BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

As a rule, however, it was very deep and seemed that it would pass through the hand and that the upper and
lower wounds would meet. One could not make certain of this latter appearance because the apertures were
filled with blood, in part congealed but for the most part freely flowing, and when the blood stopped, they
closed quickly; being in ecstasy the violence of the pain caused her hands to be convulsively closed. The
wound in the palm became covered with a hard fleshy protuberance in the form of the head of a nail, raised
and not adhering, about the size of a penny (soldo). In the feet, the wounds were wider and surrounded
towards the edges with livid flesh, and the difference in size was the opposite to the wounds in the hands,
the wound on the top of the left foot being bigger than that of the sole of the right foot. The aperture of the
wound in the side was in the form of a crescent lying on its back with the two points turned upwards. Its
length in a straight line was six centimetres and its width in the middle, three millimeters, forming with its two
opposite sides an angle half a centimeter in length from top to bottom. The blood that came from the
aforesaid wound was copious, .as could be seen from her under-garments, which were soaked with it. She
did her best to hide this fact and made use of several folds of linen, which' she applied to her side repeatedly,
but in a short time they were blood-soaked. She would then hide them in order to wash them herself later on
in secret. The Friday ecstasy ceasing, the flow of blood from the side also ceased, and the raw flesh on the
hands and feet began to dry up, the mass of lacerated tissues drawing in and becoming firmer little by little.
On the following day or on Sunday at the latest, not a trace of those deep wounds remained, neither in the
centre nor at the sides, the flesh on top becoming quite natural and quite similar to that of the parts that had
not been torn. A white mark alone remained to show that on the previous day there had been raw wounds in
those places, which at the end of five days would open again as before, and close again in the same
manner. Two years after the phenomena of the stigmata had ceased, at the time of her death, the aforesaid
marks still remained and could easily be observed on her body, particularly on her feet, which when she was
alive and in ecstasy had been very difficult to uncover.
CHAPTER XI
'YOU WILL BE A DAUGHTER OF MY PASSION' -DIFFICULTY Occasioned BY HER HUMILITY
Monsignor Volpi, who had heard Gemma's confession on that memorable June 8, was perhaps expecting
her to return to him with an account of what happened. But Gemma had never been able to bring herself to
reveal to him the extraordinary favors she had received from God. From the first apparition of Jesus
Crucified, that is, from before her entrance into the Visitation Convent, she had been told again and again by
her Guardian Angel to tell her confessor about them, and had been reproved for not doing so. 'It is very
wrong of you,' the Angel said--she mentions this in her Autobiography, 'to hide these things from your
confessor. Remember-and I am speaking to you about it for the last time-if you keep silent again about this
matter, I shall not let you see me again.' But how was she to make known such unusual and mysterious
happenings?
The fact is that all these wonderful favors, instead of making her vain, filled her soul with extreme confusion.
She esteemed herself unworthy of them and also feared that when people and even her confessor heard of
them, they would be scandalized, for she deemed herself a great sinner. It was so easy for her to confess a
fault that would lower her in the world's esteem, but it was a far different matter to lay claim to divine favors.
This it was which prevented her from speaking.
But to the difficulties already mentioned there was another difficulty which seems a further justification of
Gemma's attitude. Father Germanus refers to it, and so does another of her biographers, Sister Gesualda, a
Carmelite nun, who also came from Lucca and was only a year younger than Gemma. Sister Gesualda also
went to confession to Monsignor Volpi. 'The confessional of Monsignor in the Basilica of St. Michael,' she
wrote, 'was always surrounded with people, for as a director of souls he had the reputation of being a second
St. Francis de Sales. And as Auxiliary Bishop to the Archbishop of Lucca he was kept very much occupied.
Gemma felt that she would take up too much of his time. It is true that she could have written to him; yet she
knew that after all to receive an answer she would have to take her place among those waiting around his
confessional. External difficulties were not lacking, but the greatest difficulty was within herself." [Un flore di
Passione nella citta del Volto Santo, p. 101] As previously mentioned this interior difficulty was her humility.
MEETS THE PASSIONISTS FOR THE FIRST TIME
God in His mercy desired to put an end to her difficulty and therefore came to her aid in a manner that at first
sight would seem to be purely fortuitous, but which was undoubtedly a beautiful manifestation of His
Providence.
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