Pope Celestine I


 * English name - Celestine I
 * Birth name - Celestine
 * Term start - 422 AD
 * Term end - April 6, 432
 * Predecessor - Boniface I
 * Successor - Sixtus III
 * Birth - date -?
 * Birthplace - Rome, Italy
 * Death date - July 27 432
 * Deathplace - Rome, Italy

Pope Saint Celestine I was pope from 422 until April 6, 432.

Celestine I was a Roman. Nothing is known of his early history except that his father's name was Priscus. He is said to have lived for a time at Milan with St. Ambrose. The first notice, however, concerning him that is known is in a document of Pope Innocent I, in the year 416, where he is spoken of as Celestine the Deacon.

Various portions of the liturgy are attributed to him, but without any certainty on the subject. Though he did not attend personally, he sent delegates to the First Council of Ephesus in which the Nestorians were condemned, in 431. Four letters written by him on that occasion, all dated March 15, 431, together with a few others, to the African bishops, to those of Illyria, of Thessalonica, and of Narbonne, are extant in retranslations from the Greek, the Latin originals having been lost.

St. Celestine actively condemned the Pelagians, and was zealous for orthodoxy. He sent Palladius to Ireland to serve as a bishop in 431. Bishop Patricius (Saint Patrick) continued this missionary work. Pope Celestine raged against the Novatians in Rome, imprisoning their bishop, and forbidding their worship. He was zealous in refusing to tolerate the smallest innovation on the constitutions of his predecessors, and is recognized by the Church as a saint.

St. Celestine died on July 27, 432. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Priscilla in the Via Salaria, but his body, subsequently moved, now lies in the Basilica di Santa Prassede.

In art, Saint Celestine is portrayed as a Pope with a dove, dragon, and flame.