The Celestine Pardon
The ritual ceremony of the Celestine Pardon, a world-famous historical-cum-religious event, is held in L'Aquila every year at the end of August. The ceremony comes to a climax on 28 August with the opening of the Holy Door in the Basilica of Collemaggio.
The traditional ceremony is also going to be held in 2009, despite the earthquake that struck the area of L'Aquila and damaged the Basilica of Collemaggio. The Cultural Assets Ministry's experts and firefighting teams are working to make the monument safe and to allow the public back into at least a part of it by the end of August. In a variant to the traditional ceremony planned for this year, the relics of Celestine, which firemen recovered unscathed from the wreckage, will be on view to the faithful on the parvis outside the church. The Holy Door will be opened by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's Secretary of State.
This year also marks the eighth centenary of the birth of Pope Celestine V who first inspired the Pardon ceremony.
Pietro Angelerio da Morrone, on learning in his hermitage near Sulmona that he had been elected pope at the age of 79, chose L'Aquila as the venue for his coronation. He was crowned pope with the name of Celestine V in the basilica of Santa Maria a Collemaggio on 29 August 1294, and he decided to mark the event by granting the Great Pardon, a universal indulgence for all sins. To gain the indulgence, the faithful had to pass through the basilica's Holy Door after making confession and repenting of their sins.
The two conditions for being granted the pardon were specified in a Papal Bull issued by Saint Peter Celestine based on the concepts of peace, solidarity and reconciliation.
To commemorate the event, a "Papal Bull" parade comprising hundreds of people in period costume marches from Piazza Palazzo, where the bull is housed, to the basilica of Santa Maria di Collemaggio. When the cortège reaches its destination, the mayor first reads out the document and then a cardinal appointed by the Vatican orders the Holy Door to be opened. The bull is displayed inside the basilica until the next day, 29 August, when the Holy Door is closed and the document is returned to the town hall..
Celestine V established a precedent for the jubilee with his Bull of Pardon. Thus the custom of periodically proclaiming a Holy Year, which Pope Boniface VIII ruled in 1300 should take place every 100 years, was first formulated in L'Aquila where a short annual jubilee, unique in the whole world, has been celebrated since 1295.
