Blessed Peter of Luxembourg

Cardinal, Model of Priestly Holiness
(1369–1387)

Blessed Peter of Luxembourg was born in 1369 into one of the most powerful noble families of medieval Europe, the House of Luxembourg, which had given emperors to the Holy Roman Empire. Despite this exalted birth, or perhaps because of it, Peter showed from his earliest childhood an extraordinary humility and a passion for poverty and mortification that astonished all who knew him. He was described by contemporaries as a child who seemed to have been born already old in wisdom and virtue.

At the age of eight he was sent to Paris for his education, and there he lived a life of remarkable austerity, sleeping on the floor, eating sparingly, spending long hours in prayer, and giving to the poor everything that was given to him for his own needs. He wore a hair shirt and practiced other secret penances that only came to light after his death. Despite his royal rank and the great deference paid to him by others, he treated himself with a severity that led more than one of his superiors to counsel moderation.

At the age of fifteen he was made Bishop of Metz by Pope Clement VII, and at sixteen he was created a cardinal. His acceptance of these honours was entirely contrary to his own desires, and he accepted them only out of obedience. As a bishop and cardinal he continued his austere life, giving away all his income to the poor and maintaining in the midst of his ecclesiastical dignity the simplicity and poverty of a penitent.

He died at Villeneuve-les-Avignon on July 2, 1387, at the age of only eighteen, worn out by his austerities and by a severe fever. He was buried with great honour, and miracles were soon reported at his tomb. Pope Alexander V beatified him in 1527. He is remembered as one of the most striking examples of heroic sanctity in early life in the history of the Church, a young nobleman who used the gifts of fortune and rank entirely in the service of God and the poor. His feast is observed on July 5th.