BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

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suffering, no one understood what was the matter with her. Towards the end of June, she exclaimed: '0 Jesus, we have almost come to the end of Thy month. It has been entirely Thine! ' When Father Germanus heard what was happening to his spiritual child, he wrote before the month was out: 'In the Name of Jesus I command you that at the end of June you must return to your previous state of good health. Ask Jesus to do this because of holy obedience.' She obeyed and prayed. Jesus gave her to understand that out of regard for obedience and in order to show that He was indeed the Author of what was taking place in her, He would cure her, but only for a little while; that she would again fall sick and never get better. And so it happened. Gemma was restored to her former health and strength, her usual color returning to her cheeks, but after three weeks or so she had a relapse. In September, following an apparition of the Blessed Virgin-an apparition spoken of in the course of this book-Gemma was once again restored to health. But it was only for a short time. She then became feverish and often coughed up blood from her lungs. But this innocent victim had something more to suffer than mere physical pain. To intensify her martyrdom and render her holocaust more pleasing in His sight, God withdrew all supernatural communications. Except for infrequent and momentary lights she was alone, without a ray of comfort. This was the great sorrow which Jesus had told her was to overshadow the end of her life. Her dreadful sufferings soon reduced her to a skeleton. She was a prey to the most awful desolation of soul. I t was sometimes thought that the end was near, and some of the household watched by her bedside all night. The doctors did not know what to do. Cecilia Giannini wrote to Father Germanus asking him to come and comfort Gemma, and advise the family what they should do in the emergency. In October, Father Germanus came. Gemma wanted to get up to receive him, but he sent her a command that she was to remain in bed. 'Well; Gemma, what are we going to do ? ' he asked her as he sat by her bed. 'I am going away with Jesus, Father,' she answered, full of the liveliest joy. , This time Jesus has made it quite clear. To Heaven, Father, to Jesus; with Jesus in Heaven!' 'But what about your sins? ' objected Father Germanus. , Jesus has thought of that,' she said. 'He will make me suffer so much in the short time I have to live, and so sanctify these sufferings by the merits of His Passion, that His divine Justice will be satisfied and He will then take me with Him to Paradise.' , But if I do not want you to die yet?' 'But if Jesus desires me to die, what then ? ' They continued to talk together. They discussed the particulars of her death, the reception of the Last Sacraments, her burial, and the care of her body which she did not want any profane hands to touch, because of Jesus, she said. That evening Father Germanus once again heard her general confession. On the following morning she received the Holy Viaticum. In spite of her fever she did not want to break her fast even with a drop of water. She sat up in bed, with assistance, dressed as a bride with a white veil on her head. She had spent the whole night in fervent preparation, her heart on fire with loving expectation. Father Germanus retired to a corner of the room to pray. The priest came with the Blessed Sacrament, but Gemma was already She was detached from everything and everybody, and in the end even from me, so that I began to think that she no longer cared whether I was near her or not. I therefore reproved her, pointing out that she was ungrateful and that Jesus could not be pleased with her conduct. "Have I not done a little for you? " I concluded, "and Jesus rewards even a glass of water given in His Name. I have indeed made many a sacrifice for you. How is it that you utter not a word even though I am reproaching you with being ungrateful! " She answered: " But what are you saying? If there is one person in the world I have loved it is you .... " And with that she began to weep. "Do whatever seems best to you," I said. "I will not say another word about the matter." Gemma then continued-it was about a month or so before her death: " Nothing remains for me to do now except prepare for death, because I have made a sacrifice of everything." "Even of Father Germanus ? " I asked. "Yes," she answered, " even of him." , If Cecilia Giannini could have read her adopted child's heart she would not have been disturbed by such fears. In writing to Father Germanus Gemma revealed her inmost thoughts. ' After taking away my earthly mother,' she confided to him, ' Jesus gave her back to me in the person of Aunt Cecilia. But now I am orphaned once more. Twice I have been an orphan on earth! ' When the question of her leaving the Gianninis was still under consideration, Father Paul Tei, who knew her well, when alone with her one day, said: , You know, of course, that they want you to go away because there is a possibility of your having tuberculosis ?' 'They are doing what is right,' she replied calmly, 'but all the 110
same I have not got tuberculosis.' 'But Gemma,' Father Tei continued, 'you don't possess a penny, and what will you do when they put you out on the roadside?' She smiled: ' Father, is not God also on the roadside? Where God is, there are all things !' A sublime answer indeed, an answer that reveals Gemma's inimitable candor and her childlike abandonment in the loving arms of God. SUFFERINGS UPON SUFFERINGS Gemma's sickness continued its course with all the usual improvements and sudden relapses. Its acute crises were terrifying, and it was often necessary to give her oxygen to revive her. These sufferings increased in intensity as her death drew nearer. 'Her sufferings were unheard of.' Thus the Carmelite, Sister Gesualda, summarizes the various depositions made in the Processes. 'Her stomach could retain no food, not even a few drops of liquid, and the vomiting increased the pain in all her limbs, each of which suffered its own particular martyrdom. Her cough racked her whole body and she had great difficulty in breathing. Then the Lord took away her sight, and her voice grew so weak that she could scarcely speak. Nevertheless, in spite of this, she never craved for any alleviation, or looked tired or sad. She never asked to be moved or raised in bed, even though she was lying in an uncomfortable position.' 