GALIANI, CELESTINO. - Monk and abbot of the Celestines, b. at S. Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia) on 8 Oct. 1681, d. at Naples on 26 July 1753. Most erudite, he taught moral theology and Sacred Scripture in the Celestine College of S. Eusebio in Rome (1707-18), then dogmatics and church history at the Sapienza (1718-23); he was then appointed procurator (1723-28) and afterwards abbot general (1728-31) of the Order. In that year he was promoted to the archbishopric of Taranto, which the following year (1732) he exchanged for the greater chaplaincy of the Kingdom of Naples, to which the titular archbishopric of Thessalonica was annexed.
G. was much employed in negotiations of importance; in 1727 he was charged by Charles VI of Austria with settling with the Holy See the question of the Legation of Sicily; in 1737-41 he negotiated and brought to completion the Concordat between the Holy See and the king of Naples, Charles of Bourbon, who had moreover appointed him his councillor and chancellor of the Order of St. Charles. From 1741 until his death he was also president of the mixed tribunal.
As greater chaplain he was also director and general prefect of studies in the Kingdom; from 1732 to 1736 he carried out an important reform of the University, which until then had been almost untouched by any movement of culture. In his report he recognizes the right of private teaching to exist and affirms the necessity of a close cooperation between public and private instruction. He obliges university professors to expound the subject matter of the official teaching and no other; to private teachers, moreover, who watch over it, he grants the faculty of opening schools, subject to examination before the greater chaplain.
He published no works, except his school thesis and official reports. He should also be remembered as the uncle and educator of Ferdinando G.
Bibliography3 works
Celestino Testore