Peter the Luxembourg

Peter of Luxembourg was born on July 20, 1369 in the capital of the county of Linyi , a member of the French Kingdom, the town of Liny-en-Barrois, in the family of Count Linyi and Saint-Paul Guy de Luxembourg-Linyi (1340-1371) and Magot Chatillon de Saint-Paul ( 1335-1378), Countess Saint-Paul . The Luxembourg-Linyi clan was the youngest, French branch of the count, famous in the Holy Roman Empire and Europe, and from 1354 the ducal clan of Luxembourg , whose representatives from 1346 to 1400 and from 1410 to 1437 were German emperors . Peter was the second son in the family.

On August 23, 1371, the father of Peter Count Guy, who supported his relative, Duke Wenzel I of Luxembourg, against the Dukes Julich and Geldern , who was left wounded on the field after the battle of Besweiler on August 22, was killed by looters.

2-year-old Petra was brought up by his aunt, mother's sister Jeanne Chatillon, Countess de Ori. From a very young age, the child was extremely devout and led a closed and contemplative lifestyle, avoiding games and communication with peers. He decided to devote his life to God and the service of the needy, abandoning a secular career, which earned the discontent of Countess Jeanne and his noble relatives, who tried to instill in Peter the values ​​of feudal knighthood. However, the boy’s unshakable stamina and his extraordinary ascetic life finally took effect, and the countess surrendered. Already at that time, Peter's entourage, seeing the way of his life, called him a saint.

At the end of 1377, Pierre began school in Paris , where he studied philosophy and theology under the supervision of Nicola Orem and Pierre d'Ailly ^{[1] [2]} . There he met with Philippe de Mezieres ^[3] .

In 1379, at the end of his studies at the Sorbonne , Peter was appointed canon of the cathedral chapel of Notre Dame and archdeacon of the Chartres church ^[4] .

According to a Belgian biographer:

The glory of his family, the brilliance of his virtue, which early matured his mind, which already replaced him with the authority of his age, forced him to listen to his advice during university troubles ...

- Émile Van Arenbergh . Luxembourg (le bienhereux Pierre de) // Biographie nationale de Belgique. T. XII, col. 621

Meanwhile, the elder brother of Peter, Earl of Ligny and Saint Paul Valere III served the King of France Charles V and was captured by the British . In 1380, Peter was sent hostage to Calais , which then belonged to England, so that Valeran could return to France without waiting for the payment of the ransom. The boy spent several months in captivity ^[5] .

In 1381, he became a canon in Cambrai , in 1382 - an archdeacon in Brussels and Dreux . Rich prebendy allowed to correct the welfare of the family, undermined by the need to pay a large ransom for Valeran ^[6] .

Having a penchant for asceticism, Pierre distributed significant sums as alms, and refused the beneficiaries in favor of his brother Andre ^[6] .

On February 10, 1384, Antipope Clement VII ^[7] , whose authority was recognized by France, part of the German lands, Castile , Aragon , Navarre and Scotland , appointed 14-year-old Peter as bishop of Metz . Pope Urban VI, supported by the Holy Roman Emperor Wenceslas , in contrast to Peter put his creations on the Metz pulpit - Tileman de Busse. Valeran with the army knocks out Urban’s supporters from Metz , and Peter enters the city on a donkey in a sign of humility and recognition of the unworthiness to occupy the episcopal chair ^[8] . On April 15 of the same year, Peter, with the support of the King of France Charles VI and the Duke Jean Berry, received the title of Cardinal Deacon with the title San Giorgio in Velabro ^[9] , was ordained in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris, in which he was canon ^{[ 5]} . In Metz, the new bishop lives unusually modestly, sharing the latter with the poor and the sick.

2 years of bloody clashes in Metz, Bulo and Thionville between the supporters of Peter and Tieleman, as a result, in 1386, Bishop Peter, to stop the strife, leaves for Paris, trying to avoid public life and devote himself entirely to God.

Seeing the young bishop's popularity among believers and wishing to enlist the support of influential Luxembourg in the fight against Urban VI , settled in Rome, Clement VII calls Peter to Avignon, where he arrived on June 4, 1386, and in November 1386 appoints a 17-year-old boy as cardinal ^{[4 ] [10] [11]} and introduces the papal curia .

