CELESTRI, ANTONIO. - Italian theologian, born in Palermo on 13 Oct. 1649 and died there on 19 Mar. 1706. At the age of 16 he became a religious of the Regular Third Order of St Francis (1664); he taught philosophy and theology in various convents of the Order, and was provincial of Rome and of Sicily, then procurator general (1683-86).
He wrote the apologetic work Christiana cath. religio contra gentiles, malhumetanos, hebreaos et sectarios, 23 propositionibus demonstrata (Rome 1683), and an erudite Tabula Conciliorum generalium omnium, 1 vol. in-fol. (ibid. 1684; 2nd ed., with the title Conciliorum omnium schema).
BIBL.: A. Mongitore, Bibliotheca sicula, I, Palermo 1707, p. 59; E. d'Alençon, s. V. in DTHC, II, col. 2068; R. Luconi, Comitia gen. III Ord. Regul. S. Franc. eorumque acta selecta, Roma 1944, p. 80.