St. Peter Celestine was Pope only for a few months. He was about seventy when he was dragged from his monastic solitude and made to accept the heavy charge of head of the Church; the Holy See had been vacant for twenty-seven months; he could not refuse. But a few months later he voluntarily resigned the office. He died on May 19, 1296. As a son of St. Benedict whose teaching on humility he practices in a high degree, St. Peter attracted many followers to his solitude by the holiness of his life. He is the founder of a branch of the Benedictine Order which bears his name; the Celestines were not unlike the Cistercians in their observance. They were dissolved at the French Revolution.