| Celestine V | |
|---|---|
The coronation of Pope Celestine V |
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| Papacy began | 5 July 1294 |
| Papacy ended | 13 December 1294 (5 months, 3 weeks and 1 day) |
| Predecessor | Nicholas IV |
| Successor | Boniface VIII |
| Orders | |
| Consecration | 19 August 1294 |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Pietro Angelerio |
| Born | 1215 Near Isernia, Kingdom of Sicily |
| Died | 19 May 1296 (aged 80–81) Ferentino, Papal States |
| Sainthood | |
| Feast day | 19 May |
| Canonized | 5 May 1313 |
| Other Popes named Celestine | |
| Papal styles of Pope Celestine V |
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|---|---|
| Reference style | His Holiness |
| Spoken style | Your Holiness |
| Religious style | Holy Father |
| Posthumous style | Saint |
Pope Saint Celestine V (1215 – 19 May 1296), born Pietro Angelerio (according to some sources Angelario, Angelieri, Angelliero, or Angeleri), also known as Pietro da Morrone, was elected pope in the year 1294 in the last non-conclave papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. He is notable for having abdicated the papacy. Despite his brief papacy, Celestine V is recognized by the Church as a saint. No subsequent pope has taken the name Celestine.
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According to tradition, Pietro Angelerio was born in the town of Isernia, in Molise, the son of Angelo Angelerio and Maria Leone.
After his father's death he started to work in the fields. His mother Maria was a key figure in Pietro's spiritual development: she imagined a different future for her deeply-beloved son than becoming just a farmer or a shepherd. From the time he was a child, he showed great intelligence and love for others. He became a Benedictine monk at Faifoli in the Diocese of Benevento when he was 17. He showed an extraordinary disposition toward asceticism and solitude, and in 1239 retired to a solitary cavern on the mountain Morrone, whence his name. Five years later he left this retreat, and went with two companions, to a similar cave on the Mountain of Maiella in the Abruzzi region of southern Italy, where he lived as strictly as possible according to the example of St. John the Baptist. There are accounts of the severity of his penitential practices. While living like this he founded, in 1244, the order subsequently named after him, the Celestines.
The cardinals assembled at Perugia after the death of Pope Nicholas IV in April 1292. Morrone, well known to the cardinals as a Benedictine hermit, sent the cardinals a letter warning them that divine vengeance would fall upon them if they did not quickly elect a pope. Latino Malabranca, the aged and ill dean of the College of Cardinals cried out, "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I elect brother Pietro di Morrone." The cardinals promptly ratified Malabranca's desperate decision. When sent for, Morrone obstinately refused to accept the papacy, and even, as Petrarch says, tried to flee, until he was finally persuaded by a deputation of cardinals accompanied by the kings of Naples and Hungary. Elected on 5 July 1294, he was crowned at Santa Maria di Collemaggio in the city of Aquila in the Abruzzo on 29 August, taking the name of Celestine V.
Shortly after assuming office, Celestine issued a papal bull granting a rare plenary indulgence to all pilgrims visiting Santa Maria di Collemaggio through its holy door on the anniversary of his papal coronation.[1] The Perdonanza Celestiniana festival is celebrated in L'Aquila every August 28–29 in commemoration of this event.[2]
His notable acts as pope include the unprecedented privilege of empowering Francis of Apt, a Franciscan friar, to confer the clerical tonsure and minor orders on Louis of Toulouse (who would later become Bishop of Toulouse), the son of the King of Sicily. However, it seems this decree was not carried out. He issued two other decrees: one confirmed an earlier decree of Pope Gregory X that ordered the shutting of the cardinals in a conclave to elect a new pope; the second declared the right of any pope to abdicate the papacy, a right that he himself exercised at the end of five months and eight days at Naples on 13 December 1294. In the formal instrument of renunciation he recited as the causes moving him to the step, "the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life". Having divested himself of every outward symbol of papal dignity, he retired to his old solitude. Although it is often said that Celestine is the only pope to resign voluntarily, in fact, other popes have abdicated voluntarily. These are John XVIII in 1009 and Benedict IX in May 1045, although the latter regretted it and was soon back. There was also Gregory XII in 1415 who agreed to quit at the request of the Council of Constance.
Celestine V was not allowed to remain in solitude, however. His successor Pope Boniface VIII sent for him, and finally, despite the former pope's desperate attempts to escape, captured him and imprisoned him in the castle of Fumone near Ferentino in Campagna where, after languishing for 10 months in infected air, he died on 19 May 1296. Some historians believe Boniface might have had him murdered, and indeed his skull does have a suspicious hole in it.[3][4] He was buried at Ferentino, but his body was subsequently removed to the Basilica Santa Maria di Collemaggio in Aquila. Pope Clement V canonized Celestine in 1313 at the urging of King Philip IV of France, who saw it as an opportunity to demean Pope Boniface VIII, whom Philip despised.
Most modern interest in Celestine V has focused on his decision to resign the papacy.[5] A 1966 visit by Pope Paul VI to Celestine's place of death in Ferentino along with his speech in homage of Celestine prompted speculation the pontiff was considering retirement.[6][7] Celestine's remains survived the 2009 L'Aquila earthquake with one Italian spokesman saying it was "another great miracle by the pope".[8] They were then recovered from the basilica shortly after the earthquake.[9] While inspecting the earthquake damage during a 28 April 2009 visit to the Aquila, Pope Benedict XVI visited Celestine's remains in the badly damaged Santa Maria di Collemaggio and left the woolen pallium he wore during his papal inauguration in April 2005 on his glass casket as a gift.[10]
To mark the 800th anniversary of Celestine's birth, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed the Celestine year from 28 August 2009 through 29 August 2010.[11]
His entry in the Martyrologium Romanum for 19 May reads as follows:
A persistent tradition identifies Celestine V as the nameless figure Dante Alighieri sees among those in the antechamber of Hell, in the enigmatic verses:
I saw and recognized the shade of him
Who by his cowardice made the great refusal.—Inferno III, 59–60
The first commentators to make this identification included Dante's son Jacopo Alighieri,[12] followed by Graziolo Bambaglioli in 1324. The identification is also considered probable by recent scholars (e.g., Hollander, Barbara Reynolds, Simonelli, Padoan). Petrarch was moved to defend Celestine vigorously against the accusation of cowardice and some modern scholars (e.g., Mark Musa) have suggested Dante may have meant someone else (Esau, Diocletian and Pontius Pilate have been variously suggested).
In 1346, Petrach declared in his "De vita solitaria" that Celestine's refusal was as a virtuous example of solitary life .[13]
Pope Celestine V is referenced in Chapter 88 of Dan Brown's Angels & Demons, where he is referenced as an example of a murdered pope. Celestine V is also mentioned in the film version.
The life of Pope Celestine V is dramatised in the plays L'avventura di un povero cristiano (The Story of a Humble Christian) by Ignazio Silone in 1968 and Sunsets and Glories by Peter Barnes in 1990.
Pope Celestine V's story is also told in Russell Chamberlin's The Bad Popes.
| Catholic Church titles | ||
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| Preceded by Nicholas IV |
Pope 1294 |
Succeeded by Boniface VIII |
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