Pope Celestine I (Latin:Caelestinus I) (c. 359 – 27 July 432) was thebishop 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 ofNestorius in theCouncil of Ephesus whenCyril 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 sentGermanus of Auxerre in 429, to Britain to addressPelagianism, and later commissionedPalladius as bishop to the Scots of Ireland and northern Britain.
Celestine I was aRoman from the region ofCampania.[2] Nothing is known of his early history except that his father's name was Priscus. According toJohn Gilmary Shea, Celestine was a relative of the emperorValentinian.[3] He is said to have lived for a time atMilan withSt. Ambrose. The first known record of him is in a document ofPope Innocent I from the year 416, where he is spoken of as "Celestine the Deacon".[4]
According to theLiber Pontificalis, the start of his papacy was 3 November.[2] However, Tillemont places the date at 10 September.[5] The Vatican also gives his pontificate as starting on 10 September 422.[6]
Various portions of theliturgy are attributed to Celestine I, but without any certainty on the subject. In 430, he held a synod in Rome, at which the teachings ofNestorius were condemned. The following year, he sent delegates to theFirst Council of Ephesus, which addressed thesame issue.[3] Four letters written by him on that occasion, all dated 15 March 431, together with a few others, to theAfrican bishops, to those ofIllyria, ofThessalonica, and ofNarbonne, are extant in re-translations from theGreek; theLatin originals having been lost.
Celestine actively condemned thePelagians and was zealous for Roman orthodoxy. To this end he was involved in the initiative of the Gallic bishops to send Germanus of Auxerre andLupus of Troyes travelling to Britain in 429 to confront bishops reportedly holding Pelagian views.
He sentPalladius toIreland to serve as a bishop in 431. Celestine strongly opposed theNovatians inRome; asSocrates 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."[7] The Novationists refused absolution to thelapsi, but Celestine argued that reconciliation should never be refused to any dying sinner who sincerely asked for it.[3] 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."[8]
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".[9]
There are several interpretations for the date of Celestine's death. Different sources for theLiber Pontificalis provide a date of death as April 6 or 8, 432.[1] This interpretation is favored by theEastern Orthodox church, and fixed the feast day in this tradition.
Critical analysis of alternative sources shows the April date is inconsistent with the succession ofSixtus 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.[10]
Louis Duchesne, when compiling the first complete critical edition of theLiber 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).[11][12]
