Saint Peter Celestine

The light of grace growing day by day in his soul, he resolved to renounce the world and embrace a penitent and solitary life. He wished, above all, to visit the tombs of the Apostles in Rome; but he was stopped on the way by a frightful storm, and having retired into a church of Saint Nicholas, God inspired him to renounce his journey to begin the eremitic life. He therefore withdrew into a forest where he remained for six days in continual fasting and prayer. Then he climbed a frightful mountain and lodged himself in a cavern that resembled a tomb, having no other bed than the earth nor any other garment than a hairshirt. He observed in this place a perpetual fast for three years, and endured there terrible temptations, with which the demon tormented him without respite. Sometimes he represented to him that he would be a murderer of himself by treating his body with such rigor; sometimes he appeared to him in human forms that solicited him to evil; sometimes he excited in him sensual movements; but, on the other hand, the Saint was fortified by frequent visits from angels; and as he was, every night, awakened by the sound of a celestial bell that he heard, he never failed to rise in the middle of the night to set himself to prayer. Some virtuous people also visited him in this solitude, and, knowing his temptations, advised him to become a priest, so that, by approaching the holy altar often, he might receive more strength to resist them; he followed this advice, although his humility greatly recoiled at it: this is why he went to Rome to receive holy orders.

Upon his return, he passed through Faifola, where he took the habit of Saint Benedict in the monastery of Our Lady; but his abbot, having noticed in him an attraction to a more austere life, permitted him to withdraw to Mount Morrone, near Sulmona, from where, at first, he drove aw ay a frightf mont Mourron Site of an eremitic retreat near Sulmona. ul serpent. He remained five years in this desert, suffering there hunger, thirst, cold, heat, and all other bodily austerities. He also said Mass every day with incredible purity of heart and fervor. However, reflecting that Paul, Anthony, Benedict, and so many other solitary saints had not judged themselves worthy to offer such a formidable sacrifice, he entered into great distress as to whether it would not be more advantageous for him to desist from this holy ministry than to continue his priestly functions, especially since the Mass he celebrated attracted many people to his cell; but he was delivered from this anxiety by the abbot of Faifola, who, having died recently, appeared to him during his prayer, and told him to continue what he had begun, because God found it very pleasing; and as he objected that he did not have the merit of so many Saints, who, nevertheless, had not wished to be priests, this holy abbot replied to him: "And who is it, my son, who could be worthy of such an august ministry? The angels themselves are not. Sacrifice, sacrifice; but do it with fear and reverence." The servant of God, so as not to be deceived by this apparition, communicated it to his confessor, who approved it and exhorted him to celebrate every day: which he did. He nevertheless had another scruple that tormented him much more than the previous one, still regarding the daily celebration of the holy sacrifice, because of some accidents that happened to him at night, while sleeping; but Our Lord lifted this distress from him as well: for He appeared to him during his sleep, and taught him that what happens to us involuntarily must not prevent us from receiving the body and blood of Jesus Christ, food necessary for our soul.

After remaining for five years on Mount Morrone, Peter withdrew in 1251 to Mount Majella with two disciples, but this number soon increased: such was the origin of the Order of the Ce lestines. These rel Ordre des Célestins The primary religious order to which Jean Bassand belonged. igious lived in huts made of thorns and branches. Their solitude was so dreadful that they were advised to change it; but God made it dear to them through extraordinary graces and sensible signs of His presence. For three years, they saw a mysterious dove, whiter than snow, fluttering in their oratory. Often, invisible bells called them to the divine offices, with more or less harmony according to the quality of the feasts and solemnities, and they rang particularly at the elevation of the Holy Host. Strangers heard them too; many were converted, and others were healed of various illnesses upon hearing them. This sound itself was sometimes accompanied or followed by celestial voices, perfectly articulated, which made admirable music, by which the ears of the Saint and those of his children were charmed. Finally, when the church was ready to be dedicated, Peter saw angels, dressed in white, who said to one another: "Let us dedicate the church"; then, they performed the ceremonies and celebrated the office, and our Saint with them, dressed in a garment of the same color, without knowing who had given it to him.

However, the evil spirits neglected nothing to stop the progress of this nascent community; they excited fantastic conflagrations and appeared in horrible forms; they uttered dreadful cries and mistreated the religious, and would have forced them to abandon this place, had the help of heaven and the wise direction of their superior not sustained them.

