Blessed Peter of Luxembourg

Blessed Peter of Luxembourg (French: Pierre de Luxembourg; born 19 July 1369, Ligny-en-Barrois, Lorraine, France — died 2 July 1387, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France) was a French Catholic prelate, Bishop of Metz and Cardinal, who died at the age of eighteen and was celebrated for extreme asceticism and personal holiness amid the turmoil of the Western Schism. Born to one of the most powerful noble families of France — a junior branch of the House of Luxembourg — he was orphaned in early childhood and showed from his youth an extraordinary intensity of religious devotion: rigorous fasting, prolonged prayer, the wearing of a hair shirt, and the obsessive confession of even the smallest faults, which he recorded in personal notebooks. Appointed Bishop of Metz in 1384 and Cardinal in 1385 by the Avignon claimant to the papacy, Antipope Clement VII, he served his diocese with diligence before being driven out by political faction and retreating to a Carthusian monastery near Avignon, where he died. Although his ecclesiastical appointments came from an antipope, the personal holiness of Peter was never doubted; he was named patron of Avignon in 1432 and was beatified by Pope Clement VII (the legitimate sixteenth-century pope, Giulio de' Medici) on 9 April 1527. His feast is observed on 2 July.

Stored in Cargo: Blessed Peter of Luxembourg

Blessed Peter of Luxembourg
Feast Day	July 02
Profession	Cardinal; Bishop; ascetic; confessor
Rel. Affiliation	Catholic Church
Patronage	Avignon; Luxembourg; young people; those unjustly accused
Attributes	Cardinal's red hat and habit; hair shirt; devotional notebooks
Birthplace	Ligny-en-Barrois, Lorraine, France
Death Place	Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Provence, France
Cause of Death	Exhaustion from severe penances and illness; died July 2, 1387, age 18
Primary Shrine	Chartreuse du Val-de-Bénédiction, Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France
Liturgical Class	Not in the General Roman Calendar; observed in the Diocese of Verdun and by Franciscan Observants; patron feast in Avignon and Luxembourg
Historic Class	Not included

Biography

Birth and family

Pierre de Luxembourg was born on 19 July 1369 at the castle of Ligny-sur-Ornain (Ligny-en-Barrois) in Lorraine. He was the second son of Guy I of Luxembourg, Count of Ligny, and his wife Mahaut de Châtillon, Countess of Saint-Pol. The family was a cadet branch of the House of Luxembourg, closely related to the reigning comital dynasty; Pierre's uncles included several of the most powerful figures in French politics of the period. His father Guy died in 1371, when Pierre was barely two years old, and his mother Mahaut died in 1378. The orphaned child was entrusted to the care of his aunt, Jeanne of Luxembourg, Countess of Saint-Pol, who took him to Paris and supervised his upbringing there.

Childhood piety and education

From a very young age Pierre showed a religious intensity that was extraordinary even by the standards of a pious medieval household. He fasted frequently beyond what was required, wore a hair shirt, spent long hours in prayer, and — most characteristically — confessed his sins with a scrupulosity that went far beyond ordinary devotion. He is said to have kept small notebooks (cahiers) in which he recorded every fault he could recall, carrying them to his confessor and erasing entries only after they had been absolved. This practice, documented by his confessors and biographers, became one of the most memorable details of his reputation for holiness.

In Paris, Pierre became a canon of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris (1379) as well as of the cathedrals of Chartres and Cambrai, and was appointed Archdeacon of Dreux. These were benefices, not implying residence; but they testified to his family's influence and, for his contemporaries, to an early expectation that he would play a significant role in the Church.

Bishop of Metz and Cardinal

The Western Schism divided the Catholic Church from 1378 onwards between two claimants to the papacy: Urban VI in Rome and Clement VII in Avignon. France, and with it the Luxembourg family, adhered to the Avignon obedience. In December 1384 the Avignon pope Clement VII — who hoped to consolidate support among the French nobility by promoting young members of great families to high ecclesiastical office — appointed Pierre Bishop of Metz, at the age of fifteen. He was one of the youngest bishops in the Church's history. In 1385 Clement VII further created him Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Domnica, one of the seven deaconal titles of Rome — raising him to the College of Cardinals at the age of fifteen or sixteen.

