Saint Peter Thomas

Peter Thomas, OCarm (1305–1366), also known as Petrus de Thomas or Pierre de Thomas, was a French Carmelite friar, preacher, and teacher. He was entrusted with a number of diplomatic missions by the Holy See. Thomas was canonized by Pope Urban VIII in 1628. Peter Thomas was born around the year 1305 to a very poor family in Périgord. His father was a serf. At the age of twelve, he left his parents and his younger sister to ease the burdens on his family and went to the nearby small town of Monpazier. He attended school for about three years, living on alms and teaching younger pupils. He led the same type of life at Agen, studying at the College of the Carmelites until the age of twenty, when he returned to Monpazier briefly, before going to Lectoure. In 1325 the prior of the Carmelite convent of Lectoure employed Thomas as a teacher for a year in that school. He entered the Carmelite Order at the age of twenty-one and made his profession of religious vows at Bergerac where he taught for two years. He studied philosophy at Agen, where he was ordained a priest three years later. For the next few years, he continued his studies, while also teaching in Bordeaux, Albi, and again in Agen. This was followed by three years of study in Paris. He was preaching in Cahors, during a procession held in hopes of an end to a serious drought, when rain began to fall. This was viewed by many as miraculous. In 1345 he was the Order's Procurator General and an official preacher at the Papal Court of Pope Clement VI at Avignon where he then assisted the Master of Theology as head of the curia department dealing with doctrinal matters submitted to the pope. In October 1353, Pope Innocent VI appointed legate to regularizing relations between the rival republics of Venice and Genoa. The parties failed to find any ground of agreement and the attempt at mediation was not successful.