Pope Saint Celestine V: at 84, nothing predestined him to become Pope

The story of Celestine V is quite unique: from humble hermit to abbot and founder of a religious order, to resigning pope after five months and eight days, this saint is both acclaimed and venerated. The incredible disproportion between the obscurity of his existence and the universality of his reputation points to a divine intervention.

Reasons to believe:

This saint's entire life is very well known, both after and before his election as Pope.
The fact that Celestine was nominated by a cardinal as a candidate for the pontifical election is astonishing. This 84-year-old hermit, living in a cave, doesn't fit the usual profile of the curia at the time. There was nothing in his education or background to suggest that he was destined for the papacy: what we see are academic deficiencies, ignorance of canon law, theological shortcomings, even a clumsy grasp of Latin! Yet he was unanimously elected pope in 1294.
During his lifetime, his popularity was great, not because he was elected pope, but because he lived the Gospel to an exceptional degree.
He possessed wisdom, spiritual discernment, and the gift of miracles and healing. These are all facts recorded by his contemporaries, which were later analyzed during his canonization process.
At the end of the 13th century, life expectancy did not exceed 30 years. The amount of work that Celestine accomplished up to the age of 85 is absolutely incredible.
Celestine was a peacemaker: he succeeded in reconciling the cardinals, then divided into hostile factions, and worked to secure peace between France and England.
Since 1960, all popes have honored his memory, and the Italian Church celebrates liturgical feasts in his memory every year.

Summary:

Pietro da Morrone was born in 1209 near Sant'Angelo Limosano (Molise), in the south of the Italian peninsula, a region that at the time formed the Kingdom of Sicily, ruled by King Charles II of Anjou.

His parents were peasants who lacked nothing but who had to work hard to support their twelve children. Pietro's education was rudimentary, and for the rest of his life he was conscious of not having enough knowledge to carry out the tasks entrusted to him. Yet, surprisingly, he was very successful as abbot, administrator of three monasteries and builder of churches, and ultimately as pope.

By his twentieth birthday, he knew he wanted to be a hermit. As monastic tradition demanded, he was initially a Benedictine monk at the Abbey of Santa Maria di Faifoli, Montagano. From 1231, he received permission to lead a solitary existence, since his superiors had noted his incredible spiritual maturity. He settled in a cave in the Majella mountains (Apennines, Abruzzo).

Around 1235, he moved to Mount Morrone (Apennines), where he founded a monastic congregation of an unprecedented kind, combining solitary and community life, a blend of St. Benedict and St. Anthony of the Desert! This project was incredibly innovative for the time, and could be called "democratic": the abbot general of this congregation was no longer elected for life, but for a period of three years!

He then built a church dedicated to the Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. This project revealed his managerial skills, at a time when such buildings often took decades to complete.

It was neither the abbot nor the builder who attracted the attention of his contemporaries, but the saint, for he had already acquired a reputation as a friend of God. He was credited with a number of charisms and miracles, detailed accounts of which were partly incorporated into the documents for his canonization.

The Celestines kept out of public affairs. Pietro's sole preoccupation was to do his utmost to follow Jesus. His congregation grew in numbers and, in 1264, the bishop of Chieti (Abruzzo) incorporated it into the Benedictine order. In 1273, at the age of 64 (an old man in those days), he traveled on foot to Lyon to have his congregation's statutes confirmed by Pope Gregory X, who was preparing a council in the capital of the Gauls.

He lived a life of self-denial, disregarding the superfluous and getting rid of possessions, seeing them as cumbersome burdens.

His stamina and capacity for work were exceptional: it wasn't until 1293, in his 84th year of age, that he retired to a cave in Sant'Onofrio (Sulmona). In his own words, he was a very old man who needed to prepare himself for a good death. Before that, he held a series of abbot's offices, traveled to Rome and Tuscany, and administered the Celestines (both materially and spiritually).

Since the death of Pope Nicholas IV on April 4, 1292, the pontifical throne has been vacant; the cardinals were at odds with each other and unable to choose one of their own. Charles II of Anjou urged the Sacred College to choose a pope once and for all, within a reasonable timeframe. Charles II's father had known Pietro when he was a hermit, and was aware of his miracles. So the king decided to visit him in his grotto to seek his advice on the situation in Rome.

The meeting between the two men was providential. Charles, the powerful king of Sicily, asked the old hermit to write a letter to be delivered personally to the cardinals, in which the saint would ask them to reconcile. Pietro agreed. He didn't know it, but he had just taken a step towards the pontifical throne. It is safe to say that Pietro and Charles were the instruments of Providence at this point in their lives.

In Rome, Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini had a sudden idea after reading the hermit's letter: why not propose Pietro as a candidate for the pontifical election? This project was radically different from customary practice in the curia at the time. Announcing the candidacy of an 84-year-old hermit who didn't even master Latin? Unimaginable! But what is even more unimaginable is that Pietro was unanimously elected on July 5, 1294.

Celestine appointed thirteen new cardinals, including six monks, to avoid conflicts within the Sacred College at the next election. He also sent two ambassadors, one to Paris, the other to London, to promote peace between France and England.

Celestine reigned for five months and eight days, then resigned, but only after consulting eminent jurists (including his successor, the future Boniface VIII) to avoid causing irreparable damage to the Church, and after having promulgated an apostolic constitution on the renunciation of popes.

Referring with confounding modesty to his human inadequacies and physical difficulties, he first informed his entourage that he was unable to carry out his duties, then, on December 13, 1294, he definitively renounced his office before the cardinals, and died two years later.

As early as 1305, Philip the Fair, King of France, who had already welcomed a Celestine community to Paris, asked the new Pope Clement V to investigate Celestine's life and miracles. Celestine was proclaimed a saint on May 5, 1313, just twenty-four years after his death. From that point on, his popularity only grew. The great disproportion between the obscurity of his existence and the universality of his reputation points to a divine intervention.

In 1517, his mortal remains were transferred to the abbey church of the L'Aquila monastery. St. Paul VI, St. John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis have all visited his tomb in succession (on April 28, 2009, Benedict XVI placed the pallium he wore on the day of his enthronement on April 24, 2005, on Celestine's tomb).

Patrick Sbalchiero

Beyond reasons to believe:

Celestine was "great on the pontifical throne, greater still in the desert, and his greatness in heaven surpasses all thoughts" (Dom Prosper Guéranger).