Editing Pope Celestine I

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church from 422 to 432}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021 |cs1-dates=ll}}
{{Infobox Christian leader
| type = Pope
| honorific-prefix = [[List of popes|Pope]] [[List of canonised popes|Saint]]
| name = Celestine I
| title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
| church = [[Catholic Church]]
| image = 
| term_start = 10 September 422
| term_end = 27 July 432<ref name=DuchesneLiberPontificalis>{{cite book|last=Duchesne|first=Louis|title=Liber Pontificalis, Texte, Introduction et Commentaire|year=1886|url=https://archive.org/details/duchesne01/mode/2up}}, p 89.</ref>
| predecessor = [[Boniface I]]
| successor = [[Sixtus III]]
| birth_name = Celestine
| birth_date = 
| birth_place = [[Rome]], [[Roman Empire]]
| death_date = 27 July 432
| feast_day = {{unbulleted list|27 July (Catholic)|8 April (Eastern Orthodox)|3 [[Epip]] ([[Coptic Christianity]])}}
| venerated = {{unbulleted list|[[Catholic Church]]|[[Eastern Orthodox Church]]|[[Oriental Orthodoxy]]}}
| attributes = {{unbulleted list|Dove|Dragon|Flame}}
| other = Celestine
}}
'''Pope Celestine I''' ({{langx|la|Caelestinus I}}) (c. 359 – 27 July 432) was the [[bishop of Rome]] from 10 September 422 to his death on 27 July 432. Celestine's pontificate was largely spent combatting various teachings deemed heretical. He was instrumental for the condemnation of [[Nestorius]] in the [[Council of Ephesus]] when 
[[Cyril of Alexandria]] appealed him to make a decision, which in response, Celestine  delegated Cyril the job of condemning Nestorius if he did not recant his teachings. He supported the mission of the Gallic bishops that sent [[Germanus of Auxerre]] in 429, to Britain to address [[Pelagianism]], and later commissioned [[Palladius (bishop of Ireland)|Palladius]] as bishop to the Scots of Ireland and northern Britain.

==Early life and family==
Celestine I was a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] from the region of [[Campania]].<ref name=LiberPontificalis /> Nothing is known of his early history except that his father's name was Priscus. According to [[John Gilmary Shea]], Celestine was a relative of the emperor [[Valentinian III|Valentinian]].<ref name=shea>{{cite web| url = http://sanctoral.com/en/saints/saint_celestine_i.html| title = Shea, John Gilmary. "Celestine I", ''Little Pictorial Lives of the Saints'', Benziger Brothers: New York, 1894}}</ref> He is said to have lived for a time at [[Milan, Italy|Milan]] with [[Ambrose|St. Ambrose]]. The first known record of him is in a document of [[Pope Innocent I]] from the year 416, where he is spoken of as "Celestine the Deacon".<ref name="ce">Murphy, John Francis Xavier (1908). "[[wikisource:Catholic Encyclopedia (1913)/Pope St. Celestine I|Pope St. Celestine I]]". In ''Catholic Encyclopedia''. '''3'''. New York: Robert Appleton Company.</ref>

==Pontificate==
According to the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', the start of his papacy was 3 November.<ref name=LiberPontificalis>{{cite book|last=Loomis|first=Louise Ropes|title=The Book of the Popes (Liber Pontificalis)|year=1916|publisher=Columbia University Press|location=New York|pages=92f|url=https://archive.org/stream/bookofpopesliber00loom#page/92/mode/2up}}</ref> However, Tillemont places the date at 10 September.<ref name=Tillemont>{{cite book|last=Tillemont|first=Louis Sébastien Le Nain de|title=Memoires pour servir a l'histoire ecclesiaástique des six premiers siécles|year=1709|publisher=Charles Robustel|location=Paris|pages=14:148|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C10QftN9LSYC&pg=GBS.PA148}}</ref>  The Vatican also gives his pontificate as starting on 10 September 422.<ref name=Vatican>[https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/celestino-i.html Vatican Pope Celestine I]</ref>

Various portions of the [[catholic liturgy|liturgy]] are attributed to Celestine I, but without any certainty on the subject. In 430, he held a synod in Rome, at which the teachings of [[Nestorius]] were condemned. The following year, he sent delegates to the [[First Council of Ephesus]], which addressed the [[Nestorianism|same issue]].<ref name=shea/> Four letters written by him on that occasion, all dated 15 March 431, together with a few others, to the [[Africa]]n bishops, to those of [[Illyria]], of [[Thessalonica]], and of [[Narbonne]], are extant in re-translations from the [[Greek language|Greek]]; the [[Latin]] originals having been lost.

Celestine actively condemned the [[Pelagianism|Pelagians]] and was zealous for Roman orthodoxy. To this end he was involved in the initiative of the Gallic bishops to send Germanus of Auxerre and [[Lupus of Troyes]] travelling to Britain in 429 to confront bishops reportedly holding Pelagian views.

