Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa

Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa

Feast day: September 11
Foundress of the Order of the Most Holy Redeemer, nun, mystic, prolific writer

Blessed Maria Celeste Crostarosa was born on October 31, 1696, in the same city, Naples, and the same year as St. Alphonsus, yet they did not meet until 1730 in Scala, Italy.   Giulia, Celeste’s baptismal name, was an intelligent, vivacious child, the tenth of twelve children.  Her middle-class parents taught their children to pray and love God with all their heart.  At the age of six, Giulia began to experience an unusual intimacy with a secret companion, Jesus.  He invited her to love Him alone and Celeste longed to serve Him all the days of her life. 

Celeste began her religious life as a Carmelite after persuading her mother to allow her to enter that monastery during a simple friendly visit.   Six years later that monastery was dissolved.  At the age of 27, Celeste entered a monastery in Scala in 1724.  While she was a novice the Lord appeared to her during Holy Communion and dictated to her a New Rule for the Sisters that their lives would be a ‘Viva Memoria,’ a Living Memory of the work of salvation accomplished in the Paschal Mystery out of love for all humankind.

This was met by incredulity by the community and they called her a troublemaker filled with illusions.  Nevertheless, Sr. M. Celeste made her profession in 1730, and the approval for the New Rule was given in 1731 after a young priest and canon lawyer, Alphonsus Liguori, declared Celeste’s visions authentic and the Rule inspired by the Lord.  

Later that year, Celeste had another revelation: She saw Christ with St. Francis of Assisi and Alphonsus conversing and heard the words, “Go and preach to every creature that the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”  Sr. Celeste shared this with Fr. Alphonsus and encouraged him to follow his heart in beginning the Congregation of the Redemptorists.  In 1732, the Congregation was founded and its first house was situated in the corner of the Redemptoristine property in Scala.
Incredibly, three years later, Celeste was expelled from the monastery.  After long, prayerful reflection, in liberty of conscience, she could not follow imposed dictates contrary to the inspirations revealed to her by her Savior.

After helping reform a Dominican monastery that had grown lax in the life of holiness, Celeste began her own monastery in 1738 in Foggia, finally putting into practice the New Rule of the Order of Redemptoristine Nuns.   There, St. Alphonsus assigned the young Redemptorist Brother Gerard Majella to an extraordinary mission of being Mother Celeste’s and the community’s spiritual director.  

Thanks to the support of St. Alphonsus and St. Gerard, the monasteries grew during Celeste’s lifetime and after her death.  In 1762, when Alphonsus became bishop of St. Agata di Goti, he invited the Nuns to make a foundation in his diocese.

On September 14, 1755, Mother Celeste died on the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross at the age of 58.  St. Gerard, on his own deathbed, rejoiced, “I have just seen the soul of Mother Celeste wing its flight to heaven live a dove, to receive there the reward she has merited through her great love of Jesus and Mary!”

During Bl. Maria Celeste’s life, she abandoned herself to the powerful call to holiness and mystical marriage to Christ. She enjoyed supernatural gifts throughout her life and readily shared her Dialogues with her Beloved, her Autobiography, reflections on the scriptures and poems.   By Bl. Celeste’s mystical experiences, she guided the life of the Nuns to be a living memorial of Christ.  The Incarnation, the Eucharist, the Cross and devotion to the most Blessed Virgin Mary were her daily contemplation.  It allowed her to peacefully face, not only the struggles of daily life, but the numerous obstacles and trials she endured over the years.  The humiliations she bore only strengthened her conviction to follow more faithfully and generously in God’s plan of love. To this day, Bl. Maria Celeste Crostarosa shines brightly as a foundress, a woman of prayer, a witness to liberty of conscience and mystic.

On June 18, 2016, Maria Celeste Crostarosa was declared a Blessed in Foggia, Italy. 

Prayer
O God, guided by your Spirit of Love, Blessed Maria Celeste, mystic and virgin, was transformed by the words of your Son into a living memorial of his merciful love.  Grant, that through her intercession and example, we also may give witness to the mystery of Redemption.  Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.

website: RedNunsNY.org