Lo the gates of death are broken

Author: Peter the Venerable

Peter of St. Maurice (Petrus Mauritius), also called Peter of Cluny (Petrus Cluniensis), or Peter the Venerable (Petrus Venerabilis), Abbot, was born 1092 or 1094 (Trench, Sacred Latin Poetry, 1874, p. 101) of a noble family (the Counts of St. Maurice) in Auvergtie ("Nobili genere natus fuit noster in Arvernia": Leyser, Hist. Poem. Med. Ævi, p. 425). Beginning life as a soldier, he afterwards became a Benedictine monk, and on the death of Hugh, Prior of Marcigny, who had but three months before been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of the better known Pontius, Peter was elected Abbot of the celebrated monastery of his order at Cluny, in 1122. From this time much of his life was spent in controversy, a summary of which… Go to person page >