Celestino Sfondrati

Abbot Coelestin Cardinal Sfondrati OSB

Celestino Sfondrati OSB (born January 10, 1644 in Milan as Valentino Sfondrati , † September 4, 1696 in Rome ; German Coelestin Sfondrati ) was Prince Abbot of St. Gallen and cardinal .

Life

He was the son of the Milanese patrician Marchese Valeriano Sfondrati, Commissioner General of the Spanish Army, and his wife Paola Camilla Marliana. From his father's side he was a great-nephew of Pope Gregory XIV , great-great-nephew of Cardinal Francesco Sfondrati and nephew of Cardinal Paolo Emilio Sfondrati .

At the age of twelve he entered the school in Rorschach on Lake Constance, which was run by Benedictine monks from St. Gallen . On April 26, 1660, he was dressed in the Benedictine habit in St. Gallen and took the religious name of Celestine (Celestino). On May 14, 1665 he received the minor ordinations , on September 19 of the same year he became subdeacon , on September 24, 1667 he received the ordination of deacons and on April 26, 1668 he was ordained priest . As a deacon he taught philosophy and theology in Kempten in 1667 . At the University of the Benedictines in Salzburg he obtained the academic degree of Doctor theologiae as well as that of Dr. iur. can. After being ordained a priest, he became a novice master in the monastery of St. Gallen and taught canon law as a professor at the University of the Benedictines in Salzburg until 1682 when he returned to the monastery to look after a small rural community near Rorschach as a priest. A short time later, Abbot Gallus Alt appointed him his vicar general .

Pope Innocent XI. appointed him on October 30, 1686 Bishop of Novara , which he accepted only reluctantly. His election as prince abbot of St. Gallen on April 17, 1687 freed him from taking possession of the diocese. He stood against the currents of Gallicanism and Jansenism and defended the authority of the Pope against these currents. So called him Pope Innocent XII. in the consistory of December 12, 1695 as a cardinal priest in the college of cardinals and awarded him the titular church of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere on February 20, 1696 . But no sooner had he reached Rome than his health began to wane. Celestino Sfondrati died only nine months after his ascension as a cardinal and was buried in his titular church, Santa Cecilia in Trastevere .

Works

• Cursus theologicus in gratiam et utilitatem Fratrum Religiosorum. 10 volumes. St. Gallen 1670 (anonymous).
• Disputatio juridica de lege in praesumptione fundata. Salzburg 1681; 2nd edition Salem 1718.
• Shelves sacerdotium Romano Pontifici assertum. St. Gallen 1684, 1693, 1749 (published under the pseudonym Eugenius Lombardus , a defense of papal privileges against the four Gallican articles of 1682 ).
• Cursus philosophicus monasterii S. Galli. 3 vols. St. Gallen 1686.
• Gallia vindicate. 2 volumes. St. Gallen 1688 (another writing against Gallicanism).
• Legatio Marchionis Lavardini ejusque cum Innocentio XI dissidium. 1688.
• Nepotism theologice expensus. St. Gallen 1692.
• Innocentia vindicata. St. Gallen 1695 (attempt to prove that Thomas Aquinas already represented the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary ).
• Nodus predestinationis ex sac. litteris doctrinaque SS. Augustini et Thomae, quantum homini licet, dissolutus. Rome 1697 (posthumous pamphlet against the Jansenists with reflections on the questions of grace and predestination according to Augustine ).

literature

• Peter Erhart (ed.); Giuanna Beeli, Federica Giordani, Helena Müller, Christoph Uiting (authors): Prince Abbot Celestino Sfondrati of St. Gallen 1696 as cardinal in Rome. Vienna: Böhlau Verlag, 2019.
• Michael Ott:  Celestino Sfondrati . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Volume 13, Robert Appleton Company, New York 1912.
• Werner Vogler: A biography of Cardinal Cölestin Sfondrati from the 18th century. In: Dorothea Walz (Ed.): Scripturus vitam. Latin biography from ancient times to the present. Festival ceremony for Walter Berschin on his 65th birthday. Heidelberg 2002, pp. 1157-1172.

Web links

Commons : Celestino Sfondrati  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sfondrati, OSB, Celestino. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed April 19, 2017.
• Entry on Celestino Sfondrati on catholic-hierarchy.org ; Retrieved April 19, 2017.
• Lorenz Hollenstein: Sfondrati, Cölestin. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

predecessor	Office	successor
Gallus Alt	Prince Abbot of St. Gallen 1687–1696	Leodegar Bürgisser