Peter gave them the Rule of Saint Benedict, with some particular constitutions; as for him, it is unbelievable with what severity he treated his body: he ate only rye bread, very black and very hard, and he fasted four Lents per year, during which he barely took food once every three days, and there were three days when he ate no bread at all, but only raw herbs. He wore on his bare flesh a hairshirt of horsehair, all sown with knots, and an iron chain, sometimes an iron circle. He took his short rest in this state, sleeping, so to speak, on iron, as if the earth were not hard enough: he had only a piece of wood or a stone for a pillow. It required a celestial voice to warn him to moderate these austerities. He had the gift of miracles and prophecy. God often revealed to him the most secret thoughts of his religious and even of secular persons. A notary, ill for nine years, having resolved to commend himself to the prayers of our Saint, was healed by this resolution alone, before having executed it. He came to thank Peter: the latter revealed to him a spiritual illness that had been the cause of the bodily illness, and he healed his soul just as he had healed his body.

This holy founder, having learned that all religious Congregations not approved by the Holy See were to be dissolved at the Council of Lyon (1274), went with two of his disciples to find Pope Gregory X. He did not fear undert aking such a lo pape Grégoire X Pope who convened the Council of Lyon. ng and arduous journey on foot, although he was very weakened and exhausted by his austerities. When he arrived, he pleaded the cause of his Order less by words than by miracles. The Pope wishing to hear his Mass, the officers presented him with very precious vestments; this wounded Peter's humility: he desired to have the simple vestments he used in his desert. A marvelous thing! God granted the desire of His servant, and the angels, at that instant, brought those vestments and presented them to him to clothe himself; and, when he took off his cowl to put them on, it remained suspended in the air, without anyone appearing to support it: which lasted throughout the entire Mass. At the sight of such prodigies, the Pope and the council no longer hesitated to confirm his Order, and had the Bulls for it dispatched. He therefore left Lyon very satisfied; and, after having been delivered on the way from a great number of dangers by the help of a celestial horseman who accompanied him, he arrived happily at his desert of Majella, where he was received by his children as if in triumph and with incredible joy. The goods that had been usurped from his monasteries, under the pretext that this Order was not approved, were immediately restored to them. Only the Bishop of Chieti refused to return those he had seized; but God, the defender of the oppressed, sent him a grave illness. He finally opened his eyes, and repaired all the damages he had done to these religious, and, besides that, exempted them for the future from his jurisdiction.

Peter, after having thus established his Order, gave it various regulations to revive the spirit and discipline of Saint Benedict in their primitive integrity: for, before him, the Benedictines of Italy, where the Reforms of Cluny and Cîteaux had not yet been introduced, had nothing left of monastic life but the name and the habit.

God blessed the new Benedictine Congregation: in a very short time, Peter had the consolation of seeing it composed of thirty-six monasteries, where more than six hundred religious led a very edifying life. His zeal, going out from these houses, extended to all the surrounding populations, where he restored Christian morals, settled disputes, and helped the poor and the sick; he sacrificed to this latter work even the vestments and sacred vessels of his monasteries. But, fearing trouble and dissipation, he resolved to hide himself in a solitude. He first retired to a desert called Saint-Barthélemy en Loge, where he changed water into wine for the celebration of the Mysteries; then, he fled with two disciples into a cavern in the Orfente valley, which was of such difficult access that he could only descend into it by clinging to the rocks with hooks; but soon the faithful, attracted by his virtues, flocked there in crowds, whether to enjoy his conversation, to hear his Mass, or to receive his blessing, with which he miraculously restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the mute, and health to the sick. Peter, seeing that God opposed his desire for solitude, spared these populations the trouble of coming to look for him so far away: he returned to his monastery of Mount Morrone, and, so that the crowd could more easily hear his Mass, he had an altar erected expressly. The first time he celebrated the holy sacrifice there, three possessed persons were cured: this miracle made him very confused; he complained of it to God, praying Him to use henceforth a less unworthy instrument to perform His wonders. But the more he fled from honors, the less he escaped them.

