“Some people come to Italy for an audience with the Pope. As for me, I’d prefer to meet with the Sorelle Evangeliche (Gospel Sisters),” I declared, entering the home of Cristiana Gavagni and Annamaria Mazzari, a.k.a. the “Gospel Nuns.” Known among evangelicals throughout Italy, these sisters have a ministry of itinerant evangelism in which they encourage congregations to pursue gospel-centered outreach. Their message is simple: “Choose Christ and him alone.”
While traveling through Tuscany in July, I had the privilege of visiting with the sisters in their apartment. Their amazing story of God’s grace has gained attention throughout Europe over the last few years, so much that a docudrama about them is being produced. After 15 pages of handwritten notes and a bowl of gelato that still makes my mouth water, here is what I learned.
Lesson number one: Beauty has nothing to do with age. Although Cristiana, age 89, is five feet tall and shrinking, her smile and bright eyes illuminate the room with an infectious quality of joy. The same is true for Annamaria at the tender age of 76. Accompanied by my friend Gianni, who lives in Florence and is fluent in Italian and English, the four of us sat together at the kitchen table.
On the bookshelf was a photo of Cristiana wearing the most enormous habit (nun hat) that I have ever seen.
It made Sally Field’s headpiece look puny (you may remember the 1960s show The Flying Nun). Sally’s bonnet was a little Cessna; Cristiana’s wings jetted out like an A300 Airbus. Pointing to it, I made the mistake of trying to use humor through a translator (note to self: it doesn’t work). Looking at the photo I asked, “So, when did you break the habit?”
“Scusa?”
“Never mind,” I answered. “Boy, this is great gelato! Please tell me your story.” The following two hours were riveting.
Growing Passion for God’s Word
Annamaria was attracted to divine realities from the time she was small. She loved to attend her local parish and participate in sacramental rites, and had always felt a particular burden to serve the poor. At age 22, she decided to pursue her childhood dream of joining a Catholic order. She became Sister Elisabetta.
Before long, Annamaria was given the role of teaching children. About this position she says, “The assignment caused me a great deal of dissatisfaction. Not because I didn’t like children, but because I had felt a strong sense of calling towards serving the less fortunate. Therefore, I attempted in my free time and with the permission of Mother Superior, to visit the needy and dedicate myself to other charitable activities.”
With her catechetical lessons, she gained a desire to know God’s Word. From childhood she had loved hearing stories from the Bible. But now, Scripture was strangely absent. On one occasion a priest arrived with copies of John’s Gospel for the children in her class. As he explained how to locate passages using the chapter and verse divisions, Annamaria realized that she was unable to do that much. She began to see more clearly how her lessons were cluttered with debris of institutionalized tradition.
Annamaria continued to reflect upon the state of the church, and as she did so, her hunger for God’s Word deepened. “For many years I didn’t have opportunity to hear Bible stories or to read the Bible. In my house I never saw a Bible nor was one ever found in the religious institute that later became my home. With the passage of time, there grew deep down inside of me a desire to know the Word of God.”
During this time, following Vatican II, a movement formed in the area of Florence that encouraged Bible study. She believed that becoming part of this group would enable her to gain a firmer grasp upon the text, so she asked her superiors for permission to attend, which they reluctantly granted. With each study, her love for Scripture grew.
It was now the beginning of the 1980s, and Annamaria was in her late 40s. After six years of studying the Bible, full of devotion to Christ and active engagement of ministry among the poor, she found herself in the crosshairs of criticism and official complaint to Mother Superior. As a result, her vows were revoked for six months, and she was removed from the parish. Annamaria was sent to live in an elderly home operated by the order and was strictly forbidden to have contact with the other nuns. Eventually, she met an old friend named Cristiana who was Mother Superior of the home. From the beginning these ladies developed a warm friendship.
Shortly after moving into her new residence, Annamaria encountered a priest from her old Bible study group who inquired into what she was doing. After hearing her story, he suggested that she attend a service associated with a Catholic renewal movement. Although a bit skeptical, Annamaria accepted the invitation. At once, she was struck by the vibrancy with which people sang, prayed, and shared testimonies of God’s goodness. After the meeting, she purchased several books, including some evangelical ones written by American and British authors translated into Italian. All of this fueled her passion for Word-centered ministry.
Having been suspended from the ministry of her parish, Annamaria was looking for something to occupy her time. She resumed her old hobby of painting. While doing so, she turned on the radio and found an evangelical broadcast. From that day forward this became “her station,” God’s appointed means of feeding her soul with biblical truth, not unlike the ravens that brought Elijah food during his lonely exile. In her words, “Listening to Radio Evangelica Firenze brought me a great deal of consolation. Finally I felt that my need to learn God’s Word was being met.”
‘I Was in Prison, and You Visited Me’
Meanwhile, a new ministry was about to begin. A young man from her old parish, who had been her student, landed in prison and wrote asking if Annamaria would pay him a visit. She went. Then she went again. During the second visit he asked if she would be willing to meet with other prisoners. She happily agreed. Before long it was a routine. “Meeting with prisoners regularly,” she explained, “caused to grow within me a sense of the deep need to do something for those who could not take advantage of benefits provided by law because they had no place to live outside of prison during their prison leaves.”
Annamaria spoke with a chaplain about whether she could start a residence where men could live until they got back on their feet. Realizing that she couldn’t accomplish such a project alone, she looked around to see who might help. And there was Cristiana. The two ladies jumped in with both feet. Serving the ministry and studying God’s Word soon occupied all of their time.
