Celestina Bottego

The major work of Celestina Bottego is the foundation of the Missionary Society of Mary (the Xaverian Missionary Sisters). In 1943, the Xaverian father Giacomo Spagnolo proposed that she collaborate on the creation of a female branch of his congregation, a project previously desired by the founder of the Xaverians, Saint Guido Maria Conforti, but never realized. Celestina, then nearly 50 years old, initially refused, not feeling up to such a task. The turning point took place at Easter 1944. Father Spagnolo sent her a greeting card depicting the Crucifix of Velázquez with a single word written on the back: "Tutto" (Everything). This word deeply moved Celestina, who saw in it a call to a total gift of self. On May 24, 1944, while participating in spiritual exercises preached by Father Spagnolo in Capriglio (where the community had taken refuge to escape the bombings of the Second World War), she gave her definitive "yes." The new congregation, the Missionary Society of Mary (Xaverian Missionaries), was officially born in 1945, at the end of the war. Celestina donated her own family home (Villa Bottego, located on Via Omero in Parma) to serve as the motherhouse of the institute. She became the first superior general (affectionately called "the Mother") of the congregation. Under her leadership, the institute developed rapidly and opened itself to international missions. The first sisters left for the United States in 1954, then to Brazil in 1957, Japan in 1959, and the Congo in 1960. The congregation was erected as an institute of diocesan right by the Bishop of Parma, Msgr. Evasio Colli, on July 2, 1955, and received the decree of praise from the Holy See (Propaganda Fide) on November 12, 1964. In 1966, during the first general chapter of the congregation, Celestina Bottego chose to resign from her position as superior general in order to make room for younger religious, while remaining a spiritual figure of reference for her sisters.

After stepping down from her duties as superior, Celestina Bottego continued to live humbly within her community, dedicating herself to prayer, correspondence with her sisters on mission, and welcoming visitors.

She died of breast cancer on August 20, 1980, in San Lazzaro, a district of Parma, at the age of 84. Her mortal remains rest at the "La Villetta" cemetery in Parma, in the Bottego family tomb.

The reputation of holiness of Celestina Bottego, already strong during her lifetime, led to the opening of her cause for beatification and canonization at the diocesan level in Parma.

The diocesan phase of the inquiry into her heroic virtues concluded successfully, and the file was transmitted to Rome, to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

On October 31, 2013, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Celestina Bottego, thereby declaring her "Venerable."

For her to be beatified, the official recognition of a miracle attributed to her intercession is required by the Catholic Church. To this day, she retains the status of Venerable.

The spirituality of Celestina Bottego is deeply marked by confident abandonment to the divine will and by the mystery of the Visitation. She loved to repeat this spiritual maxim to her sisters: "Lascia un po' di spazio all'onnipotenza di Dio" (Leave a little space for the omnipotence of God).

The mystery of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary to her cousin Elizabeth became the spiritual icon of the congregation. For Celestina and Father Spagnolo, the missionary must be like Mary: humble, discreet, carrying Jesus within her, and going to meet others with eagerness and charity. This is why the Xaverian Missionary Sisters do not have a formal religious habit (they wear a simple lay habit) in order to foster fraternal and simple contacts with all populations. Father Spagnolo told them: "Let love be your habit."

Today, the congregation of the Xaverian Missionary Sisters of Mary has approximately 250 religious sisters present in several countries around the world, notably in Italy, Brazil, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Japan, Thailand, and the United States.