Celestine V was the only Pope who left his appointment before his death ( and for this reason Dante placed him in Hell in the Divine Comedy). During the four months of his pontificate he never once went to Rome. He’d been elected during one of the longest conclaves in history despite the fact that he wasn’t a cardinal: Pietro Angeleri was a hermit monk noted for his saintliness who in that summer of 1294 was already 79 years old. He was nominated clearly because there was an impasse between the other cardinals. But his behaviour and his first decisions (for example to be crowned in a ceremony in Aquila, where Dante Alighieri was also present) risked breaking many of the practises inside the church. His resignation in December 1294 was “helped along” by his successor, Cardinal Castani who, as soon as he was elected Pope Boniface VIII, had his predecessor thrown into prison where he died a few months later. He was surely murdered as results of recent analysis of his remains have shown. After this analysis it has recently been shown that Pietro’s remains had been the object of a strange and unexplained theft.
Year: 2009
Duration: 55’
Language: english
