Description

Oil Dedicated to St Peter Thomas

St Peter Thomas (1305–1366), also known as Petrus de Thomas or Pierre de Thomas, a French Carmelite friar and recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church. He Master of Theology and a noted preacher. Thomas entrusted with a number of diplomatic missions by the Holy See.

Born in Perigod, France, around 1305 into a very poor family. Upon the death of his brother, Peter Thomas, in order not to aggravate the family misery, left his parents and his younger sister while still a young man. He went on to the nearby town of Monpazier, forty-five kilometers from Bergerac. Here he attended school for about three years, living on alms and teaching younger pupils. He led the same type of life at Agen «for many years, until the age of twenty».

Saint Peter Thomas joined the Carmelite Order when twenty years of age.

He Procurator General of the Order at the Papal Curia at Avignon and also an official preacher to the Curia there. In 1354, he appointed bishop of Patti and Lipari. He acted as papal legate to the kings and emperors of his time, seeking to promote peace and to re-establish unity with the Eastern Churches. He translated to other episcopal sees: in 1359 to that of Corinth in the Pelopennese with the role of papal legate in the East; then to Crete as archbishop in 1363 and finally to Constantinople in 1364 as Latin Patriarch.