Jan Brueghel the Elder “Saint Peter Celestine” at the Colonna Gallery in Rome

Saint Peter Celestine

Jan Brueghel the Elder (1588 - 13 January 1625) “Saint Peter Celestine”

Oil on copper (26.7 x 35.2 cm) 1593

Pietro Angeleri, known as Saint Peter Celestine, was born in 1215.

He retired as a hermit in the Abruzzo region on Mount Morrone, where he had many disciples, hermits whose lives he organised according to Benedictine rules before returning to his cave in 1293.

At that time, the Holy See had been vacant for a year, and Pietro Angeleri, nicknamed Pietro de Moronne, reproached the cardinals for this.

Their response was to elect him Pope, which he accepted, taking the name Celestine.

However, at nearly eighty years of age and inexperienced in political intrigue, he was held in Naples by Charles of Anjou and, barely six months after his election, he abdicated on 13 December 1294.

He then wanted to return to his life as a hermit on Mount Morrone, but Pope Boniface VIII, his successor, had him imprisoned.

Saint Peter Celestine Boniface VIII's attitude was a response to the opposition of cardinals who had refused to accept Celestine's abdication. With Celestine no longer free, there were no more opponents!

Celestine, now Pietro da Morrone once more, died the following year.

He was canonised in 1313 by Pope Clement V in Avignon.

Philip the Fair, enemy of Boniface VIII, took pleasure in introducing the hermits of Saint Peter Celestine, known as the Celestines, to France.

The Celestines wore a black scapular with a hood and cloak over a white robe.

Jan Brueghel the Elder therefore depicted Saint Peter Celestine as a hermit in his mountain with his tools, the Holy Scriptures, his rosary and the Celestine habit.

The mitre placed in front of him is there to remind us that he was Bishop of Rome, in other words, Pope.

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