Born in Palermo on January 13, 1814.
Died in Palermo on April 14, 1904.
Benedictine monk, born Pietro Geremia, made his solemn profession in the monastery of San Martino alle Scale in Palermo on 15 January 1835 and was ordained a priest on 24 July 1836. After teaching philosophy and dogmatic theology, he was master of novices and prior in monasteries of Messina and Militello. On March 25, 1850 Pius IX appointed him abbot of Montecassino; on 23 March 1860 he elected him bishop of Patti, in Sicily, and on 27 October 1871 he promoted him archbishop of Palermo, where he unleashed a tireless activity for the formation of the clergy, the development of the Catholic movement and the care of the people, through six pastoral visits. He was made a cardinal by Leo XIII on November 10, 1884.
On his return from the Holy Land, Don Guanella recalls the welcome given to pilgrims on October 19, 1902 by the "venerable Archbishop of Palermo, the nonagenarian Cardinal Celesia" and the warmth of the Palermitan people who jubilantly thronged the streets as they passed.
Sources
- Hierarchia catholica medii et modernis aevi, vol. VIII: 1846-1903, edited by Remigium Ritzler and Pirminum Sefrin, Padua, Editrice «Il Messaggero di S. Antonio», 1878, pp. 434, 438.
- Francesco Michele Stabile, to the voicein Historical dictionary of the Catholic movement in Italy, edited by Francesco Traniello and Giorgio Campanini, vol. III/1: The representative figures, Casale Monferrato, Marietti, 1984, pp. 211-212.
Guanellian sources
- Louis Guanella After the pilgrimage, in «The Divine Providence», 1902, p. 87.
Photography
- “Catholic Pontifical Directory”, 1905, p. 636.
AM Dieguez
Guanellian Encyclopaedia
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