Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Celestine, Patronage of Sant’Angelo Limosano | May 19 PAULINES

Walking with the Saints Podcast | Feast of St. Celestine,
Patronage of Sant’Angelo Limosano | May 19

 

 

One day, some centuries ago, a saintly mother, after the death of her husband, gathered her twelve children and said: “Oh, if I could only have the joy to see one of you become a saint. Who among you will become a saint”? One of the little boys answered without hesitation:
“Me, Mama, I will become a saint.” That was Celestine, our saint for today, who became a Pope and was later declared a saint. Celestine was born Pietro Angelerio, in 1215 in a town called Sant’Angelo Limosano, now Molise, Italy. When Pietro was big enough, he started working
in the fields. He was a good and intelligent child and his mother had a greater dream for him, not to remain a farmer or a shepherd all his life.  Pietro had an extraordinary love for prayer and solitude and in 1239 he retired to a solitary cave on a mountain. Later, he
left this cave with two other companions and went to a more remote mountain. There they lived a life of great austerity and penance. While living this kind of life, he founded a religious group that would later be named after him, the Celestines. He went to Lyon and persuaded Pope Gregory X to approve his new order, making it a branch of the Benedictines and following the rule of St. Benedict, but with more privations and mortifications. The new association spread rapidly, many monasteries were established and he was elected superior general of a
great number of monks. When this new order consolidated, he gave up his position and retired once again to a more secluded place to give himself more
to penance and prayer. Since the place where Pietro built the central headquarter of the monastery was in a very cold place, the group decided to transfer to one with less rigorous climate. After the death of Pope Nicholas IV in April 1292, the cardinals gathered to elect a new Pope. Knowing that Pietro was a Benedictine hermit, they elected him. But when they brought the news to him, he obstinately refused to accept the papacy and tried to escape. However, he was persuaded by a group of cardinals who came to him, accompanied by the king of Naples. Thus, on July 5, 1294, at the age of 79, at Santa Maria di Collemaggio, he was crowned Pope and took the name Celestine V. Since he had no political experience, he had no power to influence the king and his followers. He had to appoint the king’s favorites to several offices they wanted. Celestine was dismayed.  After 5 months as Pope, on December 13, 1294, he resigned, stating that he wanted to return to his humble life. He was imprisoned by the Pope that followed him in order to prevent some cardinals from installing him again that would make him an anti-pope. He died in prison on May 19 at the age of 81. Celestine was canonized on May 5, 1313 by Pope Clement V. His feast day is on May 19. Surprisingly, his incorrupt body survived the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake and people say it was indeed one of his many miracles.

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Virtue: humility,
piety, poverty, chastity, honesty, fidelity, patience and forgiveness

Prayer: “We beseech you, St. Celestine, to pray for the sanctification of our Pope.”