Saturday After Ash Wednesday

Lent
Saint Peter Damian, Bishop and Doctor of the Church optional memorial

Selected Mass Reading

First Reading — Isaiah 58:9b-14

Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall hear: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou wilt take away the chain out of the midst of thee, and cease to stretch out the finger, and to speak that which profiteth not. When thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry, and shalt satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise up in darkness, and thy darkness shall be as the noonday. And the Lord will give thee rest continually, and will fill thy soul with brightness, and deliver thy bones, and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail. And the places that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee: thou shalt raise up the foundation of generation and generation: and thou shalt be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into rest. If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy own will in my holy day, and call the sabbath delightful, and the holy of the Lord glorious, and glorify him, while thou dost not thy own ways, and thy own will is not found, to speak a word: Then shalt thou be delighted in the Lord, and I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth, and will feed thee with the inheritance of Jacob thy father. For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Saints Memorialized Today

Peter Damian
Peter Damian Monk, Hermit, Cardinal, Bishop of Ostia, Theologian, Doctor of the Church, Church reformer 1007–1072

Peter Damian was born around 1007 in Ravenna, Italy, the youngest of a poor noble family. Orphaned early, he suffered hardship until his brother Damian, an archpriest, took him in and ensured his education. Gifted in theology and canon law, Peter became a renowned teacher at Parma and Ravenna, yet he felt called to something deeper. Around 1035 he left public success behind and entered the austere hermitage of Fonte Avellana near Gubbio, embracing a life of prayer, penance, and reforming zeal. As prior from 1043, he strengthened monastic discipline and helped Fonte Avellana become a model of renewal. Though he loved solitude, Peter’s love for the Church drew him into the struggles of his age: he wrote tirelessly against corruption, urged popes toward reform, and defended sound teaching with clarity and courage. In 1057 he was made Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and served as a papal envoy, notably bringing firm but pastoral reform to Milan. Venerated as a great reformer and later named a Doctor of the Church, he is patron of Faenza, Italy. His feast day is February 21.