Celso Costantini

Celso Benigno Luigi Cardinal Costantini

Cardinal coat of arms

Life

Celso Costantini studied philosophy and Catholic theology in Rome . He received his doctorate in both disciplines and received on December 26, 1899, the sacrament of Holy Orders . He then worked for fourteen years as a pastor in various parishes in the diocese of Concordia . From 1914 to 1918 he took part in the First World War as a chaplain . From 1919 to 1920 he headed the administration of the diocese of Concordia as vicar general . He founded the Amici dell'Arte Sacra association and the Arte cristiana magazine .

On July 22, 1921, Pope Benedict XV appointed him . the titular bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia . He was ordained bishop on August 24, 1921 by the Patriarch of Venice , Cardinal Pietro La Fontaine ; Co- consecrators were Angelo Bartolomasi , Bishop of Trieste , and Luigi Paulini , Bishop of Concordia. On August 12, 1922, Celso Costantini became the first Apostolic Delegate for China . There he founded an order, the Congregatio Discipulorum Domini , which quickly spread throughout Asia. On September 9, 1922, the Pope appointed him titular archbishop of Theodosiopolis in Arcadia . In May and June 1924, he presided over the first Chinese council in Shanghai , and in October 1928, through his efforts, the first six Chinese bishops were appointed by Pope Pius XI. consecrated in Rome . In 1933 he returned to Italy. On December 20, 1935, Pope Pius XI appointed him. as secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples .

Pope Pius XII took Celso Costantini on January 12, 1953 as a cardinal priest with the titular church Santi Nereo ed Achilleo in the College of Cardinals and appointed him a year later as Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church . On June 9, 1958 the titular church of San Lorenzo in Damaso was transferred to him.

Celso Costantini died on October 17, 1958 in Rome and was buried in his birthplace, Castion di Zoppola. In 2016, the Bishops' Conference of the Ecclesiastical Region of Triveneto spoke out in favor of his beatification , and the process began in October 2017.

Celso Cardinal Costantini , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 50/1958 of December 1, 1958, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of the article freely available)

personal data
SURNAME	Costantini, Celso
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Costantini, Celso Benigno Luigi (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH	April 3, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Castion di Zoppola , Pordenone Province, Italy
DATE OF DEATH	17th October 1958
Place of death	Rome