BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

The hearts of Saints are extremely delicate, and Gemma felt deeply the duty of gratitude she owed to her
adopted family. She prayed constantly for them all. 'Mom,' she was once heard to say in an ecstasy as she
was addressing the Blessed Virgin, 'my confessor has obliged me to do something. He has asked me to pray
for this family. I have done so already. Will you do what I cannot do ! Obtain for them great graces, an infinite
number of graces. Mom, you understand, an infinite number. If at times Jesus desires to send them trials, tell
Jesus to show His mercy towards them .... ' And on another occasion she prayed: 'Mother mine, I
recommend this house and this family to you. Tell Jesus to help them in the hour of tribulation, but if He
should be about to lay His hand, heavily upon them, I am here, and let Him lay it on me instead. I
recommend this matter to you very fervently. Tell Jesus that it is very important."
Gemma realized how great was the care that was bestowed upon her, and she wished to make some return,
but not being able to do so, she showed her gratitude in a thousand ways. 'I shall pray to Jesus for you,' she
often said to anyone who helped her in any way. But she did not want to be treated well. t I don't want them
to do anything for me,' she wrote to her director. 'If you could only see what they do! How they put a footwarmer
in my bed at night, and all this for one who deserves to be treated like the fowls. Is this right? I am
heaped round with comforts. And in spite of all I am not able to say a word of thanks. If I could only help them
with my poor prayers! [Lettere ed estasi.]
In the same way she complained to Aunt Cecilia: 'You must not bother about me at all. I am to be considered
no more than the duster in the kitchen; otherwise Jesus will not be pleased. I do not desire any care and
attention from you.' She knew she was poor and wanted to be treated as a poor person. ' You may think,
perhaps,' she wrote to her director, ' that I regret that I have to live on the charity of others. No, No! I do not
regret that, for is it not that which makes me like to Jesus? '
It was this understanding of her actual position economically which urged her no doubt to treat the domestic
staff with such consideration, even though she received in return from some of the servants only rebuffs and
criticism. Knowing that this was done because they were jealous of the care Aunt Cecilia bestowed on her,
Gemma used to say on these occasions: 'Have patience, the Lord will repay you for what you do for me.
What I want you to do is to act as if I was not in the house.' On her side Gemma tried to be very attentive to
them in order to take away any cause for jealousy, so that one of them was heard to say: 'That poor girl
would like to help us, only she hasn't got the strength.'
A PROOF OF HER GRATITUDE
A duty which she wished to be reserved for herself alone, was the care of the sick in the home. For this
provided her with an excellent means of showing her gratitude. 'When she was with me,' attests Aunt Cecilia,
'she looked after those who were sick and showed them the greatest care and attention, being always
punctual with the medicine, visiting them regularly, taking note of their temperature. We should have
forgotten many things, but she was always so attentive and so exact. She had no favorites. She acted just
the same whether it was my sister-in-law who was often sick, or Don Laurence, or a servant, or one of the
children. She was always prepared, but spoke very little, and all this she did for the love of God.'
On one occasion Signora Justina was seriously ill with what was thought to be a cancer in the stomach.
Notwithstanding all the remedies that were tried, she grew worse from day to day, and it was feared that she
was dying. Gemma gave her every care. Justina herself deposed as follows in the Processes:
‘During my long sickness, Gemma of her own accord undertook to write down every day an account of the
progress of the disease and filled several pages of a day-book .... I asked Doctor Nerici to read Gemma's
manuscript in order that he might know the history of my sickness, and when he had done so he said: "One
would think it had been written by a doctor." ‘
In order to obtain Justina's cure a friend of the family had arranged for a triduum in honor of the Sacred Heart
in the Church of S. Giovanni. All the household took part in it. But Gemma . . . she whose heart was burning
to be near Jesus-remained with the sick woman, and recited with her the prayers that were being said in the
church. According to the testimony of Signora Justina, Gemma sometimes spent entire days in the sick-room
without saying a word. And what was she meditating in that long silence? She was praying and making a
heroic resolve-she was thinking of offering to Jesus her own life which seemed to her of no account, in
exchange for the life of her benefactress who was also the mother of twelve 'children. She began to think it
was her positive duty. She therefore approached her confessor and her director to obtain their consent. She
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