BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

never be happy except in a convent.' She corresponded with a nun of Tarquinia, who afterwards became the
Superior of the Passionist Convent at Lucca, and invariably she made the same appeal to her: 'Will you take
me into the convent with you? I will be good; I will obey.' 'The Father knows how much I should like to be in
the convent. Do tell him, please, to make haste, so that I may become a nun as soon as possible.' Ask the
Father to grant my request. I really do feel ill at ease here in the world.'
Even when she was in ecstasy she was sometimes . heard to pray for a vocation to be a nun. '0 Mary, my
Mother, do let me enter a convent. After Jesus, that is my one desire! '
The repeated delays were a source of the keenest suffering to Gemma, so keen indeed that she besought
Jesus thus: 'One thing I ask of Thee, if I am not to be a Passionist, take the desire away from my heart, for it
is a thorn that pierces it! '
EFFORTS MADE IN VAIN
But Gemma was not the only one who was suffering because of these delays. Both Father Germanus and
Monsignor Volpi felt deeply their inability to find a. way out of the difficulties that beset Gemma's desire to
enter a convent. All their efforts to get her accepted were in vain. Although Father Germanus was convinced
of the reality of her vocation to the religious life, the doors of the Passionist Convent at Tarquinia seemed
definitely closed against her.
On her side Gemma wanted to be a Passionist nun, and nothing else. 'I t was because of the austerity of
their lives and because of their devotion to the Sacred Passion,' said Cecilia Giannini, ' that Gemma desired
to be a Passionist nun.' And Sister M. Julia of St. Joseph declared: 'Gemma wanted to be a Passionist; it was
her ideal; it was indeed her proper vocation.' Concerning this subject Monsignor Volpi has left us the
following deposition: 'The Servant of God several times expressed to me a desire to become a Passionist
nun, and although there was talk of her entering other religious Orders, she always felt a special attraction
for the Passionists.'
Efforts were indeed made to facilitate her entrance into several other religious Orders, and particularly the
Zitine Sisters. But in spite of Gemma's affection for them, and in spite of the memories of the happy days she
spent in their College at Lucca where she had made her first Holy Communion, the life led by the Sisters did
not appeal to her, as it did not come up to her ideal. She longed for an austere and perfect cloistral life.
Therefore when she came to know of Monsignor Volpi's intention in this regard, she wrote to him: 'Monsignor,
please listen and then do as you think best. Why not try the Capuchin nuns, instead of the Zitine Sisters? But
whatever happens I shall be content.' She went in person to visit the Capuchins, but her efforts also were in
vain, and she returned home with one more thorn of disappointment in her heart. Monsignor Volpi asked
Cecilia Giannini to make further efforts, but she refused.
According to Cecilia Giannini, Gemma had two paternal aunts among the Carmelites of Borgo at Mozzano,
but nevertheless this fact did not secure her admission into their convent. When Gemma heard what was
being done in this direction, she showed no enthusiasm, remarking: 'I feel that I shall not enter there.'
There were greater and better founded hopes of her being accepted by the ' Mantellate ' nuns, or as they
were called, the 'Little Sisters' of Lucca. Gemma actually made a formal demand for admission during her
first stay at their convent, and was presented to the Chapter by the Superior, and accepted. But the doctor
who attended the Community had also attended Gemma during her illness and refused to give her the
necessary certificate of good health, even going so far as to threaten to discontinue his services to the
convent if they persisted in their intention of receiving her. Here is the deposition made concerning this
matter by Sister M. Agnes, who was the Superior of the Convent at that time:
‘Gemma went a bout, even though it was a rainy day, looking for a doctor who would give her a certificate of
health, in order to be able to join us, our own doctor, by name Gianni, having refused to give one, saying that
she was not healthy enough to enter. At last she found a doctor who gave her the desired certificate, and
joyous and happy she brought it to me. Then I sent Gemma herself to show the certificate to Monsignor
Volpi. He said: "My child, this is of no use; you must have a certificate from the Convent doctor, otherwise
you will not be allowed to enter." Gemma, much grieved, returned to the Convent, saying: "Jesus has told me
that- if I enter a convent I shall live until I am fifty, but that if I do not He will take me when I am twenty-five."
And as a matter of fact, she died at twenty-five years of age.' [Summ. Proc, super virtutibus, p. 403.
L'Osservatore Romano, January 22 and 26, 1932]
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