“To Jesus through Mary,” according to St. Peter Damian (d. 1072)
Introduction
Echoing what Patriarch German of Constantinople had already taught in the East, Peter Damian synthesizes in a single phrase his boundless admiration and love for the Mother of the Lord: “In your hands are deposited the treasures of God’s mercy” (Sermo XLIV, PL 144, 740C). Endowed with remarkable eloquence as a preacher and holding a position of great authority in the Church, personally engaged in the 11th-century reform movement, he made a decisive contribution to the spread of devotion to Saint Mary, at a time when Marian floridation knew a singular blossoming, both in the realm of doctrine and in that of piety.
Biographic Data and Works
Peter Damian (d. 1072) was born in Ravenna in the year 1007. He became an orphan at a young age, and one of his older brothers, a priest, took him under his wing, providing for his education first in Faenza and then in Parma, where Peter later taught. After some experiences in monastic life, around 1035, he retired to the Camaldulian monastery of Fonte Avellana. He became an enthusiastic disciple of Saint Romuald, the founder of Camaldoli, and a friend of the future Pope Gregory VII. In 1057, he was appointed Bishop of Ostia and Cardinal by Pope Stephen IX, though he was reluctant. Later, however, he was able to resign from the episcopal see and return to the monastery of Fonte Avellana, continuing to perform sporadic missions that were entrusted to him. He died in Faenza in 1072, at the age of 65. In 1828, he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.His major contributions to Marian doctrine come from Sermons 45 and 46, dedicated to the Nativity of Mary (PL 144, 740-761). However, in other sermons, opuscules (PL 145, 19-858), hymns, and prayers, he frequently returns to Marian themes. Peter Damian addresses nearly all the theological issues concerning the Mother of God that were debated in his time, demonstrating, however, the ability to confront and deepen them from new perspectives. His meditation on the mystery of divine motherhood led him to exalt both the excellent holiness of Mary and her mediation on behalf of the Church. With his influence and doctrine, Peter Damian made a substantial contribution to the subsequent development of Mariology and the cult of the Holy Virgin. He is attributed with the explicit formulation of the principle: “To Jesus through Mary” (cf. *Sermon* XLVI, PL 144, 761 B).The Unique Personality of the Mother of God
The divine maternity of Mary is an ancient dogma in the Church. In Peter Damian, however, it becomes an occasion to exalt, with new accents, the spiritual wealth that the Mother of the Lord necessarily received to be worthy of her mission and to honor her dignely. Reviving a theme dear to the tradition of the Greek Fathers, he asserts that it was the Holy Spirit who intervened to make Mary a suitable dwelling place to receive the Son of God: «It was necessary first to build the house in which the King of heaven would descend and accept to be a guest. Of this house spoke Solomon: ‘Wisdom built herself a house, she carved its seven columns’ (Pr 9:1). Indeed, this virgin house is supported by seven columns, because the venerable Mother received the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit» (Sermo XLV, PL 144, 741 BC).In the hymn for the feast of the Annunciation, he expresses the same truth in more concise and inspired language: «The Son of the Father fills her, the Holy Spirit covers her with its shadow. The chaste breast of the holy maiden becomes a heaven» (Carmen 44, PL 145, 933 D).Therefore, Mary is above all human praise, because her dignity and perfection confer merits that find no comparison in any other protagonist of the history of salvation: «How can the fragility of human nature dignily celebrate the feast of him who merited to bring joy to the angels? How can the fleeting word of mortal man praise him who from her breast gave birth to the Word that remains eternally?» (Sermo XLV, PL 144, 742 C).The greatness of Mary’s mission has its root not only in the divine nature of the Son who was born of her, but also in the purpose of the Incarnation, which consists in the redemption of the human creature, a redemption that could not take place without her motherhood. Peter Damian even attributes to Mary’s motherhood a quasi-necessary character: «Just as it was impossible for the human race to be redeemed without the birth of the Son of God from the Virgin, so it was necessary for the Virgin to come into the world, so that she might take flesh» (Sermo XLV, PL 144, 741 A). It is clear that the author understands this necessity in a subordinate sense in relation to Christ, but the audacity of the formulation reveals the high conception he had of the mission of the Holy Virgin in the economy of salvation.In the same sermon, the idea is illustrated with the nuptial image: «It was necessary first to prepare the nuptial chamber, so that it would be suitable to receive the Spouse who was coming to marry the Holy Church» (Sermo XLV, PL 144, 741 B).The curse of Eve and the blessing of Mary