Peter strove to overcome the Great Schism , for which he imposed fasts , penances , held prayer all-night vigils. The cardinal's health deteriorated, and Clement VII personally asked him to resume eating. Antipapa removed all social work from Peter and sent him to recover in the town of Villeneuve , which is located on the other side of the Rhone from Avignon. There, Peter was engaged in charity work and helped the sick and the poor, so he soon stayed in an empty room, since all the furniture and utensils were sold for this purpose, even he sold his episcopal ring ^[8] . And although Clement VII monitored the nutrition of Peter, and the meal was now regular and full, the health of the young cardinal was undermined. On July 2, 1387, Peter the Luxembourg died of tuberculosis .

Extraordinarily modest and pious for the highest church hierarch of the XIV century, life, young age and passionate faith, veneration of the Virgin Mary and the Passion of Christ - all this caused the extraordinary popularity of Peter the Luxembourg in the people during his lifetime. It was said that during a pastoral visit to Châteauneuf-du-Pap , Christ the Patient himself appeared with bloody wounds to Peter to comfort him (in this place is now the chapel of Saint-Pierre-du-Luxembourg). According to the will, he was buried on July 5, 1387 in the cemetery of St. Michael for the poor Avignon. A crowd of many thousands who came to bow to the cardinal’s body, already demanded that the young man be counted among the saints, as a result of which riots arose in the city. On July 7, Pope ordered a written record of the miracles taking place at the tomb of Peter the Luxembourg. According to the "Acts of the Saints ..." , already:

The Lord’s Summer 1387, October 5, the day of miracles 1964, of which 13 healed hopeless patients ^[12]

In 1389, the Queen of Sicily Maria lays a chapel over the tomb of Peter. Then, in 1390, Clement VII began the canonization process . The most prominent authorities undertake this: the proposal is made by King Charles VI , supported by Jean Berry , the cathedral chapter of the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris and the University of Paris . Witnesses are the most notable people: Peter’s brother Andrei of Luxembourg, Louis of Bourbon , Angerrand de Coucy ^[13] . Due to the careless attitude of Clement VII to the whole affair and his primary interest in the military operations that were being carried out near Rome with the aim of overthrowing Urban VI, no saints were counted. The process was terminated in 1394 immediately after the death of the antipope and was no longer resumed. Debates on the canonization of Peter took place at the Basel Cathedral in 1431-1449 , but did not give a positive result, they opened only the process of beatification (in 1432), which lasted until 1527. Under pressure from France, Pope Clement VII beatified, and on April 9, 1527 Peter the Luxembourg was declared blessed. The reason that the process of canonization was not carried through to the end was that Peter's name was extremely firmly tied to the church schism, although he tried his best to overcome it, and that his patron Clement VII was subsequently declared anti-dad.

Despite the failure of the canonization process, Peter the Luxembourg gained extreme popularity and love in southern France, especially in Provence , as well as in Lorraine , Luxembourg , the Duchy of Savoy . In 1395, the brother of Peter Jean, Count de Brienne and de Conversano , laid the foundation of the church of St. Celestine V (in 1401 the remains of Peter were transferred there from the church of St. Michael and Clement VII of the Cathedral of Avignon ). This church became a pilgrimage center, later a celestine monastery was attached. The Celestine monastery was founded by King Charles VI, in imitation of the Paris shrine, the most revered then among the highest nobility and the place where Peter studied. The Dukes Louis of Orleans , Jean Berry and Philip of Burgundy arrived there in order to lay the first stone on behalf of the king. Pierre Salmon tells how a few years later he already listened to mass in a chapel dedicated to Peter the Luxembourg ^[14] .

In Avignon, on the day of Peter's burial (July 5), which was non-working, unusually large-scale and magnificent ceremonies and a street procession were held . In 1432, Peter the Luxembourg was declared the patron saint of Avignon. The heyday of his cult fell on the XVII century. By the decision of the vice legate of Avignon of July 3, 1600, the celebration of the day of Pierre de Luxembourg was elevated to the rank of festivals called reserved ( de précepte ) ^[6] . In the 19th century, throughout Provence, the brotherhoods involved in the training and education of young people were called the "Brotherhood of Peter the Luxembourg."

After beatification, Memorial Day moved to July 2. The relics of the blessed, scattered during the revolution , on January 1, 1854 were placed in the church of Saint Desiderius (Saint-Didier) in Avignon ^{[10] [6]} .

In Villeneuve-les-Avignon is the Museum of Peter the Luxembourg (musée Pierre-de-Luxembourg).

