14th century
Feast: July 3
French Carmelite bishop and diplomat who led crusades and served as papal legate throughout the East.
Peter Thomas was a French Carmelite friar (1305-1366) who rose from extreme poverty to become a bishop, diplomat, and crusader. Born to a serf family in Périgord, he became Latin Patriarch of Constantinople and led the Crusade of Alexandria in 1365. He died at Famagusta after a lifetime of papal diplomatic missions.