SAINT PETER THOMAS

St. Peter Thomas
Archbishop of Crete, Latin Patriarch of Constantinople
Born 1305 Périgord
Died 1366 Famagusta

Feastday: January 25
1305 - 1366
aint Peter Thomas entered the Carmelites when he was twenty-one.

He was chosen by the Order as its procurator general to the Papal Court of Pope Clement VI at Avignon.

In 1354 he was being made bishop of Patti and Lipari.

In 1363 he was appointed Archbishop of Crete and 1364 Latin Patriarch of Constantinople.

Carmelite Latinpatriarch and papal legate. Peter was born in Gascony, France and joined the Carmelites while still a young man. In 1342 he was appointed procurator of the order and, from Avignon, he oversaw the organization and government of the Carmelites. As Avignon was then the seat of the popes, he entered into their service, attracting papal attention because of his skills as a preacher and his eloquence. Named to the papal diplomatic service, he held the post of papal legate to Genoa, Milan, and Venice, and was appointed bishop of Patti and Lipari in 1354, bishop of Coron in 1359, archbishop of Candia in 1363, and titular Patriarch of Constantinople in 1364. At the behest of Pope Urban V, he journeyed to Serbia, Hungary, and Constantinople in an effort to organize a crusade against the Turks. He took part in a military operation against Alexandria, Egypt, in 1365 during which he was severely wounded. He died from his injuries at Cyprus a few months later. While never formally canonized, his feast was permitted to the Carmelites in 1608.