St. Peter of Tarentaise

St. Peter of Tarentaise was born around 1102 near Vienne in France and died on 14 September 1174. He entered the Cistercian Order as a young man, together with several of his family, and became renowned for his fervor and holiness, being chosen abbot of the monastery of Tamié in the Alps, where he built a hospice for the many travelers crossing the mountain passes and cared generously for the poor.

Much against his will he was made archbishop of Tarentaise in Savoy, and he set himself to reform the neglected see, restoring discipline, relieving the poor with such open-handedness that he became famous for his charity, and each year during Lent withdrawing to the solitude of a monastery to renew his spirit. Trusted by popes and kings, he was sent on difficult missions of peace, laboring to heal a schism in the Church and to reconcile warring princes. He died while on one such errand of reconciliation, and was canonized only a few years later, in 1191; his memory is kept on 8 May.