The Miracle in Peter Damian. The Flexibility of a Concept

Miracles in Peter Damian’s literary production are often defined as independent elements, untied, therefore, from the morality of the individual who operates them. In particular, from the analysis of the Liber Gratissimus, a viewpoint seems to emerge according to which Peter Damian saw in miracles not a proof of holiness, but a manifestation of Grace and of the Holy Spirit, operating independently from the person’s merits. Yet other exempla, such as the letters 57 and 72 - two of the epistles that mark the attempt to renounce the episcopate - and the hagiographies of Romualdo from Ravenna and Mauro from Cesena completely overturn the position of the Avellanita on the autonomy of miracles: they suggest a connection between a good and rightful conduct and miracles, in other words, a sign of the presence of Grace and no longer independent from the person who makes it. The article tries to investigate this seeming contradiction by dwelling on the ability and the intentionality of Peter Damian to use miracles in a pliable way in his texts, especially according to the recipient to whom the writing was addressed. In this way, once can notice the plasticity of the concept, as well as of the functional use of the discourse, and of the “practical” potential that the Avellanita saw in the use of these prodigious events. The “changeability” of his writings, by now extensively demonstrated as these were mainly urged by the circumstances, can be also recognized for this peculiar aspect, namely Peter Damian’s ability to modulate the concept of the miracle according to the audience of his letters