He sent [[Palladius (bishop of Ireland)|Palladius]] to [[Ireland]] to serve as a bishop in 431. Celestine strongly opposed the [[Novatians]] in [[Rome]]; as [[Socrates Scholasticus]] writes, "this Celestinus took away the churches from the Novatians at Rome also, and obliged Rusticulus their bishop to hold his meetings secretly in private houses."<ref>{{cite web|title=Ecclesiastical History 7:11|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/26017.htm|access-date=3 March 2012}}</ref> The Novationists refused absolution to the [[Lapsi (Christianity)|lapsi]], but Celestine argued that reconciliation should never be refused to any dying sinner who sincerely asked for it.<ref name=shea/> He was zealous in refusing to tolerate the smallest innovation on the constitutions of his predecessors. As St. Vincent of Lerins reported in 434:

:Holy Pope Celestine also expresses himself in like manner and to the same effect. For in the Epistle which he wrote to the priests of Gaul, charging them with connivance with error, in that by their silence they failed in their duty to the ancient faith, and allowed profane novelties to spring up, he says: "We are deservedly to blame if we encourage error by silence. Therefore rebuke these people. Restrain their liberty of preaching."<ref>{{cite web|last=Lerins|first=St. Vincent of|title=Commonitory 32|url=http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3506.htm|access-date=12 July 2011}}</ref>

In a letter to certain bishops of Gaul, dated 428, Celestine rebukes the adoption of special clerical garb by the clergy. He wrote: "We [the bishops and clergy] should be distinguished from the common people [plebe] by our learning, not by our clothes; by our conduct, not by our dress; by cleanness of mind, not by the care we spend upon our person".<ref>H. Thurston, "Clerical Costume," in ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', vol. 4</ref>

==Death and legacy==
[[File:Patrick's mission to Ireland from the Pope, Kilkenny cathedral.jpg|thumb|[[Saint Patrick]] sent to Ireland by Pope Celestine I; wall mosaic in [[St Mary's Cathedral, Kilkenny]].]]

There are several interpretations for the date of Celestine's death. Different sources for the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'' provide a date of death as April 6 or 8, 432.<ref name=DuchesneLiberPontificalis/> This interpretation is favored by the [[Eastern Orthodox]] church, and fixed the feast day in this tradition. 

Critical analysis of alternative sources shows the April date is inconsistent with the succession of [[Sixtus III]], as well as the number of days Celestine was on the papal throne. By counting the number of days from election to his death, Tillemont calculated date of Celestine's death to be July 26, 432.<ref name=Tillemont2>{{cite book|last=Tillemont|first=Louis Sébastien Le Nain de|title=Memoires pour servir a l'histoire ecclesiaástique des six premiers siécles|year=1709|publisher=Charles Robustel|location=Paris|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C10QftN9LSYC&pg=GBS.PA148}}, pp. 148, 747 N. III</ref>

[[Louis Duchesne]], when compiling the first complete critical edition of the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'' in 1886, similarly calculated a date of July 27, 432, which is now largely accepted in the Western tradition (and is marked as Celestine's feast day by the Roman church).<ref name=DuchesneLiberPontificalis2>{{cite book|last=Duchesne|first=Louis|title=Liber Pontificalis, Texte, Introduction et Commentaire|year=1886|url=https://archive.org/details/duchesne01/mode/2up}}, p. 231 n. 7 </ref><ref>{{cite web |author=<!-- not stated --> |title=Celestino I |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en/holy-father/celestino-i.html}}</ref> 

Celestine was buried in the cemetery of [[Priscilla (Christian)|St. Priscilla]] on the [[Via Salaria]], but his body, subsequently moved, now lies in the [[Basilica di Santa Prassede]]. In art, Celestine is portrayed as a pope with a dove, dragon, and flame, and is recognized by the [[Oriental Orthodox]], [[Eastern Orthodox]], and [[Catholic Church]]es as a saint.

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
* [[List of popes]]
* [[List of Catholic saints]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
{{commons category|Caelestinus I}}
{{EB1911 poster|Celestine (popes)}}
*[http://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01_01_0422-0432-_Caelestinus_I,_Sanctus.html Opera Omnia by Migne Patrologia Latina with analytical indexes] {{inlang|la}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-rel|grt}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Pope Boniface I|Boniface I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=422–432}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope Sixtus III|Sixtus III]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{Popes}}
{{Catholic saints}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Celestine 01}}
[[Category:432 deaths]]
[[Category:5th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:5th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:5th-century Western Romans]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Italian saints]]
[[Category:Papal saints]]
[[Category:Clergy from Rome]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Theodosian dynasty]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:5th-century popes]]