Saint Celestine

Saint Celestine was a revered Living Saint of the Adepta Sororitas.

History
Very little is known of the life of the Battle Sister known as Celestine before she was declared a Living Saint, other than that she was once a Sister Repentia of the Order of Our Martyred Lady that fought alongside the multitudes of Imperial faithful during the protracted war against the heretics of the Palatine Schism. Celestine was at the forefront of the first wave of the deadliest fighting and was thought to have been killed in battle before the capital city of the planet Eurytion. She fell that day, alongside every other Repentia, but despite her defeat, it was said that she accounted for over one hundred schismatics during the assault. As Celestine's body was reclaimed by her Sisters and set amongst the honoured dead, her sisters saw that life still lingered within her, the light of one touched by the divine will of the Emperor glowed within her eyes. Cleansing her body of the blood and filth of battle, the Sisters were astonished to find that she stood flawless before them. The next day the assault resumed, with Celestine at the head of the Imperial forces. The heretics fell within hours as Celestine wreaked her bloody vengeance. She was hailed the Crusade's figurehead as the entire sector was scoured of schismatics and those deemed unworthy of existing upon the worlds of humanity.

The Crusade's leader, Lord Ansgar, believed the crusade would reach its conclusion on the capital world of the Palatine Sector, but Celestine insisted upon first liberating the small backwater planet of Sanctus Lys. Unknown to all but her, the world was home to the Shrine of Saint Katherine of the Order of the Fiery Heart, a holy place visited by the Living Saint in secret just before her death. Celestine's followers found a broken altar amidst some ruins and were ordered by Celestine to remove it. Beneath the shattered remains, a hidden crypt was found. Barring any from following her, Celestine descended the dusty steps that none had trodden in millennia. As the dawn of first light broke above the ruined shrine, Celestine rose from the tomb, borne aloft on a column of divine radiance and attended by cherubs and doves. She was now clad in a suit of shining golden Power Armour, and wielded a vibrant blade that none could look upon - The Ardent Blade. Celestine was declared a Living Saint by Lord Ansgar and a conclave of Thorian compatriots shortly thereafter. Saint Celestine was hailed as the 'Hieromartyr of the Palatine Crusade', dispatching thousands of heretics at the vanguard of the Imperial forces as she prosecuted numerous Wars of Faith. The veneration by the Sisters of Battle was miraculous; she was a Living Saint, whom the Sisters would follow even the very center of the Eye of Terror.

Alas, Saint Celestine was lost to the Imperium whilst fighting the renegade Warmaster of Forrax. When the lunatic Warmaster triggered the meltdown of the ancient atomic pile at the heart of his fortress, an area many miles across was blasted to atoms. Many believed she perished during her moment of triumph, yet none survived to give true account of the battle's conclusion. The mighty Tower of Heroes upon sacred Terra tolled once to proclaim her loss to the faithful, a billion souls pausing in their toil and looking towards the Emperor's Imperial Palace, united in their grief for the fallen heroine. But the Sororitas, at prayer within the halls of the Convent Prioris were gladdened by the mournful peal, for they knew that had she fallen, Celestine would even now be sitting at the side of the Emperor.