Saint Peter Celestine V, co-protector of L’Aquila, for the column “All Saints Days” of May 19th.
May 19th marks the memory of Saint Peter Celestine V, protector of L’Aquila. Saint Celestine V, born Pietro Angeleriknown as Pietro del Morrone, Sant’Angelo Limosano was born, in the province of Isernia, around 1209, the eleventh child of a poor peasant family. From his widowed mother, Pietro was initiated into ecclesiastical studies, but since he was strongly attracted by the austerities of monastic life, at just twenty years old he entered the Benedictine monastery of Santa Maria di Faifoli. Although he was ordained a presbyter in Rome, he continued his ascetic life retired in a cave near Sulmona. His reputation for sanctity, however, soon attracted curious and devout people, so much so that in 1245 he decided to move to more inaccessible places along the walls of the Maiella. Here, followed by some disciples, he founded the hermitage of Santo Spirito a Maiella and in 1259 the church of Santa Maria del Morrone, to which he inextricably linked his name. In 1263 Pope Urban IV decreed the inclusion of the Hermits of Santo Spirito, later called Celestines, living according to the Benedictine rule interpreted with great severity; the decision was confirmed on 22 March 1275 with a bull from Pope Gregory X, which guaranteed the economic autonomy of the congregation, supported by donations from the faithful.
With the death of Pope Nicholas IV on 4 April 1292, the first Franciscan pontiff, a difficult conclave for the choice of successor: the various sessions held between Rome and Perugia failed to converge on the choice of any candidate, also due to pressure from the Roman families and European monarchies. Pietro da Morrone entered into this situation and, in a letter sent to the Cardinal Dean Latino Malabranca, predicted for the Church “serious punishments” if the new pontiff had not been chosen immediately. The cardinal was struck by the letter and, whether due to the man’s reputation for sanctity or his seniority and political inexperience which made him potentially influenceable, he proposed Celestine as a candidate for the cardinals. His request was accepted and Peter was elected pope unanimously on 5 July 1294. The decision was communicated to him on 18 July: the hermit initially refused the position, then accepted, deciding to be crowned in L’Aquila, in the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, and not in Rome, contravening consolidated practice. On 29 August 1294, Peter, or rather Celestine V, entered the city on a donkey driven by the King of Naples Charles II of Anjou and his son Charles Martel. During the ordination ceremony he granted a plenary indulgence to all participants; on September 29, with the bubble Inter Sanctorum sollemniaextended to the following years on the anniversary of his coronation, the privilege of forgiveness of sins and punishments – Perdonanza – to all those who, having confessed and repented of their sins, had gone to the Basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio from the vespers of 28 August at sunset on the 29th. This indulgence resumed the Pardon of Assisi, obtained by Saint Francis for the Porziuncola on August 2nd and granted in 1216 by Pope Honorius III.
As far as politics are concerned, Saint Peter Celestine always was pro-Angevin; on the advice of Charles II, in November 1294 he moved the seat of the curia from L’Aquila to Naples, going to reside in the Maschio Angioino, in a humble room more similar to a monastic cell, where he often retreated to pray. However, clearly little expert in the “things of the world”, almost a hostage of the Angevin sovereign, he soon decided to turn to the cardinals, in particular Benedetto Caetani, to question them about the lawfulness of one of his voluntary renunciation of the pontificate, an event that has never occurred before. Upon answering in the affirmative, he gathered the consistory and after only three months and fifteen days from his election, on 13 December 1294 Saint Celestine V recited the formula of renunciation of the Papal Throne, descended from the throne, taking off the ring and the tiara, putting on the miserable tunic of his congregation. Eleven days after his resignationthe conclave elected the new Pope precisely in the person of Cardinal Benedetto Caetani who took the name of Boniface VIII. One of the first actions of the new pontiff, fearing a schism among the pro-French cardinals who would have wanted to take the chair of Peter Celestine V, was to have the old hermit placed under custody in the fortress of Fumone, in Ciociaria, a castle in the territories of the Caetani; here Pietro da Morrone died on 19 May 1296, probably debilitated by the forced deportation and subsequent imprisonment. Various legends followed one another around the death of Celestine V, including the alleged killing by means of a nail driven into the skull, but this is another story… The Holy Pope was buried near Ferentino, in the church of Sant’Antonio located at the Celestine Abbey which depended on the mother house of Santo Spirito del Morrone. Venerated as a saint just a few years after his death, his fame is mainly linked to the “great refusal” he made by withdrawing from the pontificate, at the time the center of secular and clerical power games that were ill-suited to his spiritual and ascetic than him. On 5 May 1313 he was canonized by Pope Clement V at the request of the King of France Philip the Fair, completing the process started by Boniface. The remains of San Celestino V, after having been transferred to the church of Sant’Agata, in the town of Ferentino, were secretly stolen in February 1327 and taken on the back of a mule to L’Aquila, to the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio, where they still rest. Following the disastrous L’Aquila earthquake of 6 April 2009the collapse of the vault of the basilica caused the burial of the shrine with the venerated remainslater recovered by Fire fightersfrom the Civil protection and with the collaboration of Financial Police. After the restoration of the Basilica, San Pietro Celestino returned to the chapel to the right of the apse on 20 December 2017.
In the cover image, the bezel of the Holy Door, fresco created between 1393 and 1397 by Antonio Martini for Santa Maria di Collemaggio. To the left of the Virgin and Child appears the portrait of Pietro Celestino depicted holding the Bull of Forgiveness. The iconographic tradition following the 16th century is inspired by the series of the four Protector Saints kept in the National Museum of Abruzzo, unanimously attributed to Giulio Cesare Bedeschini and that of the cathedral of L’Aquila, and recurs in the numerous replicas present in the main city churches. The co-patron of the Eagle is generally depicted in pontifical clothes, with a white coat, stole, sumptuous silk cope and triregnum with three orders of crowns, often embellished with gems. Among the attributes that distinguish it there is also the ferula equipped with a triple cross, originally a symbol of temporal power, later used in the papal liturgy for the opening of the Holy Door. Often the right hand is extended in the act of blessing, while the left is busy supporting the model of the city of L’Aquila, in which Porta Bazzano is recognisable, an obligatory passage for the faithful intending to reach the extra-mural basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio.
