Saint Celestine I, Pope

Celestin Célestin Pope who confirmed the election of Maximian. e, born in Campania, was the son of Priscus the Elder, and a very close relative of Emperor Valentinian. Elected unanimously as the successor to Saint Bo niface, Saint saint Augustin Cited for his definition of fraternal charity. Augustine congratulated him from the first year of his pontificate, for the fact that the Lord God had thus, in reward for his merits, united all voices and all wills in his favor.

Saint Celestine first had to condemn a heresy born of Pelagianism, that of the Semi-Pelagians, who, while admitting original sin and the necessity of interior grace to do good, claimed that man can merit this grace through a beginning of faith, through a movement of virtue of which God is not the primary author. The heresy, in this new form, was troubling the Gauls in particular. Celestine saw the danger: he wrote an energetic letter to the bishops of those regions to point out the machinations of the heretics and to give them, in the writings of Saint Augustine, a sure rule of the Church's doctrine in this regard. Meanwhile, Pelagianism properly so-called, banished from all parts of the Roman world, had just taken refuge as in a final asylum in the islands of Great Britain, the homeland of its author. The Pope invested Saint Germanus of Auxerre and Saint Lupu saint Germain d'Auxerre Saint cited as a model of public confession for Gervin. s of Troyes with the title of apostolic legates and sent them to Great Britain to combat the progress of the heresy there.

The West, in particular, had been troubled by Pelagius and his abettors: another heresy was about to agitate the East, manifesting the doctrine of the Church, which developed and affirmed itself according to the needs of the times. From the height of the pulpit of Constantinople, the blasphemer Nestorius had let fall these words: "If anyone says that Mary is the Mother of God, let him be anathema!" And the scandalized people had raised a cry of indignation and had left the Church. God had raised up Saint Athanasius against Arius, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ, and Saint Augustine against Pelagius, who denied the necessity of grace: He raised up Saint Cyril of Alexandria against Nestorius, who denied the divine maternity of Mary. In 431, th e holy Pope Celesti saint pape Célestin Pope who confirmed the election of Maximian. ne had the third gener Éphèse Principal city of John's apostolate in Asia Minor. al council celebrated at Ephesus, which defined what had never been contested until then, namely: that there is in Jesus Christ one single person and two natures, and that Our Lady, being the mother of the unique person of Jesus Christ, is truly the Mother of God, in the same way that our mothers, "although they did not form our soul, but our body only," are called the mothers of the whole man, that is to say of his soul and his body, for if man is man only insofar as his soul is united to his body, Jesus Christ is truly Jesus Christ only insofar as the Divinity is united to the Humanity. The transports of enthusiasm with which the people of Ephesus welcomed the sentence condemning Nestorius, the enemy of Mary, had an echo throughout the Christian universe, and especially in Rome, where the faithful were the first to be able to send to heaven the beautiful prayer: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, poor sinners, and where the Vicar of Jesus Christ had a fresco painted at Saint Priscilla representing the session in which the Council of Ephesus had proclaimed the dogma of the divine maternity. To the holy personages whom we have already named, and who illustrated the Church under the pontificate of Celestine I, to Lupus of Troyes, to Germanus of Auxerre, to Augustine whose star was setting over Africa, while that of Saint Patrick was risi ng over Irela saint Patrice Apostle of Ireland. nd, to Saint Cyril whose science fixed the formula of the dogma of the Incarnation, let us add Saint Patroclus, metropolitan of Arles, and Saint Titus, deacon of the same church, both victims of a court intrigue; finally, Saint Palladius who, sent directly by Saint Celestine I, went to Ireland to prepare the way for Saint Patrick...

Celestine established the custom of reciting, at the beginning of the Mass, an antiphon taken from the psalms of David. This is what we call the Introit. Previously, the Mass began with a reading taken from the epistles of Saint Paul... He completed the restoration of the Basilica Julia, which had been burned during the sack of Rome by the Goths. He dedicated this church, to which he offered two silver chalices weighing eight pounds each; two silver candelabra of thirty pounds each; fourteen of bronze and ten crowns also of silver of ten pounds each. He gave to the basilica of the blessed apostle Peter, twenty-four candelabra weighing twenty pounds each. In three ordinations in the month of December, he consecrated thirty-two priests, twelve deacons, and forty-six bishops destined for various churches. He was buried in the catacomb of Priscilla, on the Via Salaria, on April 6, 432. — In 817, his body was transferred to the church of Saint Praxedes.

Later, without it being possible to specify the time, the ci ty of M Mantoue Italian diocese where the cult of Ozanne was authorized. antua acquired his precious relics, and every year, on April 6, it celebrates our Saint with a double office borrowed from the annals of Baronius.

Cf. Annals of Baronius, reissued and continued by the Célestins Printing House, in Bar-le-Duc, in a format as elegant as it is convenient.