The image of Peter the Luxembourg appears mainly from evidence on the canonization process created by contemporaries who personally know it (recall that the process began only 2 years after the cardinal’s death). Outwardly, he is described as very tall (it is worth saying that at that time the average height of a man was about 160 cm, so for our time this concept is relative: 180 cm is already a similar characteristic for the 14th century) and very thin (which is not surprising , taking into account the permanent posts). Peter led an extremely ascetic life, constantly in fasting, prayer and the recognition of his sinfulness, which he tried to correct with regular confession, penance and help to his neighbors. Froissart , the great chronicler and contemporary of Peter, wrote of him like this:

"Soft, courteous, and benevolent, <...> like a girl, with a body generous with alms. He spent most of the day and night in prayer. In all his life there was nothing but humility" ^[15]

Next, we give the floor to Johan Huizinge , a famous connoisseur of the late Middle Ages:

Pyotr Luxemburg is an excessively lanky consumptive young man who has not known anything since childhood but a serious and zealous attitude to faith. He reproaches his younger brother when he laughs - for it is written that our Lord cried, but it is not said anywhere that he ever laughed. {...}. First, a noble circle tries to dissuade him from the intention to renounce the world. When he says that he would like to wander around the world and preach, he hears in response: You, they say, are too tall, everyone immediately recognizes you. And you can not stand the cold. To preach the crusade - how will you succeed? For a moment, it seems as though the deep foundations of this modest and adamant spirit are being revealed to us. "Je vois bien," says Peter, "qu'on me veut faire venir de bonne voye a la malvaise: certes, certes, si je m'y mets, je feray tant que tout le monde parlera de moy" ["I See , <...> they want me to turn from the good path to the bad: truly, truly, if I make an effort, I’ll make such a thing that the whole world will talk about me. ”] Sir, sir Jean de Marsh answers, his confessor, there is no one who would like you to do evil - only good ^[14] .

There is no doubt that noble relatives, when the boy's ascetic inclinations turned out to be ineradicable, felt amazement and pride in this connection. A saint, so young, a saint who lived among them and came out of their midst! He was a puny, sickly young man, bearing the burden of his high dignity, surrounded by the immeasurable luxury and arrogance that distinguished life at the court of the Dukes of Berry and Burgundy; he himself is unsightly, covered in mud and parasites, invariably busy with his petty, insignificant sins. Confession itself has become a painful habit for him. Every day he wrote down his sins on a piece of paper; if, being on the way, he could not do this, then, having returned, he spent hours sitting at this occupation. You could see how at night he writes or reads with his candle his little leaves. Sometimes he gets up in the middle of the night to confess to one of his chaplains. It also happened that he knocked in vain on them: they pretended to be deaf. When he nevertheless found himself a listener, he read to him his sins, recorded on pieces of paper. If before this happened no more than two or three times a week, recently it has happened twice a day; the confessor could no longer move away from him. And when he finally lost his temper from consumption, expressing a desire to be buried like a poor man, a full casket of little notes with the sins of this tiny life, scratched on them, was discovered day after day ^[14] .

In the French historical television series 2012, The Inquisition, the role of Peter the Luxembourg was played by Bastien Bouillon.

• Huizinga, J. Autumn of the Middle Ages. The study of life forms and forms of thinking in the XIV and XV centuries in France and the Netherlands / Transl. from the Dutch D.V. Silverstov. - online version. - Library of the history of culture, 2007. - P.145,146. - 349 p.
• Acta Sanctorum Bollandiana, July, vol. 1, p. 846.
• Ailenor de Poitiers. Les honneurs de la cour / Ed. La Curne de Sainte Palaye, Memoires sur l'ancienne chevalerie (edit. De 1781). - v. 2, p. 190.
• Luxembourg (Pierre de) // Nouvelle Biographie générale. T. XXXII. - P .: Firmin Didot, 1860.
• Migne J.-P. , Berton Ch. Pierre de Luxembourg // Dictionnaire des cardinaux. - P .: J.-P. Migne, 1857. , coll. 1390-1398
• Van Arenbergh, Émile. Luxembourg (le bienhereux Pierre de) // Biographie nationale de Belgique. T. XII. - Bruxelles: Bruylant-Christophe & Cie, 1892. , coll. 621-624

• The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church . Date of treatment August 18, 2016.
• Bienheureux Pierre de Luxembourg (Fr.) (04.24.2008). Date of treatment August 18, 2016.
• Peter the Luxembourg, blj. (unspecified) . Catholic Russia. Date of treatment August 18, 2016.
• Peter of Luxembourg (Neopr.) . Yakov Krotov . Dictionary of saints. Date of treatment August 18, 2016.