Pope Nicholas IV having died in 1292, the Holy See remained vacant for a period of twenty-seven months, because they could not agree on the choice of his successor. Great evils could have resulted for the Church. Peter of Morrone had a revelation that, if a Pope were not elected soon, the wrath of God would break out. He wrote about this to a cardinal, who shared this news with the other cardinals. They spoke of this holy man; one noted the austerity of his life, another his virtues, another his miracles. Someone proposed electing him Pope; they deliberated, they collected the votes which were unanimous: for all felt as if inspired to elect Peter of Morrone. Five deputies were charged with notifying him of this election. They went to the city of Sulmona, then climbed the high and steep mountain where the holy recluse lived; having arrived at his cell, they were granted an audience through a barred window: they saw an old man of about seventy-two years, pale, exhausted by fasts, his beard bristling, his eyes swollen from the tears he had shed at this frightening news: for he already knew it. They told him the circumstances of his election, and handed him the decree: Peter examined it, and after having prayed, seeing no way to oppose the will of God, he accepted. As soon as this news was known, people, clergy, princes, everyone rushed to see the holy man and accompany him to the cathedral of Aquila, where his coronation was to take place. He entered it mounted on a donkey whose bridle was held, on the right and on the left, by the two kings of Sicily and Hungary. This humble mount reminded the spectators of the Savior's entry into Jerusalem. When he had dismounted from his donkey, a peasant having placed his son upon it, who was crippled in both legs, this child was found to be healed. Peter was consecrated and crowned on August 29 and took the name Celestine V, wh ich was, t Célestin V Hermit who became pope, famous for his abdication. hereafter, given to the monks he had instituted.

Celestine's intentions were always pure: he had great sense, he was a Saint; but these qualities were not sufficient for such a great office; God, in raising him to it, undoubtedly proposed only to put an end to the division of the cardinals, and to make a great example of humility shine in the midst of so much ambition. Peter, ignorant of canon law, knew little of the Latin language; he had no experience of men and affairs. He soon had scruples about the way he was governing the Church and consulted several canonists, among others Cardinal Benedetto Caetani, to know if a Po pe had the right to abd cardinal Benoît Cajétan Pope who appointed Louis to the bishopric of Toulouse. icate. They answered him that he could do so with sufficient motive. This news having spread, nothing was neglected to dissuade the holy Pope from such a project; public prayers were even offered to this effect. Nevertheless, on December 13, 1294, the day of Saint Lucy, Celestine held a consistory in Naples, where, being seated with the cardinals, dressed in the scarlet cope and other pontifical ornaments, he drew out a sealed paper, and, after having forbidden the cardinals to interrupt him, he opened it and read the following:

"I, Celestine, Pope, fifth of the name, moved by legitimate causes of humility and by the desire for a better life; not wishing to wound my conscience; justly frightened by the weakness of my body, the lack of knowledge, and the malice of the people; to find the rest and consolation of my past life, I voluntarily and freely leave the papacy, I expressly renounce this office and this dignity, giving, from this moment, to the sacred college of cardinals, the full and free faculty to canonically elect a Pastor of the universal Church".

At this reading, the cardinals could not restrain their sighs and tears, and Matteo Orsini, the oldest deacon, said, in the name of all, to Celestine: "Most Holy Father, if it is not possible to make you change your resolution, make a constitution that expressly states that any Pope can renounce his dignity, and that the college of cardinals can accept his resignation". Celestine granted it; Matteo dictated the constitution, and it was inserted into the text of the decretals. Then Celestine left the consistory, and the cardinals, after having deliberated, accepted his abdication. When he returned, he made them shed tears again, for he had stripped off all the marks of his dignity and was dressed as a simple monk. It had been five months and a few days since he had been elected, and three and a half months since he had been consecrated (1294).

This abdication was judged in various ways; some saw in it weakness, others greatness of soul and humility. It is not proven that the blame of Dante Alighieri, in the third canto of his Inferno, is addressed to Celestine V. Here is what Dante Alighieri Florentine poet who may have criticized the saint's abdication. another poet from Florence, Petrarch, thinks of it: "This action", he says, "supposes a soul of divine greatness, which can Pétrarque Poet who praised the humility of the saint's abdication. only be met in a man perfectly convinced of the nothingness of all the dignities of the world. The contempt for honors comes from a heroic courage, and not from pusillanimity. On the contrary, the desire for honors only possesses a soul that does not have the strength to rise above itself!". God himself wished to justify Celestine's conduct: for, the day after his abdication, he healed a man who was lame on both sides, by giving him his blessing at the end of the mass, and he performed, for the rest of his life, numerous and great miracles. This holy man had predicted that his successor would be Cardinal Benedetto Caetani (Boniface VIII); this Pope being elected, Celestine immediately went to find him and kissed his feet.

