Nazarena of Jesus

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Nazarena of Jesus, O.S.B. Cam. (October 15, 1907 – February 7, 1990), was an American Roman Catholic Camaldolese nun, who spent most of her adult life in a monastery as an anchoress or recluse.[1]

Life

She was born Julia Crotta on October 15, 1907 in Glastonbury, Connecticut, the youngest of seven children of Italian immigrant parents. She studied at the Hartford Conservatory, then piano, violin (with Hugo Kortschak), and composition (with David Stanley Smith and Richard Donovan) at the Yale School of Music. During a Holy Week retreat in 1934, she reportedly had a religious experience that was to have a profound effect on her. She matriculated at Albertus Magnus College. After college, she worked briefly in the Catskills and as a secretary in Manhattan.[2]

To discern a possible

solemn vows, left to take a job in a soup kitchen.[2] She later found a job at the Allied Financial Agency
.

Following a private audience with

Venerable Pope Pius XII, Crotta was invited into the Camaldolese monastery in Rome on November 21, 1945 to live as a "recluse" or lay anchoress. She then took the name Maria-Nazarena of Jesus.[3]

Nazarena was to remain in a secluded cell in that monastery, leading a strict ascetic regime for the rest of her life, hearing Mass through a

spiritual director
. Those meetings could last an entire day, during which she would talk for hours.

As a Camaldolese nun, Nazarena pronounced her simple vows on December 15, 1947 and professed her solemn vows on May 31, 1953. Pope Paul VI visited the monastery on Ash Wednesday of 1966 (February 23 that year), and blessed Nazarena through her grille, while she wore a black veil covering her face.

Death and legacy

She died at the monastery on February 7, 1990, aged 82.[4]

On November 21, 2013, during a visit to the Camaldolese monastery, Pope Francis visited Sister Nazarena's cell.

References

  1. ^ "A Nun's Story". Time. April 13, 1962. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008.
  2. ^ a b Chalupsky, Mary. "Glastonbury native led ascetic life in Rome", Catholic Transcript, Archdiocese of Hartford
  3. ^ Lassus O.P., Louis-Albert. Nazarena, A Recluse in the Heart of Rome (1907-1990), Editions Sainte-Madeleine, 1997
  4. ISBN 0-8091-3792-5.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
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