The political situation in Metz was turbulent. The city was divided in its obedience during the schism, and Pierre needed armed escort to take possession of his see against the faction loyal to the Roman pope Urban VI. Despite this inauspicious beginning, he threw himself into his episcopal duties with energy: he preached, reformed abuses, and worked to promote peace between the warring factions in his city. At the same time he kept up his fierce ascetic regime — fasting, vigils, the hair shirt — to a degree that alarmed even his closest associates and undermined his never-robust health.

Retreat and death

By 1386 Pierre had been effectively expelled from his diocese by the forces of the rival obedience, and he renounced the bishopric. Weary of political conflict and sensing that his health was failing, he withdrew from Avignon to the Carthusian monastery of the Val-de-Bénédiction at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, just across the Rhône from Avignon. There he sought to live as simply as possible, continuing his penances and his characteristic habit of confessing even the most minute faults.

He died at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on 2 July 1387, aged eighteen. According to his biographers, the Carthusian monks who attended him were moved by the serenity of his death and by the evident holiness that pervaded his short life.

Cult

The cult of Peter of Luxembourg spread rapidly after his death, fuelled by numerous reported miracles at his tomb. Formal inquiries into his sanctity were opened almost immediately, gathering testimony from many witnesses to his life and to miraculous cures attributed to his intercession. The city of Avignon adopted him as its patron saint in 1432. His cause attracted the advocacy of major theological figures; Jean Gerson, the celebrated Chancellor of the University of Paris, wrote in support of his beatification.

The beatification was finally enacted by Pope Clement VII (the legitimate pope, Giulio de' Medici) on 9 April 1527 — exactly 140 years after Peter's death. No note of irony was apparently felt about a pope named Clement VII confirming the cult of a saint whose ecclesiastical appointments had come from the antipope of the same name: the personal holiness of the young cardinal had long since overshadowed the constitutional ambiguity of his origins.

Significant events

• Born July 19, 1369 at Ligny-en-Barrois; noble Luxembourg family; orphaned by age four.
• Raised in Paris; Canon of Notre Dame from 1379; Archdeacon of Dreux.
• Appointed Bishop of Metz (December 1384) and Cardinal (1385) by the Avignon pope Clement VII, at the age of fifteen.
• Served as Bishop of Metz amid the Western Schism; renounced the see 1386.
• Retired to the Carthusian monastery of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.
• Died July 2, 1387, aged eighteen.
• City of Avignon adopted him as patron saint, 1432.
• Beatified by Pope Clement VII (Giulio de' Medici), April 9, 1527.

Significant locations

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Legend

• Birth location: Ligny-en-Barrois, Lorraine, France
• Death location: Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, Provence, France
• Notable location: Birthplace; castle of the counts of Ligny (Ligny-en-Barrois, Lorraine, France)
• Notable location: Where he was educated; Canon of Notre Dame de Paris from 1379 (Paris, France)
• Notable location: Cathedral of his diocese; he served as Bishop of Metz 1384–1386 (Metz Cathedral, Metz, France)
• Notable location: City of the Avignon papacy; he spent his final months near Avignon (Avignon, France)
• Notable location: Carthusian monastery where he died; site of his tomb and primary veneration (Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, France)

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Shrines

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Canonization

Beatification

The beatification of Peter of Luxembourg by Pope Clement VII on 9 April 1527 formally confirmed the veneration that had been continuous since his death in 1387, recognising in particular the numerous miracles documented at his tomb. Two formal canonical inquiries had been conducted into these miracles before the beatification was pronounced. He has not been canonized.

Feast day

July 2 (anniversary of his death)

Veneration

Blessed Peter of Luxembourg is venerated as a model of youthful holiness, of scrupulous conscience, and of detachment from worldly honour — remarkable in one of his rank and age. The Chartreuse du Val-de-Bénédiction in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon, where he is buried, is the primary site of his veneration. He is honoured as patron of Avignon and as an intercessor for the young, for those unjustly deprived of their rights, and for those seeking to live a penitential life in the midst of the world's conflicts. In art he is depicted in a cardinal's scarlet habit, sometimes with the hair shirt visible beneath, and carrying devotional notebooks.

Prayers

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Intercessory

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External links

• Wikipedia – Pierre de Luxembourg
• Encyclopedia.com (NCE) – Peter of Luxemburg, Bl.
• CatholicSaints.Info – Blessed Peter of Luxembourg
• Anastpaul.com – Blessed Peter of Luxembourg