Pope Celestine I

CELESTINE I, pope (422-432), was a Roman and is supposed to have been a near relative of the Emperor Valentinian. Various portions of the liturgy are attributed to him, but without any certainty on the subject. He held the Council of Ephesus in which the Nestorians were condemned, in 431. Four letters written by him on that occasion, dated all of them 15th March 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. He actively persecuted the Pelagians, and was zealous for Roman orthodoxy. He sent Palladius, a Greek, to Scotland, and Patricius (St Patrick) to Ireland. He 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. He died on the 6th April 432. He was buried in the cemetery of St Priscilla in the Via Salaria, but his body, subsequently moved, lies now in the Church of Santa Prassede.

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preceded by Pope Boniface I (418-422)

succeeded by Pope Sixtus III (432-440)