Pope Celestine V - Retirement, Death, and Canonization

Retirement, Death, and Canonization

Celestine V was not allowed to remain in solitude, however. His successor Pope Boniface VIII sent for him, and finally, despite the former pope's desperate attempts to escape, captured him and imprisoned him in the castle of Fumone near Ferentino in Campagna where, after languishing for 10 months in infected air, he died on 19 May 1296. Some historians believe Boniface might have had him murdered, and indeed his skull does have a suspicious hole in it. He was buried at Ferentino, but his body was subsequently removed to the Basilica Santa Maria di Collemaggio in Aquila. Pope Clement V canonized Celestine in 1313 at the urging of King Philip IV of France, who saw it as an opportunity to demean Pope Boniface VIII, whom Philip despised.

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