Peter Thomas (Patriarch)

Peter Thomas, baroque icon, Portugal

Peter Thomas , Latin Petrus Thomae (different forms of name in all European languages; * around 1305 in Salles-de-Belvès , Dordogne ; † January 6, 1366 in Famagusta , Cyprus ) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman, Carmelite , papal legate , Crusade preacher , bishop and Latin patriarch of Constantinople . He is a saint of the Catholic Church.

Life

Peter Thomas was born around 1305 in the south of the Périgord . The family was poor, the father a serf peasant. Peter left the house early. With alms and auxiliary teaching activities, he obtained the basics of education. In Bergerac he joined the Carmelite Order and became a teacher of logic in the convent of Agen . At the same time he studied philosophy and was ordained a priest after three years . He continued his studies and teaching in the Carmelite monasteries in Bordeaux , Albi , again in Agen, Paris and Cahors . After further years of study in Paris, he received his doctorate in baccalaureus .

In 1345 the chapter of the order elected him procurator and sent him to the papal court in Avignon . At the intercession of Cardinal Elias Talleyrand , he became papal court preacher and, after further years of study in Paris and obtaining a master's degree in theology , he became the ruler of the Avignones College . There the young student Johannes von Hildesheim was assigned to his service. He later reported in his Speculum Carmeli that on a Pentecost night he witnessed a vision from his master in which the Mother of God assured him that the Carmelite order would continue to exist until the end of time.

After the death of Pope Clement VI. In 1352 Peter Thomas rose under his successor Innocent VI. to the papal legate. In Italy he mediated between the city republics, in the whole of the eastern Mediterranean he led negotiations with the rulers of the time for the preservation of ecclesiastical rights and for union with Orthodoxy . He made the recapture of the Holy Land from the Islamic Mamluks in a new crusade his personal concern.

In 1354 Peter Thomas became bishop of Patti and Lipari , but was still mainly on diplomatic missions. The Union's efforts came in 1357 during a stay at the Byzantine court in Constantinople Opel climax when Peter Thomas the emperor John V Palaeologus as a sign of communion , the communion handed. Discussions with leading Greek theologians brought about an extensive understanding, and Peter Thomas returned with a letter from the emperor in which he promised the pope that the Union would be enforced in the hope of receiving support against the advancing Ottoman Empire . The legate's return journey took him via Jerusalem , where he visited the holy places as a pilgrim . In 1359 he received the title of bishop of Corone in the Peloponnese .

In his extensive jurisdiction he campaigned against heresies and for ecclesiastical discipline. Easter 1360 he crowned in Famagusta Peter I of Cyprus to the king of Jerusalem . He became confessor and confidante of Philippe de Mézières , Chancellor Peter I. With him he developed concrete plans for the crusade. On October 24, 1362, they set out from Paphos on an advertising tour of Europe. Pope Urban V supported the project. After settling further disputes in Italy, Peter Thomas received the title of ( Latin ) Patriarch of Constantinople in May 1364 and became the official papal legate for the crusade.

On July 27, 1365, a fleet of crusaders led by Peter I set off from Venice via Rhodes to the crusade against Alexandria and Peter Thomas exhorted the participants to religious enthusiasm. On October 9, the Crusaders captured, looted, and destroyed Alexandria . A few days later, against the advice of Peter Thomas and others, they withdrew to Cyprus with the spoils before the Mamluk counterattack. Peter Thomas reported about it in two passionate letters to Pope Urban V and Emperor Charles IV.

At the Christmas masses in Famagusta in 1365, Peter Thomas contracted a serious illness due to his lack of consideration for his own health, of which he died on January 6th in the Carmelite monastery .

Adoration

His veneration as a saint began with his exequies , which were attended by large crowds, and miracles were soon reported during his life and at his tomb in the Carmelite Church. During Lent in 1366, his confidante and colleague, the chancellor and writer Philippe de Mézières , wrote down his vita . His order cultivated his veneration, which was ecclesiastically recognized by Pope Paul V in 1609 . The monastery church with his grave was destroyed by the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571 and the earthquake of 1735. During excavations in 1905, no trace of the grave was found. Apart from a few letters, nothing of his writings has survived either.

The cross relic , which Peter Thomas received from Syrian Christians who had fled and carried with him on the crusade, was donated by Philippe de Mézières in 1370 to the Scuola di S. Giovanni in Venice, where numerous miracles were attributed to it, represented in an important cycle of pictures (around 1500).

literature

• Daniele Stiernon: Pier Tomaso . In: I Santi del Carmelo , Rome 1972 (French translation online )
• Philippe de Mézières : Vita S. Petri Thomasii ex Ordine Fratrum B.mae Virginis Mariae de Monte Carmelo, Episcopi Pactensis, & Coronensis, Archiep. Cretensis, & Patriarchae Constantinopolitani, ac Legati Apostolici . 1366, edited and commented on by Gottfried Henschen SJ , Antwerp 1659

Web links

Commons : Peter Thomas (Patriarch)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Philippe de Mézières: Vita (1366): "... in Fratre Petro Thomae ..."
2. ↑ The location “Salinosa de Thomas” in the Vita (p. 48) cannot be located with absolute certainty. Henschen (note on p. 53) asks whether the nickname Thomae is derived from the place of origin or is a patronymic .