Mother Celestine Bottego was born on 20th December 1895 in Glendale, Ohio, from an Irish woman, Mary Healy, and Giambattista, originally from Parma and brother of Vittorio, a famous explorer who was the first to map out the Jubba River in Somalia. His tragic death convinced Giambattista to return to Italy with the family to be close to their elderly parents.
This is how Celestina came to Italy at the age of 15. She studied to become an English teacher, a subject which she taught for many years in numerous public schools throughout Parma. Her students would later testify not only to her professional competence, but also to her strong talent as an educator. For the young people who spent too much time on the streets, Celestina opened a room in her house, fitting it out with board games and books to create a meeting point for the young to whom she also taught catechism.
In the meantime, with her sister Maria, Celestina refined her spiritual sensitivity under the guidance of the Benedictine abbot Emanuele Caronti, until she decided to become an oblate Benedictine nun in 1922. Her commitment to the poor and the needy, especially with the outbreak of the Second World War, became more intense and heartfelt, while her relationship with God deepened, as demonstrated by her ever ready and welcoming smile and her extreme faith in Providence.
At the age of 50, a vocation within a vocation arrived unexpectedly for Celestina and she found it difficult to grasp at first. In 1935 she had already begun teaching in the schools of the Xaverian Missionaries and the following year she visited India for a few months to see her sister Maria who was living there as a missionary. The prospect of the mission was also beginning to open up to her, because in a short time she received the offer to cooperate on the foundation of the female branch of the Xaverian missionaries. Initially Celestina refused, with the motivation that: “I am better at ruining the works of God than at doing them”. After a year of interior battle and prayer the woman accepted the offer in which she had recognized the will of God.
This is how Celestina became the first “mother” to so many young missionaries, to whom she fully donated herself with her spiritual and material assets and whom, until she was able to, accompanied to the missionary lands. In 1966, with great generosity she stood aside, in the hope that a “younger” mother would take her place but, without stopping to encourage, welcome, console and love all her missionary daughters. She died on 20th August 1980 at the age of 85. She has been declared a servant of God, as the diocesan process carried out on her virtues has been concluded.
The Xaverian Missionary Sisters (of Mary) were established in Parma, Italy, in 1945. The seeds of this foundation can be found in the prophetic insights of Saint Conforti. “In the Xaverian Congregation I would like to start a Community of Sisters, for I consider it of great importance.” (Conforti, in 1927). Celestine Healy Bottego, born in Glendale, Ohio on Dec. 20 1895, and lived in Butte, Montana until her 14th birthday, expressed her consent to collaborate with Fr. James Spagnolo to start the community of sisters, in 1944 in Italy.
The missionary sisters draw inspiration from Mary, in the mystery of the Visitation and hold her to be the model of their interior spirit. Like Mary they travel the world, that all people will know the love of God.
Fr. Spagnolo and Mother Bottego wished their community to be missionary. Today, the Missionaries of
Mary – Xaverian Sisters – are present in Italy, Brazil, Mexico, United States, Sierra Leone, Cameroon, Chad, Congo, Japan and Thailand. They are engaged in evangelization, catechetical activity, health care, and human promotion (especially of women). They live in small mission communities, often in areas of great poverty. They strive to respond to deep-rooted aspirations of the local churches and people among whom they live, and whose journey, sufferings, hopes and expectations they share.
“May your love be your habit” was the invitation of Fr. Spagnolo. Their small international communities provide a visible sign of the one people, which God loves and calls, to salvation.
If you like to receive more information about the Xaverian Sisters, please contact the sisters at:Missionaries of Mary – Xaverian Sisters242 Salisbury StreetWorcester MA 01609-1639xavsistersusa@yahoo.com.mx • phone (508) 757-0514