The cooperation of Mary in the salvation of the human race, radically connected to her motherhood in relation to the Redeemer, finds in the parallelism of Eva and Mary a particularly clear expression. In both cases, it is a matter of generation: Eva generated sin, from which the curse and death derived. Mary generated grace and, consequently, blessing and life. Peter Damian writes: «Blessed art thou among women. Through a woman the curse fell upon the earth. Through a woman the blessing was restored. From the hand of the first came the bitter cup of death. From the hand of the second is presented the sweet cup of life. The abundance of the new blessing erased the contagion of the old curse» (Sermo XLVI, PL 144, 758 AB).In one of his hymns, he offers a poetic interpretation of this doctrine, emphasizing the virgin condition common to both women: «Through a Virgin, man returns to life that another virgin had destroyed. Death, defeated, perishes. With the Virgin, life returns. As for you, Mary, we pray: raise above the stars what Eva buried. She is oppressed by guilt. But you, raise yourself above the stars» (Carmen 65, PL 145, 941 A).The Mother of God and the Eucharist
In the light of the parallelism Eva-Mary, Peter Damian describes the relationship between the Holy Virgin and the Eucharistic Body of her Son. He emphasizes that the Body she conceived, gave birth to, nourished and cared for with maternal solicitude is the same Body we receive in the Eucharist and whose blood we drink as a sacrament of our redemption. This truth, he affirms, belongs to Catholic faith and is taught by the Church.Mary is the one who, from her immaculate flesh, generated the food for our souls, the bread come down from heaven. He concludes with a new allusion to Eva’s negative role: «Because of one food we were expelled from the beauty of paradise. Through another food we were admitted to its joys. Eva ate a food that condemned us to eternal hunger. Mary, on the contrary, prepared a food that opened the doors to the banquet of heaven» (Sermo XLV, PL 144, 743 C).Mary and the Church
In the writings where he develops his Marian doctrine, Peter Damian also addresses the bond between the Virgin and the Church, understood as a relationship of motherhood mediated by Christ: “The blessed Virgin Mary is a great and happy mother. From her breast Christ took flesh, from whom the Church was born by water and blood. Thus, it seems that the Church had its origin in Mary. Both are chaste, pure, and guarded by the belt of perpetual virginity” (Sermo de sancto Iohanne, PL 144, 861 B).If Christ came to men through the motherhood of the Virgin, it is in her that men find the way to Him. This principle, later synthesized in the expression “Ad Iesum per Mariam,” was explicitly formulated by Peter Damian (cf. Sermo XLVI, PL 144, 761 B).Devotion to the Mother of the Lord
From his high regard for Mary’s person and mission arises in Peter Damian a deep devotion and tender love for her, evident especially in the numerous invocations of his prayers. He recommends Marian practices of piety, such as the daily recitation of the Ave Maria and the “Five Joys of Our Lady” (Opusculum 33, 3, PL 145, 564 BC). He also composed a daily office “in honor of Saint Mary” (Carmina 48-65, PL 145, 935 B-941 A).He further explains why Saturday is dedicated to the Virgin in a special way: because on that day Wisdom built herself a house and rested in it by a mystery of humility (cf. Opusculum 33, 4, PL 145, 565 D-567 B). Peter Damian is undoubtedly an eminent witness to the growing role assumed by the Mother of the Lord in the doctrine and life of the Church in the West. The consciousness of her intercessory effectiveness led Christians to turn to her as Mother of Mercy, a title he also uses in the prayer of the second sermon on the Nativity: “O most merciful, Mother of compassion and mercy, we who on earth rejoice in solemnly celebrating your glorious praises, we pray that we may merit in heaven the help of your intercession” (Sermo XLVI, PL 144, 761 B).Conclusion
