This Week in Christian History: Mother Teresa, Puritans, A Pope Resigns

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, December 10, 2017

Pope Celestine V Resigns - December 13, 1294

A portrait of Pope Celestine V, (1215-1296). | (Photo: Public Domain)

This week marks the anniversary of when Pope Celestine V resigned his office as head of the Roman Catholic Church, the first pontiff to do so.

An influential monk and hermit, Celestine had been elected to pope in July of that year, but abdicated soon afterward.

"Some sources say Celestine's decision to resign was his alone, while others say Cardinal Benedetto Gaetani, the future Boniface VIII, goaded and tricked him into resigning," noted a 2013 Yale Law School 2013 article.

"All agree that Boniface drafted the papal constitution authorizing a pope's resignation. Boniface was elected pope immediately afterward, in December 1294. Celestine tried to return to a hermit's life, but he died as Boniface's prisoner in 1296. Celestine was canonized in 1313."