Maria Celeste Crostarosa

Maria Celeste Crostarosa (born October 31, 1696 in Naples , † September 14, 1755 in Foggia ) is a blessed woman and was an Italian nun and mystic . In 1731 she founded the Order of the Redemptorists (abbreviation: O.Ss.R. = Ordo Sanctissimi Redemptoris, German: Order of the Most Holy Redeemer). She stimulated St. Alfonso Maria de Liguori , with whom she was close friendship, founded the Redemptorist Male Congregation (C.Ss.R.) in 1732.

Life

The future sister Maria Celeste was born on October 31, 1696 in Naples as the tenth of twelve children of the couple Francesco Crostarosa and Paola Battistini Caldari and was baptized with the name Julia Marcella. The parents came from respected families in Abruzzo, who were masters of Aquila and Pizzoli. She spent her childhood and youth in the security of her parents' home and is described as a bright child with an attractive and cheerful character. She lived in an environment filled with deep religiosity and was guided by her mother to lead a religious life. At the age of twenty she accompanied her sister Ursula to the recently founded Carmelite convent in Marigliano and stayed there. She was a woman of fiery temperament, great kindness, clear mind, and great intellectual talent. Since her special talent for leading people was soon recognized, important tasks were assigned to her even as a novice and many grievances were remedied at her suggestion in the monastery. After seven years, however, the monastery had to be closed due to unreasonable external orders and the Crostarosa sisters moved to the Visitation Monastery in Scala (SA) in 1724 . In nine years as a monastery in Marigliano and Scala, Maria Celeste had matured through various tasks and believed that she had recognized what God had called her to do.

Founding of the order

As a novice, on April 25, 1725, Maria Celeste became aware in a first great revelation that God was calling her to found a new order. At first she was silent, but then felt internally urged to reveal herself to her novice leader, and found her encouragement. Within forty days after the daily communion , Maria Celeste wrote down the rules of the new order by divine inspiration.

As a result of external rejection and resistance to the new rule of the order and hostility in the monastery, Maria Celeste had to endure many humiliations, which ultimately led to her leaving the monastery, excluded from her fellow sisters.

Plagued by inner doubts, she found in another five years her firm conviction that she had been called by God to found a new order. During this time (1730) she found in St. Alfonso Maria de Liguori, with whom she had a deep spiritual friendship, a great help and support, who believed to recognize the work of God in Maria Celeste's rules of the order.

Finally she was able to found a monastery in Foggia , where she could live with her fellow sisters according to her unchanged rules, found peace and wrote an autobiography (only in Italian, newer English translation in preparation) on behalf of her confessor. Here she died at the age of fifty-nine on September 14, 1755, already venerated as the “holy prioress” during her lifetime. Her incorruptible body rests in a shrine in the house chapel of the Foggia monastery.

She left her thoughts, her spirituality and mystical experiences in sixteen writings, of which the “dialogues”, the “stages of prayer” and the “autobiography” are the most important.

In 1901 the process of her beatification was initiated, in 2013 she was beatified as Venerable Servant of God and in 2016.

mysticism

People gifted for receiving religious, mystical visions evidently have the special ability to imagine and visualize the divinity that is not really present so intensely that they enter into a reality and dialogue with God that is believed to be true and hear his words as absolutely real and true to be able to believe. In Christian mysticism , God is often realized in the form of Jesus Christ , as one can imagine the incarnate Son of God particularly well personified, whereby Jesus Christ is often specifically identified and addressed in one of his messages of salvation, which the mystic prefers to see . Maria Celesta apparently sees God first in his capacity as the most holy Redeemer (cf. religious names). The mystic's idea is that man is so loved by God that we must be worried and afraid as to how man can reciprocate God's infinite love. Therefore, the mystic Maria Celeste sees the highest fulfillment and the deepest mystical union in being aflame in contemplative dialogue in the greatest love for God and for all who do not show this love to God, to love with and to guide people to love God, whereby the idea of ​​the insufficient human ability to love can also be driven by the fear of missing out on heaven.

In the scripture The Plan of the Father , Maria Celeste has God the Father proclaim his plan of salvation as follows:

"With great longing I longed to give my spirit to the world and to communicate it to people in order to live with and in them [...] So that people would recognize my eternal love, with which I loved them, I liked it, to establish this institute [founding of the order, author's note]. It should be a LIVING MEMORY of the work of my son in the thirty-three years of his earthly pilgrimage for all people. "

This text hits the core of the contemplative life plan of the Redemptorist Order and was included in the order rule, briefly summarized: "We are called by the Father to present a Viva Memoria (a living memory) of the Savior in today's church and world." Elsewhere, the Redemptorists see the mission of their founder as follows: “ Through our apsotolate of prayer, we pray in the name of the church for all of the people of God, our Redemptorist Fathers and Brothers, and especially the poor, lonely, and abandoned who would otherwise have no one to remember and pray for them. This is our main work. ”

Afterlife

Even if as a person rather unknown, Maria Celeste Crostarosa's world of thought can still be grasped today in modern translations of her works as well as in numerous secondary literature about her and her message. There are several branches of the Redemptorist Order in Europe and America. Around 400 sisters still live in around 40 monasteries worldwide. In contrast to the male branch, the female Redemptorists are oriented towards a purely contemplative life. During the more than 270-year history of the Order, the first rule was adapted several times to the theological conceptions of the time. The founder Maria Celeste Crostarosa fell more and more into oblivion. Her writings were only found in the archives when the rules were revised after the Second Vatican Council . In 1985 the new rule, based on the original thoughts of the founder of the order, was approved by the Religious Congregation in Rome.

literature

• Maria Celeste Crostarosa: Dialogue, Spiritual Dialogues. Brendow-Verlag, Moers 1994, ISBN 3-87067-569-1 , 159 pp.
• Maria Celesta Crostarosa: Levels of Prayer: Graces of prayer, some of the many levels of prayer granted by the Lord in contemplative prayer and loving union. Brendow-Verlag, Moers 1996.
• Sabatino Majorano: From the writings of Maria Celesta Crostarosa, founder of the Redemptorists OSsR. (paperback). Self-published, Ried im Innkreis 1991.
• Sabatino Majorano: Florilegium of texts from mother Maria Celeste Crostarosa. Self-published, Ried im Innkreis 1993.
• Honor McCabe OP: A Hidden Mystic, Reflections on the life of the venerable Maria Celeste Crostarosa O.SS.R. The First Redemptoristine. (Publication of the Dominican Order).
• Joseph W. Oppitz: The Mystic who remembered. The life and message of sister Maria Celeste Crostarosa O.Ss.R. Self-published, 2003.
• Joseph W. Oppitz: Development of the Christian Personality, Celeste Crostarosa, Life and Message. (German edition of the above book), Brendow-Verlag, Moers 1996, ISBN 3-87067-651-5
• Janet Scott: Life of the venerable Maria Celeste Crostarosa and the Redemptoristines. 1948.
• FG Hamish: Swanston: Singing a new song, A study of the life and works of Maria Celeste Crostarosa. Liguori Publications, 1997.
• Berta Weibl: An extraordinary nun, Maria Celeste Crostarosa, founder of the Redemptorists. (paperback, 134 p.). KansiusVerlag, Freiburg (Switzerland) 1995, ISBN 978-3-85764-410-8 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Origin on santibeati.it (Italian) or Maria Celeste on redemptoristinnen.at
2. ↑ Info on redemptoristinnen.at
3. ↑ Info on redemptoristinnen.at
4. ↑ redemptoristinenuns.org