Boniface Boniface Pope who appointed Louis to the bishopric of Toulouse. , fearing that some might abuse Peter's simplicity to make him resume the dignity he had left, or even to recognize him against his will, under the pretext that he could not abdicate, as, indeed, some claimed, resolved to keep him near him, to better watch over him; but the Saint, who sighed for the freedom of solitude, fled secretly. On the way, he learned that Boniface was having him pursued; so he resolved to cross the sea, and came with this intention to the monastery of Saint-Jean du Plan. The contrary wind kept him there: he was arrested and taken to Boniface, who received him well. Several advised the Pope to set him free and send him back to his monastery; but Boniface, who still feared a schism, had our Saint closely guarded by six knights and thirty soldiers, in the citadel of Fumone, nine miles from Anagni.

He was abundantly provided with necessary thi citadelle de Fumone Citadel where the saint was imprisoned until his death. ngs, which he used very soberly, keeping his former abstinence, but he was not allowed to see anyone. He asked for two brothers of his Order to celebrate the divine office with him: they were granted to him. But these brothers could not endure such a narrow prison: they fell ill, and were replaced by others. This prison served Peter as a chapel and a room: it was so small that he could only lie down by resting his head against the altar. Far from complaining, the Saint often repeated these words: "I wished for nothing in the world but a cell, and this cell, they have given me."

However, the night before the eve of Saint John the Baptist, this divine Precursor appeared in a dream to Pope Boniface, threatening him with a severe punishment from God if he afflicted the holy prisoner any further. This Pope, quite terrified, sent him three cardinals to console him in his prison, without, however, telling them what he had seen. They arrived there on the morning of Saint John's day, and found Celestine at the altar celebrating Mass for the dead. They were very astonished; but they were even more so when, after the consecration, they saw him raised from the ground with the holy host, and all radiant with light. After Mass, he approached them, and, as God had revealed to him the subject of their journey, he anticipated them, and said to them: "Go, tell the Pope on my behalf that he should not be afflicted by the vision he had; that I am very happy with my condition and desire no other, and that I promise him to pray to God for his prosperity." This admirable sweetness astonished the cardinals even more than the wonders they had just seen. They praised his constancy and virtue, and at the same time expressed to him the sorrow they felt at seeing him in this state. Then, they asked him why, on such a solemn day, he had said the Requiem Mass, and so early in the morning: "It is," he said, "because my good friend, the King of Hungary, died last night; and God having made known to me your arrival, I feared that it would make me delay the holy sacrifice, and that I would not be able to relieve his soul soon enough." He also assured them that this king had been delivered from purgatory by the virtue of the holy Mass, and that he was enjoying the kingdom of heaven.

The following year, on the day of Pentecost, while saying Mass, he received so many consolations that his body, unable to bear them, his soul began to abandon it. He gave notice to his guards, and told them that, the following Sunday, he would no longer be in the world. Indeed, after having received the last Sacraments, and persevered all week, day and night, in praying and giving praise to God, he finally ended his life by uttering these words of the Psalmist: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!" It was on Saturday evening, in the octave of Pentecost, in the year of Our Lord 1296, and in the eighty-first year of his age.

In the arts, his abdication, the most distinctive trait of his life, is expressed by a dove, which is supposed to bring him inspiration from heaven and whisper the law into his ear. — The same fact is expressed in the following manner: the Saint, in Celestinian habit, is standing: at his feet is the tiara; in his left hand the keys, and, on one arm, the pontifical cope. Sometimes, and this manner is even more expressive, he holds the tiara by the top and is in the attitude of a man about to place an object on the ground.

## CULT AND RELICS. — WRITINGS. — ORDER OF CELESTINES.

The body of this holy Pope was carried with much honor and pomp, by order of the sovereign pontiff Boniface VIII, near the city of Ferentino, into a church of his Order that he himself had built in honor of Saint Anthony. He was buried before the high altar, and the place where he rested is still venerated. Countless miracles occurred at his tomb and in various places, especially in his former cell and in the monastery and church of the Holy Spirit, near Sulmona, where a chain worn by the blessed penitent is kept. These wonders led Pope Clement V to perform the solemn ceremony of his canonization with the greatest solemnity on May 5, 1313.

The translation of the blessed Father from Ferentino to Aquila, the anniversary of which the Order celebrates each year on February 15, took place on that same day in 1327. The inhabitants of Ferentino were not entirely deprived of the Saint's relics; the heart of the blessed Father was left in the sepulcher. They took this precious relic to their city and deposited it in the church of Saint Clare, of the Order of Saint Francis, where it is still venerated today. Some other relics of the Saint were kept at the monastery of Saint Anthony, in particular one of the jaws, a precious miter, a pontifical belt, a stole, a maniple, and pieces of his hair shirt and sandals. Also kept in the small oratory adjoining the church, where he was accustomed to retire for recollection and prayer, is an old wooden cross that he usually used to drive away the demon.