“Sister Cristiana had been in the order for many years and enjoyed the esteem of her superiors,” Annamaria explained. “Now [in the residence] we could organize our prayer life as we wished, sing beautiful praises to the Lord that we had learned from the revival movement, and dedicate ourselves to the study of God’s Word.”
With each passing day enthusiasm for Bible study grew, and so did their questions. Eventually, Annamaria suggested inviting the Protestant pastor from the radio program to their home. What a great opportunity it would be to ask him questions directly. But there was one problem—their house belonged to the charity arm of the Catholic Church, which would never approve such a meeting. “Sister Cristiana was more courageous than I,” admits Annamaria. She suggested, “Why don’t we invite the pastor to come here to the house when it is closed to the prisoners.” (During the mornings prisoners went out working.) So they invited the pastor.
For 13 years, evangelical pastor and missionary Richard Paul visited Annamaria and Cristiana once a week to lead them in Bible study. “Never did he try to fight the Catholic Church. He simply opened up the Bible and stuck to the text of Scripture. Starting with the way of salvation, we worked through Paul’s epistle to the Romans and then onto other biblical books.”
As the two sisters grew in their newfound faith, they became increasingly frustrated by the inconsistency between the teaching of Scripture and Catholic tradition. “Deepening our understanding of Scripture put us in direct conflict with the Catholic Church. We understood that the cult of Mary, the Madonna, had no Biblical basis, just as the dogmas attributed to her were also unfounded. We realized that these ideas were invented by men, such as the doctrine of purgatory. We felt disappointed and deceived by all that we had believed in good faith.”
Ready to Go
By now, Annamaria was ready to leave the Catholic Church. She could no longer celebrate Mass or attend confession, and she had discarded all of her religious paraphernalia such as statues, beads, and clerical attire. (This is evidently when she broke the habit). After 46 years as a nun, she was ready to resign. However, before making the move, she wanted to consult with Cristiana.
But Cristiana wasn’t yet ready to take that step. Even though she had also recognized and embraced the reality of her new life in Christ by faith alone, Sister Cristiana couldn’t bring herself to leave the order. By this time she had served as a nun for more than 56 years, including more than 20 as Mother Superior. Eventually, however, this decision to stay led her into depression. Her religious angst was so burdensome that she developed a bleeding ulcer. Following an urgent visit to the emergency room, Cristiana was admitted into a rehabilitation clinic run by the nuns of her order where she remained for six months.
During Cristiana’s recuperation, it dawned on her that she wouldn’t be able to avoid the daily rituals of Catholic devotion. “When the priest came for confession, I was expected to confess. I was supposed to recite the rosary with other nuns, participate in Mass, and consecrate myself to Mary. With each passing day, it was more difficult to maintain the routine.”
The friendship between Annamaria and Cristiana continued unabated during the six months of Cristiana’s convalescence. Visits were frequent, and on one occasion Annamaria remembers an important conversation. “I told Sister Cristiana that I had already decided that when March came, the month in which our order renewed vows, I would confirm my request to be exonerated from them.” Before submitting her letter of resignation, she presented it to Sister Cristiana.
“What a shock and surprise,” Annamaria exclaimed, “Sister Cristiana told me, ‘Write one for me as well,’ since it was impossible at that point for her to write a letter with her own hand.”
“I cannot express the joy that I felt in that moment!”
“The Lord had worked in a marvelous way, and that risky health problem was necessary for Cristiana to understand that her place was no longer among the nuns, nor in the Catholic Church. Certainly, Lord, you restore our souls and lead us in paths of righteousness for your name’s sake.”
To say that the nuns of Cristiana’s order were surprised would be a vast understatement. They had seen Annamaria’s conversion coming, but Mother Superior!
Joy Like Never Before
One thing was left . . . baptism. On September 25, 2005, Pastors Dick Paul and Sam Wegner baptized them at Bible Christian Church of Florence. Afterward, Cristiana and Annamaria were cut off from fellowship with the sisterhood and alienated from many of their family members. Having served in their order for 102 years combined, they were now on their own for the first time, out from under the protective care of Mother Church. Thankfully, the evangelical church stepped in as Pastor Sam Wegner and the congregation of Bible Christian Church surrounded then with loving support.
I asked Cristiana how it felt to undergo baptism knowing that she would face such alienation. She responded without batting an eye, “It was joy like I had never felt before!”
Describing the nature of their ministry, Annamaria explained, “We visit churches to share our testimony, our love for God’s Word, and the liberation which he has given us in Jesus. It is a privilege to serve the Lord.” Cristiana then chimed in, “Grande! Grande!”
As you might imagine, my time with the Sorelle Evangeliche was an absolute delight. Their story expanded and deepened my sense of divine reality and enlisted my gospel affections in ways that I hadn’t quite expected. But isn’t that how it tends to go? You approach a conversation wanting to encourage other people and you receive a blessing beyond description. In this instance, the blessing came primarily from the ironic turn of God’s kingdom in these dear sisters—old in years and full of youthful zeal, relatively poor in earthly possessions but eternally rich, small in stature with gigantic faith, pillars of redemption whose lives proclaim the power of the gospel.
In January 2006, Cristiana and Annamaria bought a small one-room apartment. This is the apartment where we met. Annamaria explains how she sells her paintings while evangelical friends provide them with unexpected monetary gifts. “God always provides,” she said with a smile.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
Is there enough evidence for us to believe the Gospels?
In an age of faith deconstruction and skepticism about the Bible’s authority, it’s common to hear claims that the Gospels are unreliable propaganda. And if the Gospels are shown to be historically unreliable, the whole foundation of Christianity begins to crumble.
