Saint Peter Thomas, Bishop
January 8: Celebrated as a Feast with proper texts.
Born about 1305 in southern Perigord in France, Peter Thomas entered the Carmelites when he was 21. He was chosen by the Order as its procurator general to the papal court at Avignon in 1345. After being made bishop of Patti and Lipari in 1354, he was entrusted with many papal missions to promote peace and unity with the Eastern Churches. He was translated to the see of Corone in the Peleponnesus in 1359 and made papal legate for the East. In 1363 he was appointed Archbishop of Crete and in 1364 Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. He won a reputation as an apostle of church unity before he died in Farmagosta on Cyprus in 1366.
Prayer
Father,
you inspired in your bishop St. Peter Thomas
an intense desire to promote peace and Christian unity.
Following his example
may we live steadfast in faith
and work perseveringly for peace.
We ask this through Christ, Our Lord.
Scripture Readings
Ezekiel 34:11-16 or Ephesians 2:13-22; Gospel – John 10:11-16.
Texts taken from the “Carmelite Proper of the Liturgy of the Hours,” Institutum Carmelitanum, Rome: 1993.