Celebrate
the
Day!

At the age of twenty, Peter became a hermit. He spent his days praying, reading the Bible and doing his work. Other hermits kept coming to him and asking him to guide them. Eventually, he started a new order of monks.

When he was eighty-four years of age, he was made pope. After two years of not having a pope, the cardinals still could not agree on whom to choose. Peter sent them a message warning them to decide quickly, because God was not pleased with the long delay. They chose Peter to be pope! He accepted and took the name Celestine V.

He was pope only about five months. He could not say "no" to anyone, and people took advantage of him. This led to great confusion and Pope Celestine felt responsible for all the trouble. He gave up his position and asked forgiveness for not having governed the Church well.

All St. Celestine wanted was to live in one of his monasteries in peace, but the new pope, Boniface VIII, thought it would be safer to keep him hidden in a small room in one of the Roman palaces. St. Celestine spent the last ten months of his life in a plain cell-like room. He died on May 19, 1296. He was proclaimed a saint by Pope Clement VI in 1313.