He was born in 1102 at Vienne on the Rhone south of Lyon and joined the Cistercian Order at the age of 20. Ten years later he was elected Abbot of Tamie (now as then a flourishing house in the Savoy region near the Swiss border) and established a guest-house and hospital for travellers making their way to and from Geneva. In 1142 at the insistence of St. Bernard he was chosen as Archbishop of Tarentaise in this same locality where he had to make amends for the corruption of his predecessor. He set about raising clergy standards throughout his diocese carrying out visitations stamping out financial irregularities insisting on the proper performance of the Liturgy and making educational and charitable foundations. He was acclaimed by the people for the ability among other things to work wonders of healing. This unwanted fame caused him in 1155 to seek solitude and he literally disappeared from his diocese. He was found one year later living as a simple laybrother in a Swiss Cistercian house. Having been persuaded to return he devoted his energies to further charitable works and to the rebuilding of the famous guest hospice on the Little St. Bernard Pass in the Alps. As an old man he went to the Grande Chartreuse near Grenoble where he was served by a young man, Hugh of Avallon, later St. Hugh of Lincoln, who seems to have learnt much from the experience to judge by his achievements in England. St. Peter was also used as a mediator between King Henry II of England and King Louis VII of France and was commented on for his joyful modest and humble character. He died at Bellevaux Abbey near Besancon in 1174 and was canonised in 1191.