head down, beginning with the papacy. He attended
the synod of Sutri (1046), at which three papal claim-
ants were removed and a new pope was installed; he
also attended reform synods held by popes Clement
II and Leo IX. For Leo IX, Damian wrote his fi rst
major treatise, the Book of Gomorrah, against for-
bidden sexual practices among the clergy, including
homosexuality.
Although Damian was always reluctant to leave the
rigors of monastic life, he was forced by Pope Stephen
IX to enter the college of cardinals, as bishop of Ostia
(perhaps in 1057). He then became a fervent advocate
of papal primacy, which he enforced in an important
legation that he undertook to settle disputes in the church
of Milan (1059), subordinating the alleged privileges of
that church to Roman norms. In support of the pope’s
universal powers, he encouraged the making of an early
collection of canonistic texts. Yet among reformers he
was a moderate, as he showed in his conciliatory attitude
toward the imperial court and in his treatise Liber gratis-
simus, in which—contrary to the opinion of Cardinal
Humbert of Silva Candida—he defended the validity
of sacraments performed by clergy who had committed
simony or lived in concubinage.
In 1067, after making several requests, Damian was
allowed to abdicate his bishopric and return to Fonte
Avellana. Throughout his career, he had continued to
practice spiritual devotions, instituting liturgies in honor
of Christ’s passion and of the Virgin Mary, attending
to the needs of the poor, and infl icting on himself ev-
ery rigor of spiritual warfare, including hairshirts and
fl agellation.
In the last years of his life, the papacy called him
from monastic retirement for other diplomatic missions:
to Florence (1066–1067), to adjudge charges of simony
against the archbishop; to Frankfurt (1069), to persuade
King Henry IV to abandon an intended divorce; and to
Ravenna (1072), to release the city and its bishop from
an excommunication they had incurred through adher-
ence to the antipope Honorius II (Cadalus of Parma).
Returning from Ravenna, Damian died in the monastery
of Santa Maria foris Portam in Faenza.
The exceptional range of Peter Damian’s learning
and achievement is plain in the large body of his extant
writings. These include 180 letters (some of which are
actually treatises on ascetic and mystical theology) and
about fi fty sermons, as well as legal briefs and devo-
tional works such as prayers, hymns, and accounts of
the deeds of saints.
Miracles had been ascribed to Peter Damian during
his lifetime, and from the moment of his death he was
venerated as a saint. In 1828, he was proclaimed a doc-
tor of the church.
See also Leo IX, Pope
Further ReadingEditions
Die Briefe des Petrus Damiani, 4 vols., ed. Kurt Reindel. Die
Briefe der Deutschen Kaiserzeit, 4(1–4). Munich: Monumenta
Germaniae Historica, 1983–1993.
Lettre sur la Toute-Puissance divine, ed. André Cantin. Sources
Chrétiennes, 191. Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1972.
Sancti Petri Damiani sermones, ed. Giovanni Lucchesi. Cor-
pus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis, 57. Turnhout:
Brepols, 1983.
Translations
Book of Gomorrah: An Eleventh-Century Treatise against Cleri-
cal Homosexual Practices, trans. Pierre J. Payer. Waterloo,
Ont.: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1982.
The Letters of Peter Damian, 4 vols., trans. Owen J. Blum. Fa-
thers of the Church, Mediaeval Continuation. Washington,
D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1989–. (Letters
1–120.)
Selected Writings on the Spiritual Life, trans. Patricia McNulty.
London: Faber and Faber, 1959.
Critical Studies
Blum, Owen J. Saint Peter Damian: His Teaching on the Spiritual
Life. Studies in Mediaeval History, n.s. 10. Washington, D.C.:
Catholic University of America, 1947.
Cantin, André. Les sciences séculières et la foi: Les deux voies de
la science au jugement de Saint Pierre Damien, 1007–1072.
Pubblicazioni, Centro Italiano di Studi sull’ Alto Medioevo, 5.
Spoleto: Centro Italiano di Studi sull’ Alto Medioevo, 1975.
Fornasari, Giuseppe. Medioevo riformato del secolo XI: Pier
Damiani e Gregorio VII. Naples: Liguori, 1996.
Freund, Stephan. Studien zur literarischen Wirksamkeit des Petrus
Damiani. Hannover: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 1995.
Resnick, Irven Michael. Divine Power and Possibility in Saint
Peter Damian’s “De Divina Omnipotentia.” Leiden: Brill,
1992.
Ryan, John Joseph [Jack Lord]. Saint Peter Damian and His
Canonical Sources: A Preliminary Study in the Antecedents
of the Gregorian Reform. Studies and Texts, Pontifi cal Insti-
tute of Medieval Studies, 2. Toronto: Pontifi cium Institutum
Studiorum Mediae Aetatis, 1956.
Karl F. MorrisonDANIEL THE ABBOT (fl. 1106–1118)
The earliest Russian travel writer, known for his jour-
neys to the Levant (c. 1106 and 1107), and for his visit
to Palestine during the reign of Baldwin I, the Latin
king of Jerusalem (1100–1118). The abbot of a Russian
monastery, Daniel began the account of his journey at
Constantinople. He crossed the Bosporus, sailed through
the Dardanelles and into the Mediterranean, and headed
to Ephesus, Patmos, and Rhodes. From there he traveled
to Jaffa and Jerusalem, entering that city through the
western Gate of Benjamin.
His account of the sea journey is an itinerary of
the marvelous: the sacred oil that rose from the sea in
honor of martyrs near Heraclea, the Tomb of St. John
and the Seven Sleepers, the miraculous cross of St.DANIEL THE ABBOT