Nuns visit home of order's founder

By Barbara LaBoe of The Montana Standard

Effort launched to turn Mother Bottego home into museum, retreat

Three Xaverian Missionary nuns are in Butte this week to visit the childhood home of their order's founder, who is a candidate for Catholic sainthood.

Mother Celestine Healy Bottego, who spent her first 15 years in Butte, 1895-1910, founded the Xaverian Missionary Society of Mary in Parma, Italy, in 1944. The South Montana Street home in which Mother Bottego grew up dodged demolition last year, and was moved to 250 W. Copper St. Organizers want to turn it into a museum and Christian retreat. They're holding a fund-raiser Friday night and invited out-of-state Sisters Rosetta Serra, Stefanina Loi and Rosa Casali to visit.

"It's really so beautiful," said Sister Rosetta as they toured the lower floor of the modest four- bedroom home Thursday. "Just to think she was living here. And it was a real blessing that the house was saved."

"For us, it's amazing to be here," added Sister Stefanina.

Their trips, from Massachusetts and Mexico, were paid for by the Xaverian order.

The Bottego house now sits on land owned by Bill and Cindi Shaw, who have been the driving force behind saving and refurbishing the home. Friday's event is a fund-raiser, but a formal dedication will be held after the renovations are completed.

Now, though, the house is "bare bones," Cindi Shaw said, and any donations or volunteer time is appreciated. Butte businesses have been quite generous with the project, Shaw said, and a non-profit group has been formed to run the home.

The basement will be turned into an on-site manager's apartment and the upstairs rooms will be available for Christian vacations, retreats or meetings. It will be non-denominational, Shaw said.

Also, a viewing stand will be added to allow people to take advantage of the home's sweeping view of Butte.

The order began a campaign to have Mother Celestine Bottego declared a saint a few years ago. In 1999, an Xaverian Missionary priest and nun visited Butte to complete a life history of Mother Bottego.

In addition to founding the international missionary order, Mother Bottego harbored English airmen during World War II, mediated the release of a man who was to be executed by a German firing squad and saved a mountain village and the men who had been taken prisoners by the Germans, according to the Rev. Robert S. Maloney, who wrote a biography of Mother Bottego as part of the sainthood campaign.

The beatification application has been accepted by the Vatican in Rome, but the cause needs verified miracles before beatification and sainthood can be granted.

"It has to be proved, to really be a miracle," Sister Rosetta said.

Backers of the cause have intercession cards available where people can pray to Mother Bottego for help and then report the results if their prayers come true.

"And if God wants, it will be," she said. "It's all in God's hands."

The nuns said Mother Bottego would be amused about all the fuss being made about her former home, but pleased that their missions are receiving wider recognition.

"She'd be so happy to be reaching out to all these people," Sister

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Stefanina said.

The real treat for the nuns, though, is the chance to visit Butte, they said, something none of them ever envisioned.

"Oh no, it is a big surprise. I think it is truly God's gift," Sister Rosetta said Thursday as she walked through the Bottego house. "To see this place and this house where Mother lived, it is really something."