Maria Celeste
Sour Maria Celeste was born Virginia Galilei in 1600. She chose her religious name as an homage to the Virgin Mary and her father’s love of astronomy. I have become enchanted by this woman because of her unique position, straddling the worlds of both science and religion, in 17th century Italy. In fact, becoming known as the Daughter of Science and Religion. (For context, the Inquisition happened in 1633.)
A few more facts about Maria Celeste:
1. She died of dysentery jn 1634. She was only 33. (I am a little obsessed with the number 33. It also retains a lot of J.C. symbolism.)
2. There is a crater on the planet Venus named after her located at 23.4°N 140.4°E
3. Galileo and his daughter were very close and when she died, he wrote: "[Virgina was] a woman of an exquisite nature and unique goodness and was very close to me. […] she died over the course of six days, at the age of thirty-three, and left me in a state of extreme desolation".
4. After Galileo's death, 124 letters from Maria Celeste written between 1623 and 1633 were discovered among his papers. Galileo's responses have been lost. Maria Celeste's letters have been published.
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A nun widely believed to be Maria Celeste
“I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect had intended for us to forgo their use.”
Maria Celeste Necklace
