Saint Peter Celestine, Pope & Confessor
S. Petri Caelestini Papae et Confessoris
Saint Peter Celestine was a hermit and founder who was drawn from his mountain solitude to the papal throne as Pope Celestine V, and who, in great humility, resigned that office to return to a life of penance.
Saint Peter Celestine, born Peter of Morrone about the year 1210 in the Abruzzi region of Italy, is remembered as one of the most remarkable figures to ascend the chair of Peter. A hermit and monastic founder, he was raised against every expectation to the papacy in his old age, took the name Celestine V, and then — in an act of singular humility — laid the office down again. The Church honours him on the nineteenth of May as a Confessor.
His life
Drawn from his youth to solitude and penance, Peter withdrew to the wild mountains of Morrone and Maiella, living as a hermit in great austerity. Disciples gathered around him, and from them grew a community of monks following the Rule of Saint Benedict in a strict and eremitical form, later known after him as the Celestines.
In 1294 the Church had been without a pope for more than two years, the cardinals unable to agree. Word came at last of the holy hermit of Morrone, by then a man of about eighty-four, and he was elected pope almost by acclamation. Reluctant and unworldly, he was crowned as Celestine V. But the burdens of governing the Church and the affairs of the world weighed heavily upon a soul formed wholly for solitude and prayer; and after only a few months, judging that he could not rightly bear the office, he renounced the papacy — a step almost without precedent — and sought to return to his hermitage.
He spent his last days under close keeping, and died at the castle of Fumone in 1296, at peace and in prayer. He was canonised by Pope Clement V in 1313.
His witness today
In the calendar of the 1962 Missal his feast is kept on the nineteenth of May. The Church holds him before the faithful as a model of humility and detachment: a man who, lifted to the highest dignity on earth, counted it as nothing beside the love of God, and who teaches that true greatness lies not in office but in fidelity to one’s vocation and in lowliness of heart.
The Collect
O God, who didst raise blessed Peter Celestine to the summit of the supreme pontificate, and didst teach him to set it below humility: mercifully grant that by his example we may despise all the things of this world, and happily attain to the rewards promised to the humble.
Deus, qui beátum Petrum Cælestínum ad summi pontificátus ápicem sublimásti, quíque illum humilitáti postpónere docuísti: concéde propítius; ut ejus exémplo cuncta mundi despícere, et ad promíssa humílibus præmia perveníre felíciter mereámur.
Patronage
He is venerated as the founder of the Celestine monks and is honoured as a patron of bookbinders.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar his feast is observed on 19 May as an optional memorial, under the name Saint Celestine V, pope.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Peter Celestine?
His feast is kept on 19 May in the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal, as a Third Class feast. The modern calendar keeps the same date as an optional memorial.
Who was Saint Peter Celestine?
He was an Italian hermit and monastic founder (c. 1210–1296) who was elected pope in 1294 as Celestine V at about the age of eighty-four. After a few months he humbly resigned the papacy to return to a life of prayer and penance.
Why did he resign the papacy?
Formed wholly for solitude and contemplation, he judged himself unable to bear the heavy burdens of governing the universal Church, and in great humility laid the office down — a renunciation almost without precedent in the history of the popes.
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