, as patron of that city; 6th a painting was kept in the collegiate church of Notre-Dame d'Autun which represented him in ecstasy, and at the bottom of which one could read these words that he often repeated: "Despise the world, despise yourself, rejoice in the contempt of yourself, but take care not to despise anyone."

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

The miracles that our Saint performed before he was laid in the ground and since he was in the tomb are so illustrious and so numerous that there are few blessed ones whose holiness God has declared in a more authentic manner; there are even forty dead who were resurrected through his intercession. This is why, shortly after, a chapel was erected above his sepulcher, and subsequently, the church and convent of the Celestines of Avignon were built on the same site; it is in the church of these religious that the body of the Blessed was kept, enshrined under a magnificent mausoleum. The city of Avignon took him as its patron in 1432, on the occasion of a striking prodigy that occurred at his tomb on July 5, the day of his burial, on which his feast has since been celebrated. It carried his precious head in procession under a canopy.

On this feast, Pope Clement VII authorized the recitation of his office, which is that of a confessor who is not a pontiff. His memory was celebrated in Roubaix, before the Revolution, in the chapel of Sainte-Elexbeul, built by the parents of the Blessed. The current chapel of Saint-Druon, in Carvin-Epinoy, a cantonal capital twenty-six kilometers northeast of Arras, was dedicated to Saint Druon and Blessed Peter of Luxembourg. The chaplain was appointed by the abbot of the monastery of Saint-Pierre de Gand. This benefice had been created and founded by the Prince of Melun-Epinoy, husband of Yolande of Luxembourg, Lady of Roubaix, Cyaing, etc.

His precious relics are still preserved today in Avignon, in the church of Saint-Didier.

We read in a monograph of Blessed Peter of Luxembourg, which bears the date 1710: "The city of Avignon is not the only one that honors the holy Cardinal and that implores his intercession in its needs. There is no monastery of Celestines where he is not invoked by the people, and their church in Paris sees every day sick people who come to address their prayer to him and ask to touch his mantle. It is rose-colored, such as cardinals wear on the third Sunday of Advent and the fourth of Lent. God, who has renewed at the tomb of this blessed child the miracles that were performed at those of the greatest Saints, renews in Paris, by the touching of his mantle, those that were formerly performed by the handkerchiefs of Saint Paul, by the shadow of Saint Peter, and by the fringe of the robe of Jesus Christ."

One can still see in Ligny, among the ruins of the old feudal castle of Luxembourg, the room where our Ble ssed Liguy Birthplace of Blessed Peter of Luxembourg. was born. It is a square room, vaulted in a cloister arch, lit by two windows whose embrasures are lined with stone benches, and on the vault of which one can read the date 1191. This room is still used today to house wrongdoers, vagabonds, and convicts: It is called the Saint-Pierre Room. It is to be regretted that an apartment, once illustrious for such a glorious birth, has only such a profane destination. The tower, known as the Luxembourg tower, adjoining the room, formerly formed the north corner of the castle of Ligny. It was built in 1191, and was one of those that defended the eastern gate of this castle; its collateral, which bore the name of Tower of the Cannons, was demolished in 1747. It has a height of twenty-two meters, with a diameter of about seven meters.

The city of Ligny possessed only an acorn from his hat as remains of the holy Cardinal. Informed that his relics, formerly dispersed following the wars and the Revolution, had been happily found by Mgr Debclay, Archbishop of Avignon, it claimed, through its factory council, a share in this precious treasure. The venerable prelate welcomed such legitimate wishes with as much benevolence as generosity, and sent to the parish an illustrious relic, whose arrival in Ligny (July 9, 1854) was the signal for one of those religious and popular festivals that only faith knows how to inspire. Mgr Bussat, Bishop of Verdun, went himself to Ligny to preside over its translation. Mgr Didiot, Bishop of Bayeux, then Vicar General of the diocese of Verdun, delivered the panegyric of our Blessed.

Regarding the writings of our Blessed one, here is a summary of what we read in the monograph cited earlier: "The attentive reading of his works, contained in an ancient manuscript of the Celestines of Paris, allows them to be distinguished into five different writings.

"The first is an instruction that the Saint gives to a sinner to teach him how he must return to God, and what he must do after he has reconciled with Him to preserve the grace he has received; this work is filled with very solid rules and maxims.

"The second is an apology for prayer, considered as a means of obtaining the grace without which the sinner cannot return to God through a true conversion: the author gives ten rules or precepts on the manner of praying.

"The third is a collection of short and simple, yet solid and useful maxims on morality. The Saint composed them for the people of his diocese, for he begins them with these words: Dearest brothers and sisters.

"The fourth is a letter he addresses to his sister Jeanne of Luxembourg: as she felt shaken in the resolution she had taken to be entirely for God and Jeanne de Luxembourg Elder sister of Pierre, to whom he pledged her virginity and addressed spiritual writings. never to engage in the world, the author strengthens her in her initial plans. This letter recalls the one that Saint Paul addressed to the faithful unsettled by false teachers.

"The fifth is a second letter to his sister: in it, he makes an apology for prudence and charity, two essential virtues for resisting the strongest temptations of the devil."

Acta Sanctorum; Histoire de l'Église catholique, by Mgr Jager; Vies des Saints des diocèses de Cambrai et d'Arras, by Abbé Destembes; Histoire du diocèse de Toul, by Abbé Guillaume; Godescard; Chroniques Barroises.