Roman Catholic Cardinal. The son of the Marchese of Sant'Antonino, Palermitan born Pietro Geremia Celesia entered the Order of St. Benedict at the Monastery of San Martino delle Scale of Monreale, receiving the religious name of Michelangelo. Taking his solemn vows on January 15, 1835, he was ordained priest on July 24, 1836. Lecturing philosophy at his abbey, of which subject he soon became dean, he furthermore lectured dogmatic theology and acted as master of novices, prior to his appointment as prior of the monasteries of Messina and Militello. Elected abbot of Monte Cassino at the early age of thirty six by a Papal decree issued on March 25, 1850, in 1858 he was named general procurator of the abbey and abbot of Farfa. Elected bishop of the diocese of Patti, Sicily, he received his episcopal consecration on April 15, 1860 in Rome from Cardinal Girolamo D'Andrea. Promoted to the metropolitan see of Palermo on October 27, 1871, Pope Leo XIII created him cardinal priest in the consistory of November 10, 1884 with the title of Santa Prisca. Opting for the title of San Marco in the consistory of November 25, 1887, due to health reasons, he did not participate in the conclave of 1903 which elected Pius X to the Papacy. Passing away in his native in Palermo, Celesia was embalmed by the famous embalmer Alfredo Salafia. His body was exposed in the metropolitan cathedral of Palermo and successively held by the Capuchin Friars of the city until a definitive tomb was finished in one of the lateral chapels of the cathedral of Santa Rosalia. According to eyewitnesses, a delegation that viewed the Cardinal's body seven months after his death and again in January 1909, when his body was transferred to its ultimate location, it was found in a masterful state of preservation.