#celestine v

[owl-nerd-13]

Vincent: Receives a 2/3 majority of votes

Vincent:

much thanks to @steblynkaagain for the excellent picture

[wtf-fun-factss]

In 1294, Pope Celestine V was elected after a two-year impasse. He was a monk and hermit before being elected and passed an edict allowing Popes to abdicate, which he did a week after issuing the decree and ~5 months as Pope. – WTF Fun Facts Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Celestine_V

[lostprofile]

AN INCOMPLETE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL ART LX

SANTA MARIA DI COLLEMAGGIO

After wandering around in "the desert" (read: forest) outside L'Aquila in 1274, the ascetic founder of the Celestine Order of hermit monks, Pietro da Morrone, spent the night on a large hill (colle maggiore). While sleeping, the Virgin appeared to him in a dream, instructing him to build a church there. The Celestine Order purchased the land and began construction of a monastic complex in 1287. The half-completed church was consecrated in 1289.

For two years Guelph and Ghibelline animosities had prevented the papal conclave of Perugia from choosing a successor to Nicholas IV. To end the standoff, the desperate cardinals rashly elevated an outsider revered for his piety, namely Pietro da Morrone, to the See of Saint Peter in June of 1294. The aged hermit reluctanty agreed, taking the name Celestine V. He quickly became a pawn of Charles II, the Angevin king of Naples, and antagonized the curia by capriciously handing out benefices, pursuing a blatantly pro-French agenda and allowing the Spiritual Franciscans to secede from the order.

Seeking a way out after five months of acrimonious conflict, Celestine consulted the cardinals. Cardinal Gaetani concluded that canon law permitted the resignation of the papacy, thus allowing the hapless Celestine to abdicate on 15 December 1294. Gaetani was then elected pope as Boniface VIII. After further misdventures, Celestine died, under house arrest, in 1296. He was canonized in 1313, his remains translated to Collemaggio in 1327, where they attracted large numbers of pilgrims.

Benedictine priest and hermit, d. 1296

The church at Collemaggio a combination of Romanesque and Gothic elements. The façade’s three round arches over the portals (an arrangement derived from Roman triumphal arches), rose windows and the patterned pink and white stone recapitulate traditional southern Italian Romanesque conventions. In the interior, the nave arcades and choir are designed in the simplified Neapolitan version of French Gothic architecture.

In 1461, the dome over the crossing collapsed in an earthquake. A similar disaster struck again in 2009, bringing down the crossing, transept and timber roof. The church subsequently underwent consolidation and reconstruction work.

Ten years after the quake, Italy’s ravaged heart is still struggling to recover

A new theatre backed by George Clooney is giving hope to some, but the city where thousands were left homeless is still a building site

Pope Benedict XVI visited the tomb of Celestine V in 2013, shortly before he resigned the papacy.

[yuhengwanye]

 When Pope Nicholas IV died in April 1292, there was no clear successor. The cardinals gathered in Perugia to elect a new pope, but for two years they couldn’t agree on a candidate.

At this point, a hermit called Pietro Angelerio, who was known as intelligent and loving but also extremely introverted, wrote a grumpy letter to the College of Cardinals telling them that they really had to get a move on and elect a new pope lest a bit of divine vengeance be visited upon them. Upon reading the letter, the Dean of the College reportedly cried, “In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, I elect brother Pietro di Morrone.” The cardinals apparently thought, “You know what, fuck it,” ratified it, and sent for the new pope.

Pietro refused, and tried to flee, but was eventually ‘persuaded’ to be crowned in August 1294 by a bunch of cardinals and the king of Naples. He took the name Celestine V, was completely under the power of said king of Naples, and pretty much the only thing he did manage to do in his five months as pope was renew a decree regarding papal conclaves, and declare a new one that popes could resign, which he promptly did. 

What I’m saying is that Aziraphale accidentally got himself elected pope, desperately did everything he could to resign before Heaven could find out, was then kidnapped a few times by the new pope so that no one could set him up as an antipope, and was eventually rescued by Crowley (who used the opportunity to pretend that the current pope had killed poor old Celestine V, which went down very well in Hell).

[anomalousdata]

Everything to Know About Pope Celestine V (in 200 words or less)

In 1292, Pope Nicholas IV died and Rome lost its shit for two years while they tried to get a new one elected. A hermit named Pietro Angelerio (who loved Jesus almost as much as he hated being around other people) wrote them a letter saying God was going to get really pissed if they didn't elect someone soon. In response, they elected him.

No one was thrilled, but everyone was pretty okay with the choice, with the notable exception of Pietro Angelerio, who apparently cried and tried to run away when they came to tell him he was pope.

He took the name Celeste V, and spent the next five months hating his job with a passion. Finally, he decided to resign, encouraged by Benedetto Gaetani. Pietro peaced out and was looking forward to spending the rest of his life living in a cave. Benedetto was promptly made pope, took the name Boniface VIII, and imprisoned Pietro for fear that he’d be elected the antipope (which is not like a Bizarro Pope, sadly). Pietro was imprisoned and died ten months into it.

He was eventually sainted, though, and Boniface died of kidney stones. Papal karma?

[Screaming internally]

[whitmerule]

Hey look, a no-longer-Pope!

So we've had implicit comparisons to Gregory XII ("the last time a pope resigned was 600 years ago!") and to Celestine V ("the last time a pope resigned Dante put him in Hell!", although it was actually the antechamber of Hell and possibly was Pontius Pilate, not Celestine).

I want someone to try comparing him to Benedict IX. You know, the teenage pope who had wild orgies in the palace, who sold the papacy and then kept trying to take it back (occasionally by force) from the three successive popes they chose to replace him. 

(Although, honestly, for my money, the only pope to really count as having resigned is Celestine V - Benedict IX, in the 1030s and 40s, was compelled into it and sold it and never really acknowledged that he wasn't pope anymore until they excommunicated him, so that's more a 'forcibly booted out' than retiring; John XVIII earlier that century resigned and died the same year in the context of a bout of plague in the area, so it was probably more a case of "LOOK GUYS I CANNOT FUNCTION HERE BUSY DYING K"; and Gregory XII was one of two popes who were elected concurrently at the end of the fourteenth century - the Great Schism - and both he and the other guy resigned at the same time so that the cardinals could pick a new pope that everyone could agree on. Celestine V, at the end of the 13th century, just didn't want to be pope and wanted to go home and be a quiet little hermit again - and obviously John and Benedict didn't count as precedent at the time, because Celestine actually had to pass legislation to say that the pope could resign before he resigned.)