| Pope Celestine I - ( ? - 432)
Celestine was elected pope on
September 10, 422. Celestine devoted great attention to local issues and at eliminating
heretical Church doctrine. He died in 432 and was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla,
near the basilica of San Silvestro. His traditional feast day is April 6.
|
Celestine was born in the Roman Campagna. He was
archdeacon of the Roman church before his election to the papacy. During the 5th century,
archdeacons represented the bishop at councils, and governed the diocese during the time
between the death of a bishop and the election of a new one. Celestine was elected pope on
September 10, 422. He reigned as pope until his death in 432. Saint Celestine was buried
in the cemetery of Priscilla, near the basilica of San Silvestro. His traditional feast
day is April 6.
Celestine devoted great attention to local issues. He also worked hard at eliminating
heretical Church doctrine. He took vigorous action against the large Christian minority in
Rome that continued to follow the teachings of the second antipope Novatian. The
Novatianists espoused a rigorism in church discipline that expected strict ascetic
behavior. They believed that after baptism there could be no forgiveness for grave sins.
By confiscating the churches of Novatian's followers, Celestine forced them to worship in
private houses. Celestine also restored the Julian basilica that had been damaged in 410
during the sack of Rome by Alaric I. He initiated the construction of the new basilica of
Santa Sabina on the Aventine hill.
Celestine reiterated the claim of the papacy to oversee the entire Christian church. He
insisted the right of the pope to hear appeals from any province. This brought Celestine
into conflict with the bishops of Africa over the reinstatement of a priest whom they had
excommunicated. He also censured the bishops of southern Gaul for ecclesiastical abuses
that had come to his attention.
Celestine was successful in rooting out the leaders of Pelagianism in the West.
Pelagianism was a rationalistic and naturalistic heretical doctrine concerning grace and
morals. It emphasized human free will as the decisive element in human perfectibility and
denied the need for divine grace and redemption. Celestine also sent Saint Germain of
Auxerre to convert its adherents in Britain. In the East, he instructed the bishops of
Illyria to treat the bishop of Thessalonica as his vicar.
Toward the end of his reign, Celestine took part in the christological debate between
Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople, and Saint Cyril of Alexandria. Both theologians
submitted their positions to Celestine for arbitration. Celestine misinterpreted this as
an appeal to Rome from the Eastern (Byzantium) Church. Nestorius preached a variant of the
orthodox doctrine concerning the nature of Jesus Christ. Nestorius claimed that in Christ
a divine and a human Person acted as one, but did not join to compose the unity of a
single individual. At a synod held in Rome in 430, Celestine condemned Nestorianism and
called on Nestorius to recant or face excommunication. Meanwhile, Emperor Theodosius II
called the council of Ephesus. Where in 431 Saint Cyril procured the condemnation of
Nestorianism and the excommunication of Nestorius. His followers were persecuted and
sought refuge in Persia, India, China, and Mongolia.
Sources: | On This Day | Compton’s
Encyclopedia |