The Marian reflection of Saint Peter Damian organically fits into the significant spiritual, doctrinal, and disciplinary renewal movement of the 11th century, of which he was an eminent protagonist. Far from being a marginal devotional appendage, his doctrine on the Mother of God is structurally integrated into the economy of salvation and deeply rooted in the patristic tradition, especially the Eastern one, which he assimilated and reprocessed with originality.The fundamental axis of his mariology is divine motherhood, understood not merely as a singular privilege granted to Mary, but as a hermeneutical principle capable of illuminating her personal holiness, her historical mission, and her ecclesial role. From this mystery, Peter Damian develops a high view of Mary’s spiritual preparation, attributed to the action of the Holy Spirit, making her a worthy dwelling place for the incarnate Word. This perspective allows him to coherently articulate Mary’s fullness of grace, her excellence over all creation, and the impossibility of any comparison with other figures in the history of salvation.Particularly significant is the author’s interpretation of Mary’s cooperation in human redemption. The parallel between Eve and Mary, resumed with strong rhetorical force and rich symbolism, does not limit itself to a moral opposition but assumes ontological and soteriological dimensions. The generation of life and death, blessing and curse, grace and sin, is understood in the light of motherhood, conferring on the Virgin a decisive, yet always subordinate, role in God’s redemptive design. Even when he uses bold formulations regarding the necessity of Mary’s motherhood, Peter Damian remains faithful to the absolute centrality of Christ, nonetheless highlighting the unique dignity of Marian mediation in the order of incarnation.The relationship between Mary and the Eucharist is another element of great theological depth. By identifying the Eucharistic body with the body born of the Virgin, the author establishes a concrete continuity between the mysteries of incarnation and sacramental presence, thereby strengthening the bond between Mary’s motherhood and the sacramental life of the Church. This approach reveals a unified understanding of the Christian mystery, in which Mary is closely associated not only with the historical birth of the Redeemer but also with the continuous communication of his life to the faithful.The Church, born from Christ’s open side, is presented as having, in a certain sense, its origin in Mary, which grounds a true spiritual motherhood of the Virgin over the Church body. This intuition anticipates later developments in medieval and modern Marian theology, as well as the explicit formulation of the spiritual principle according to which access to Christ passes through Mary’s maternal mediation, synthesized in the expression *Ad Iesum per Mariam*.Ultimately, the Marian doctrine of Peter Damian finds its vital expression in devotion. Piety does not arise as a mere affective consequence, but as a coherent response to the contemplated theological truth. The recommendation of concrete practices, the composition of hymns, offices, and prayers, as well as the insistence on the Virgin’s merciful intercession, bear witness to the unity between faith, theology, and spiritual life that characterizes his thought.In summary, Saint Peter Damian holds a prominent place in the history of Western Mariology. His contribution stands out for its speculative depth, fidelity to tradition, and ability to integrate Mary harmoniously into the center of the Christian mystery. His work significantly prepares the flourishing of Mariology in the following centuries and remains a reliable reference for a balanced theological understanding of the Mother of God, in which doctrine, spirituality, and Church life mutually illuminate one another.For the contemporary magisterial framing of Mary as a path to Christ, the encyclical *Redemptoris Mater* by John Paul II reprises Saint Peter Damian’s spiritual intuitions regarding Mary’s mediation.Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and a Postgraduate degree in Mariology.Continue your Marian formation: Explore our resources on Mariology, Marian theology, and Marian apparitions. Learn about the Postgraduate degree in Mariology at the Locus Mariologicus Institute.Graduate Studies in Mariology
Do you want to deepen your formation in Mariology? Get to know the Graduate Program in Mariology from Locus Mariologicus – an academic formation that combines theological rigor, spiritual life, and the living tradition of the Church.
Serious about studying mariology?
This article arises from the works in the Locus Mariologicus library. The Postgraduate Mariology program takes you to the same sources, with academic guidance: Scripture, the Fathers of the Church, and the Magisterium, from the first dogma to contemporary issues.
Responses