It was in the church of Saint Mary of Collemaggio, in Aquila, that the blessed bones of Saint Peter Celestine were deposited, who from then on became the patron of that city. The holy body, placed in a silver reliquary, is still kept there. At the opening of this reliquary, which takes place twice a year, a sweet perfume is exhaled that perfumes the pious assembly. These two ostensions take place on May 19, the day of the Saint's feast, and on August 29, the anniversary of his coronation. Besides the vast and sumptuous church of Collemaggio, a particular chapel with a very rich mausoleum was erected to enclose the holy treasure of his relics. The inhabitants of the neighboring regions come there on pilgrimage on the day of the Saint's feasts.

One can still see at the church of Saint Eusebius, in Rome, the altar of Saint Peter Celestine, with a painting representing his renunciation of the sovereign pontificate.

The parish church of Saint Didier, in Avignon, possesses a part of one of the Saint's jaws. The former abbey church of Saint Mary of Casalucco, in the city of Aversa, possessed a fragment of the same relic; it is still in the hands of the parish priest of said church, which is now a parish. On May 19, 1872, Mgr Luigi Filippi, Bishop of Aquila, unable to obtain from the revolutionary authorities the distinguished relic that his high piety reserves for better times for the Celestines of the Order of Saint Benedict and the Congregation of France, newly re-established in France, had the happiness of detaching a precious fragment which today (1874) enriches the main altar of their chapel in Bar-le-Duc (diocese of Verdun). The cathedral of Soissons also possesses one of his relics in our day.

The august and holy founder of the Celestines left us: 1st The Book of his confessions; 2nd a Psalter written by his hand; 3rd Sermons and Opuscula whose simple, practical, and luminous character recalls the persuasive and eloquent naivety of the Fathers of the Church, on the Love of God and the Love of the world, on the Purification of the conscience by confession, on Penance and Mortification, on Humility, on Tribulations, on the Contempt of riches, on the Danger of delights, on the poor sinner, etc., etc.

The Opuscula of our Saint bear the following titles: 1st The Book of the Rule with litanies and various prayers; 2nd the Commentary on his own life; 3rd On the Perfection of religious; 4th Treatise on vices and virtues; 5th On the Vanity of man; 6th Collection of examples and sentences of the Holy Fathers, arranged according to the order of the titles; 7th Summary of the holy Canons. These Opuscula, in large part, were printed in Naples in 1640, through the care of the Celestine Téléra, under this title: *The Sum of the Opuscula of Saint Peter Celestine*.

After the death of the blessed Father, the Order of the Celestines grew significantly, and the number of its monasteries increased rapidly not only in Italy, but in France, under the protective auspices of Philip the Fair. Among the Celestine monasteries of France, that of Paris occupies the first rank. Its church was the richest in the capital for its remarkable funerary monuments. Among the sacred treasures that enriched it was the lower jaw of Saint Peter Celestine. A tooth was still attached to it. This relic was brought by Jean Faber, prior of Nursia, who took it from the monastery of Collemaggio, in Aquila; he left a part of it to the Celestines of Avignon where it is still preserved, as we have said above. There was also in the monastery of Paris a chasuble that the Saint used to celebrate Mass: it had been ceded on April 10, 1662, by the Celestines of Ambert who possessed two.

These relics, kept by the last religious sacristan of the house, had been deposited at the archbishopric of Paris where they were profaned and destroyed in 1830 and 1831. The Order of the Celestines had been suppressed in France, despite the protests of the Abbot General residing in Italy, by the intrigues of a man without faith, an impious man, the too-famous Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of Toulouse, who was attached to Masonic sects and had pronounced the infamous oaths in a German lodge. This Order has just been re-established in France, under the title of Celestines of the Order of Saint Benedict and the Congregation of France.

The only monastery of the Celestines in Belgium was that of Our Lady Annunciade of Heverlé, near Louvain. It was suppressed at the end of the last century, and the beautiful church, which contained the mausoleums of the family of Crouy, its founder, was destroyed from top to bottom. Only one monument escaped the devastation, the mausoleum of the Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo, Guillaume de Crouy. H.S.H. Duke Prosper of Arenberg had it restored and then placed in the Capuchin church in Enghien.

See, for more details, the *Admirable Life of Saint Peter Celestine, Pope, founder of the Order of the Celestines*. 1 volume in-8° raisin. Bar-le-Duc, Celestine printing house.