Maria Celeste

Italian nun

• Born: August 12, 1600
• Birthplace: Padua, Republic of Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: April 2, 1634
• Place of death: Arcetri, Republic of Florence (now in Italy)

Maria Celeste, daughter of Galileo, lived a life of poverty, prayer, and solitude as a nun and is remembered primarily for her correspondence with her father. More than one hundred of her letters survive, although her father’s replies have not. The letters reveal a loving daughter who provided encouragement and assistance to Galileo in areas ranging from domestic affairs to religion and science.

Early Life

Maria Celeste (seh-LEHST), given the name Virginia at birth, was the first child of Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo. According to the baptismal notice in the parish registry of San Lorenzo in Padua, Virginia, who was named after Galileo’s sister, was listed as the daughter of Marina Gamba from Venice, “born of fornication” (out of wedlock), with no mention of her father. When Virginia was born, Marina was twenty-two and Galileo was thirty-six. Galileo never married, but he fathered three children, all born to Marina.

After teaching mathematics for three years at the University of Pisa, Galileo accepted the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua in 1592. His twelve-year relationship with Marina began in Padua, although she lived in Venice where he would visit her by ferry on the weekends. When she became pregnant, he moved her to a small house in Padua, about five minutes walk from his house. Like most professors at the time, he rented out rooms to his students and was expected to remain single.

Two more children followed: Livia in August, 1601, named after another sister of Galileo; and Vincenzio in August, 1606, named after Galileo’s father. In 1609, when Virginia was still a child in Padua, her father began his pioneering work with the telescope, including one that he set up in the garden behind his house. There is no evidence of any formal schooling for Virginia, but she probably was tutored by her father and later by his mother.

After his discoveries with the telescope, Galileo was invited to Florence in 1610 as court philosopher and mathematician to the grand duke of Tuscany, Cosimo II de’ Medici. His two daughters joined him there, all staying with his mother until a rented house became available. Little Vincenzio remained with his mother, who then married a respectable citizen with Galileo’s approval and his continued support for Vincenzio. By 1613, Galileo came under increasing attacks for his support of Copernican theory. About the same time, he received a special dispensation for twelve-year-old Livia and thirteen-year-old Virginia to be admitted into the nearby convent of San Matteo in Arcetri, even though they were still too young to take their vows.

Life’s Work

Following the Rule of Saint Clare, Virginia and Livia had their hair shaven and they donned the dark brown religious habits worn in the Franciscan order. The decision to cloister one’s daughters was not unusual in seventeenth century Italy, especially since Galileo knew that their illegitimacy would make it difficult for them to get married. The city of Florence alone had fifty-three convents and some four thousand nuns. The work of a nun was held in high honor and viewed as valuable for leading prayer vigils, much of which was done during the plague, as which was requested by the Florentine magistracy of public health.

Three years later, on the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, October 4, 1616, Galileo heard his elder daughter profess her vows at the convent of San Matteo, where she remained for the rest of her life. At this ceremony, Virginia took the name Suor (sister) Maria Celeste, an obvious reference to her father’s fascination with the celestial realm of the planets. One year later, after Livia reached her sixteenth year, she took the name Suor Arcangela. As members of the Poor Clares order of the Franciscan nuns, they were committed to lives of seclusion, prayer, and poverty.

In 1617, Galileo moved to a hilltop villa overlooking Florence, with a view of Arcetri to the east, where his daughters were cloistered within the walls of the San Matteo convent. The first of Maria Celeste’s surviving letters is dated May 10, 1623, the day after the funeral of Galileo’s sister Virginia, offering her condolences and assuring him of her prayers. Over the next ten years, her frequent letters reveal the human dimensions of Galileo’s most turbulent years in his struggle with religious authorities. In contrast with his strange, silent second daughter, the letters of Maria Celeste reveal a kindred spirit with Galileo, a confidante reflecting his brilliance, sensibility, and industry. Maria Celeste remained devoted to her father even as he grew older, suffered from increased illness, and faced increased conflict with the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

In the convent, Maria Celeste exercised the gifts that characterized her talented family. She often directed the choir, teaching the novices how to sing Gregorian chant. She was probably apprenticed as an apothecary by the nuns and visiting doctors at the convent’s infirmary. In this capacity, she assisted the doctors, produced pills and tonics to remedy diseases, and nursed sick nuns in the infirmary, including her often ill sister Arcangela. She also attended to her father’s many ailments, sending him her handmade medicines with ingredients such as dried rhubarb, saffron, aloe, and rose water. She even responded to his domestic needs, washing his collars and caring for his wardrobe. Galileo responded by sending gifts of food and money to the convent, and he even wrote a play for the nuns to use in recreation.

In Maria Celeste’s letters (translated in full in Letters to Father , 2001), there is little discussion of astronomy or physics, but she does remind Galileo when he forgets to send a telescope he had promised. The letters do reveal her interest in his books and raise questions about his work. In 1629, as Galileo was completing his infamous and controversial book, Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, tolemaico e copernicano (1632; Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican , 1661), she assisted him in copying his draft manuscript in her perfect penmanship, providing corrections and additions in preparation for publication. When the book was soon condemned and banned, she still provided encouragement and support. She never suggests in the letters that her father’s science was inappropriate or that his accusers were right. In fact, she encourages him with news that her fellow nuns support her faith in his cause.

In 1631, Maria Celeste learned that a villa adjacent to the convent was for sale and Galileo was able to secure it for the last twelve years of his life, most of it under house arrest. When he was finally summoned to Rome in 1633, Galileo authorized Maria Celeste to assume control of his personal and household affairs. After his condemnation, part of Galileo’s punishment was to perform penance by reciting the seven penitential psalms once a week for three years. In August of 1633, Maria Celeste informed him that she was able to substitute herself to do this penance. During this period, she suffered from increasing ill health, but was encouraged by daily visits from her father. After a rapid decline from dysentery, Maria Celeste died on April 2, 1634.

Significance

The life and letters of Maria Celeste reveal an inspiring example of religious commitment and service by a humble and isolated nun. They illuminate the religious life and the role of convents in seventeenth century Italy, and they show a variety of personal responses to difficult circumstances. The encouragement and assistance provided by Maria Celeste to her father played an important role in his daily life and in his scientific contributions. They demonstrate how religion can inspire science, and how science can inspire religion, regardless of conflicts and contradictions.

The letters also shed new light on the complex personality and work of Galileo. The human side of Galileo is made clear in a new way, including his dedication to his children and his devotion to the Church in spite of conflicting ideas. The letters illuminate one of the most important decades in the history of science, filling in new details in the effort to establish a new view of the universe and the religious struggle that followed.

Bibliography

Allan-Olney, Mary. The Private Life of Galileo, Compiled Principally from His Correspondence and That of His Eldest Daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. London: Macmillan, 1870. This biography of Galileo is based on the first English translations of the letters of Maria Celeste by the author, who provides selected excerpts.

Fermi, Laura, and Gilberto Bernardini. Galileo and the Scientific Revolution. New York: Basic Books, 1961. This work contains a short chapter entitled “Father and Daughter,” describing the relationship between Maria Celeste and Galileo.

Sobel, Dava. Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love. New York: Walker, 1999. This bestselling biography of Galileo and Maria Celeste is based on original translations of the letters of Maria Celeste by the author, about two dozen of which are included in this work.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗, trans. Letters to Father: Suor Maria Celeste to Galileo (1623-1633). New York: Walker, 2001. This book, with a helpful introduction, contains 124 surviving letters of Maria Celeste in both the original Italian and English translation on facing pages. Occasional annotations accompany the translations.