'During the whole of her illness,' declared Mother Giannini, 'she asked for nothing, not even a drop of water.' The Barbantine Sisters who had attended to her previously were asked to nurse her. This was done because, doubtless through some misunderstanding, she had been left alone a few nights when she had been in particular need of assistance. But she had not complained. Gemma's room was a school of virtue. The Sisters never saw in her angelic face any trace of melancholy or of suffering. She was always calm and full of peace. Gemma and the Sisters once spent an entire night in talking about God. The Sisters were edified by her conversation, and on the other hand she was helped thereby to concentrate her mind on prayer. 'Let us say our prayers together,' she said to them. 'Let us occupy ourselves with nothing except Jesus alone!' Once at the height of her sufferings they asked her: ' If Jesus allowed you to choose between going to Heaven immediately . . . and remaining here to suffer on the understanding that this latter would redound to His greater glory, what would you do?' She answered: 'It is better to suffer than to go to Heaven, if it is a question of suffering for Jesus, and promoting His glory.' The intensity of her pain, and more frequently, the violence of the assaults of the Devil, sometimes drew from her such complaints as this : ' 0 my Jesus, I can bear no more ! ' One of the Sisters at once remarked that with God's grace all things can be borne, and from that time whenever visitors said to her with compassion: , Poor thing, I'm sure you cannot bear much more,' she immediately replied: ' Yes, I can bear a little more.' Even in the midst of her sufferings, she never changed. . The ingenuous simplicity that characterized her life was just as observable during her last days on earth. A SCHOOL OF VIRTUE A virtue that shone forth conspicuously in Gemma during her last illness, was her humility. One could not help being profoundly moved on hearing her ask Jesus and Mary to pardon her faults-she whose life on earth had been always so angelic. Her favorite ejaculatory prayer was: ' My Jesus, mercy! ' She prayed continually. A large Crucifix hung on the wall of her room, on her right hand, and in front of her bed a picture of the Blessed Virgin. When she was so exhausted that she could not speak, she still fixed her mind on God. One had o:n1y to see her face to realize how recollected she was. 'Monsignor,' she used to say, ' told me that when I could not pray with my lips I was to pray with my mind and heart, and I am doing so.' Before she lost her sight she used to read St. Alphonsus Liguori's “Preparation for Death”. 'Are you not sorry you are going to die, Gemma? ' she was sometimes asked by Cecilia Giannini. 'Oh, no,' she replied, ' I have no longer any attachment to anyone in this world.' When Cecilia knelt by the bedside, weeping, Gemma comforted her by saying: , Aunt, I know your character; you worry too much; you are upset at seeing me suffer so much. Go away, go away far from me. Yes, go away and do not worry so much about me. . ..' She had a good word for everyone, and was most grateful for any attention. One day Gemma overheard Cecilia Giannini encouraging the Sisters by reminding them of the recompense they would receive. On hearing this, Gemma's face lit up. 'No, no,' she said, 'leave that to me. I will think of the Sisters when I am with Jesus.' 111
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1 BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI www
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CHAPTER I BIRTH AND EARLY YEARS A d
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not the child of prayer-the fulfill
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taken to have Gemma raised to the a
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ecomingly decorated, nor is it surp
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decided to plead her cause with her
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day was still very green : ‘I do
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esolution: I will make acts of cont
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punished the culprit.' In spite of
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Another incident illustrates her an
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eached home she would say that she
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His holy Mother, along with a feeli
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consultation, and the result was a
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The biography of St. Gabriel which
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'I said to her: "Gemma, I know that
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from all His wounds. I lowered my e
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At home Gemma continued to follow t
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comfort. ‘ "The demons with My pe
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In 1899, in preparation for the ope
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their souls and become better instr
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efore. she was convinced that Gemma
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visited her family or the Zitine Si
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wrote to the latter: 'Father, the m
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Her love for the Blessed Virgin was
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'I saw on one occasion, I think it
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happening, but I heard her say in t
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will esteem it better than all the
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BLESSED GEMMA GALGANI (1878-1903) P
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'I saw with my own eyes the wounds
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Page 63 and 64: is a true gem of the Sacred Heart o
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Page 75 and 76: towards the end of her life, she us
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Page 81 and 82: prayers, and so everything ended we
Page 83 and 84: These ecstasies lasted ordinarily f
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Page 97 and 98: Lord, to die a victim of Thy love,
Page 99 and 100: of Gemma that the conversion of a m
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Page 103 and 104: had been commanded to do so by St.
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Page 113 and 114: heard to say repeatedly. 'Do not th
Page 115 and 116: Gemma was indeed dead! The parish p
Page 117 and 118: Gemma Galgani increased daily, and
Page 119 and 120: Renaissance, by Father Henry Petito
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