Blessed Mary Celeste Crostarosa: A Great Mystic of the Eighteenth Century

The eighteenth century is called an age of "Enlightenment", which is to say a skeptical, godless and libertine age where men turned from God to labor upon founding the city of man. God, however, had long prepared His apostle for this age, St. Alphonsus Liguori. St. Alphonsus turned his back on the law courts, worldly privilege, and put Christ at the center of his heart. Alphonsus aimed at bringing the love of the holy redeemer to all men, and set them afire with divine love.

Yet, God prepared the saint for his mission through a woman, Blessed Mary Celeste Crostarosa, who gave the character and inspiration to the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer. Having entered as a Carmelite, she transferred to another community where God revealed to her the rule of the Most Holy Redeemer, which became the foundation of St. Alphonsus' institute. As the biography unfolds, the reader will not only discover the closeness between her and St. Alphonsus, St. Gerard and other early Redemptorists, but her deep contemplative and mystical life. Blessed Mary Celeste abounded in miracles, and in trials, living her life under the shadow of the cross. She suffered persecution and setbacks, but always, again and again, lowered her head in prayer.

"The contemplative and mystic life of Sister Mary Celeste is a true drama. At each step the supernatural direction of Providence is manifest. God chose to use her as His chief instrument in revealing to St. Alphonsus his life's work-the foundation of the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer.

-The American Ecclesiastical Review