Historical Note

Nunziella Scopelliti was born in Messina on June 22, 1948, to Pasquale and Letteria Rizzo, in a family setting rich in human values.

She grew in faith in contact with the Capuchin Franciscan fathers who run the parish of Maria SS. di Pompei, where she received the sacraments of Baptism and Communion; in the Cathedral she received the sacrament of Confirmation from the hands of Msgr. Pantaleone Minutoli, delegate of the venerated Archbishop Most Rev. Fasola, with whom Sr. Nunziella built up a personal relationship.

She attended the Francesco Maurolico classical high school and the University of Messina, graduating in History and Philosophy on June 24, 1971, with top marks, defending the thesis Theoretical Foundations of Morality in Jacques Maritain. The search for truth and the intuition of the “beautiful” and of “laughter,” alongside the categories of the good and the true, characterize the philosophical and spiritual experience of this period of her life, which saw her form various friendships, among them those with her teacher, the Messinese philosopher Filippo Bartolone, with her university colleagues, with her first pupils, as well as with various priests and religious men and women of different congregations.

Won over by Beauty, which is God, on August 30, 1971 she left Messina for Rome to embark on religious life in an international Institute: the Holy Family of Bordeaux.

On October 7, 1975 she made her first vows among the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux, where she remained until 1994.

She lived this long period of her life almost always in Rome and its surroundings, except for brief stays in France and a few years in Capo d'Orlando (Me). She thus had the opportunity to come into contact with international environments and to carry out various duties, devoting herself in particular to the formation of young women and to teaching.

From December 1992 to July 1994 she was in Canada to attend a course in Social Communication Sciences at Saint-Paul University in Ottawa and one in Psychology in Montréal; there she conceived the idea of leaving her original religious Institute in order to follow a personal vocation to Love, felt since her youth, which led her to the foundation of the religious Institute of the Sisters of Beautiful Love.

In July 1994 she thus returned to Italy and in Rome submitted her vocation to the discernment of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; in dialogue with the Church and with those who represent it, she met with its favor and approval in a fairly short time. She was followed in the new foundation by other religious of the previous Institute and by some young women, desirous of living in communion with her what she carried in her heart.

In Messina, specifically in Castanea delle Furie, in a house made available by her father, today donated to the Institute, she wrote the Constitutions and the Directory of the new religious Institute.

On January 5, 1995 she was appointed Superior General and on January 7 she made her perpetual vows, into the hands of His Eminence Cardinal Salvatore Pappalardo, Archbishop of Palermo, in the religious Institute she had founded. Sensitive to art, which seems to her to reveal in some way the uncreated Beauty of God, she is the author of a collection of texts and melodies, ordered to prayer and communion, and of numerous paintings, abstract and otherwise, evocative of the inner world; she is the editor-in-chief of six magazines.

At the same time she began the foundation of the various houses, which led her to cross the Strait of Messina frequently, as far as Bavaria, and she launched the activities typical of the Institute, organizing meetings, conferences and initiatives aimed at promoting communion among people and groups of various ages and backgrounds.

From July 5 to 15, 2001 she led the II General Chapter of the Institute, during which she was re-elected unanimously as Superior General in the session presided over by His Eminence Cardinal De Giorgi, Archbishop of Palermo.

On December 22 of the same year, during the “Day of Culture, Art and Tourism,” organized by the Regional Province of Messina, the international Academy “Friends of Wisdom,” the University of the Third Age and the Sicilian Youth Unesco Center, she was awarded the 2001 Oscar of Culture, Art and Tourism. A few years after the beginning of the religious Institute, she founded the “Cenacles of Beautiful Love,” a private Association whose members share the spirit and mission of the Institute, radiating its spirit in the varied field of the family, in the different professions and in the various social environments.

On June 22, 2002, aware of the importance that the media have in today’s society, she inaugurated the Institute’s website: www.suorebellamore.it as a further possibility for connection, formation and proclamation.

A constant interest of Sr. Nunziella has always been the world of young people: amid the thousand events of the foundation, she never failed to turn particular attention to them, helping them in the search for authentic values that would pull them away from existential insignificance.

In 2005 she devoted herself, among other things, to the purchase of the Motherhouse. In the Holy See, at the beginning, in 1994, encouraging her in the Foundation of the new religious Institute, they had advised her to buy the Motherhouse “even at the cost of eating bread and onions,” and finally, after years of work and management, not without sacrifices, on December 8, 2005, in an atmosphere of intense emotion, she promulgated the Decree of transfer of the Motherhouse from Corso Calatafimi, 399, the first, rented seat of the nascent Institute, to Via Beato Angelico, 51, the new Motherhouse owned by the Institute.

The ecclesial spirit, which led her to write in the Constitutions… even before feeling themselves members of their Institute, the sisters must consider themselves sisters of the Catholic Church… sees her often present at the various ecclesial events. On different occasions, she is also invited to give her testimony, or to lead spiritual exercises for people of various ages and vocations. In dialogue with the world of artists, she welcomes their stimuli and invitations, forming bonds of friendship with painters and artists; in July 2007, at the inauguration of the National Exhibition of Contemporary Art organized in Ficarra (Me), she also had the chance to meet the maestro Trento Longaretti.

From December 22, 2007 to January 10, 2008, she led the III General Chapter of the Institute, which unanimously postulated her as Superior General for a third term.

The story continues...

2008 saw her, among other things, engaged in the purchase of the basement premises beneath the Motherhouse, forming together a single building, and in the new openings of the Institute and of the whole spiritual family connected to it, present today in various regions of Italy and in Germany.

On May 7, 2009 she was in Rome at the Domus Mariae for the 39th National Study Conference of General and Provincial Bursars, called upon to speak about the Foundation of the Institute and the purchase of the Motherhouse. On the 9th of the same month she went to Gliaca di Piraino (Me), where she was awarded the “Don Luigi Giussani” prize, 3rd edition, by the cultural and solidarity association “Raggio di sole” (Ray of Sunshine). On March 29, 2010, in Palermo, in the Yellow Room of the Palazzo dei Normanni, seat of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, the Rector Magnificus of the University of Palermo presented her with the “Franca Florio Prize,” conferred on her by the association of the same name, for the influence of the spirituality of Beautiful Love on society; for the same reason, on December 10, 2010, in the Aula Magna of the University of Messina, she received the “Alata solertia” prize from the Movimento Nuova Presenza “Giorgio La Pira,” 27th edition; in the same venue, on December 18, 2016, she was awarded the Orione Prize, by the association Messina.web in collaboration with the Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti. On July 10, 2011, she inaugurated in Naso (Me) the first conference for families aimed at spreading the spirit of Beautiful Love in the ecclesial and social sphere; this meeting, beginning in 2015, will take place in Palermo under the name “Mater amabilis Conference.”

In the summer of 2014 she led the IV General Chapter, by which she was elected, unanimously, Superior General for a fourth term.

In these years she has also taken an interest in organizing activities directed to young women, in particular the three-day gatherings and the summer camps.