GALIANI, Celestino. – Benedictine monk and abbot of the Celestines, born at S. Giovanni Rotondo (Foggia) on 8 Oct. 1681, died at Naples on 26 July 1753. A man of vast learning, he taught moral theology and Sacred Scripture at the Celestine College of S. Eusebio in Rome (1707–18), then dogmatic theology and ecclesiastical history at the Sapienza (1718–23); he was subsequently appointed procurator (1723–28) and later general abbot (1728–31) of the Order. In that year he was promoted to the archbishopric of Taranto, which he exchanged the following year (1732) for the position of Grand Chaplain of the Kingdom of Naples, to which was attached the titular archbishopric of Thessalonica.
G. was much employed in important negotiations; in 1727 he was entrusted by Charles VI of Austria with settling with the Holy See the question of the Legation of Sicily; from 1737 to 1741 he negotiated and brought to a successful conclusion the Concordat between the Holy See and King Charles of Naples of Bourbon, who had already appointed him his counsellor and chancellor of the Order of S. Carlo. From 1741 until his death he was also president of the mixed tribunal.
As Grand Chaplain he was also director and prefect general of studies in the Kingdom; from 1732 to 1736 he carried out an important reform of the University, which until then had been almost entirely cut off from any cultural movement. In his report he acknowledged the right of private teaching to exist and affirmed the necessity of close cooperation between public and private instruction. He required university professors to teach only the officially prescribed subjects, while allowing private individuals, if they wished, to open schools, subject to examination before the Grand Chaplain.
He published no works apart from his school thesis and official reports. He is also remembered as the uncle and educator of Ferdinando G.