Alessandro Azzimonti

SUMMARY: Peter Damiani’s Liber qui dicitur ‘Dominus Vobiscum’ (= letter 28) is a discussion about the lawfulness of mass celebrated by an eremite (solitarius). Damiani examines the liturgical formulas, their unbroken use by all the Church and their Biblical foundations, which are explained in detail and supported with logical reasoning. An inspection in the sources of the letter leads to find that the argument is against the canon law and thus to recognize, beyond the impressive rhetorical apparatus, that Damiani’s aimed at standing up for the eremits’ liturgical praxis, which had been prohibited by plenty of canonical texts. Such a concern fits well with Damiani’s claim of legitimation of the eremitical experience as he expressed in several writings.