BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

Before the Redeemer of the world suffered the awful torture of the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and
the Crucifixion, He underwent the Agony in the Garden, in which He shed His blood so copiously. As we have
already seen, Gemma participated in this sorrow of the Passion by sweating blood when anyone
blasphemed in her hearing.
Among the causes that contributed to the Agony of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemani were the sins and the
ingratitude of mankind. The same considerations made Gemma not only sweat blood, but even shed tears of
blood, as was testified by witnesses in the Processes for her Beatification. One of these, Mother Gemma
Giannini, asserted that so great was Gemma's grief over the sins of the world and for those which she
thought she herself had committed, that she often sweated blood and even wept tears of blood. 'She used to
sweat blood because of the sins that gave such great offence to God,' declared Aunt Cecilia, ' often saying in
ecstasy: "Revenge Thyself on me, but spare all sinners!"
This mysterious phenomenon manifested itself particularly once during a whole month when she was praying
very earnestly for priests. The sweat and the tears of blood took place about the same time as the Stigmata,
and according to Father Germanus, from time to time on certain days.
THE THORNS
One of the most exquisite torments suffered by Jesus in His Passion was the crowning with thorns. For a
long time Gemma was ambitious to wear this diadem, and her desire grew all the more ardent when Jesus
Himself allowed her to see Him crowned with thorns, and asked her whether she would like to be crowned in
the same way.
The first time that she mentioned this matter in her diary was on July 19, 1900. She wrote:
‘This evening at last, after six days of suffering through Jesus withdrawing Himself from me, I am somewhat
recollected. I began to pray as I am accustomed to do every Thursday. I began to think of the Crucifixion of
Jesus. At first I did not feel anything, but after a few moments I became a little recollected, Jesus was near.
To the recollection there succeeded what usually happens. I went into ecstasy and I found myself with Jesus
Who was suffering excruciating pains. What was I to do, seeing Jesus suffer without being able to help Him?
I felt then a great desire to suffer and I asked Jesus to grant me this grace. He granted my wish immediately
and did what He had done on other occasions.'
And here, after having described how she received the crown of thorns from Jesus, she continued: , And so I
remained an hour suffering with Jesus. I should have liked to remain there the whole night.' On the following
day, July 20, she wrote again: 'At three o'clock I was again in the presence of Jesus .... He took off the crown
from my head, and put it on His own head again, and I ceased to suffer pain.'
But Gemma began to live these ' sorrowful, but happy moments' long before this date. Her own words imply
this: 'He did what He had done on other occasions.' Perhaps the King had placed His precious diadem upon
the head of His beloved Gemma before He had allowed her to bear the marks of His Wounds. If we are not
to confuse it with the sweat of blood over her whole body, of which we have spoken, this phenomenon took
place during her first stay with the 'Mantellate' nuns. It was deposed in the Processes that one of these
religious on arranging Gemma's hair noticed to her great surprise that every hair had a drop of blood on it.
Besides, the several witnesses who spoke of the manifestations of the Stigmata also mentioned that blood
flowed freely from her head. But the evidence given by the priest, Laurence Agrimonti, deserves to be
quoted. In his account of the extraordinary things that happened to Gemma during the first months of her
stay with the Giannini family, that is in 1899 before she came to live permanently there, he writes: 'On August
20, I, the undersigned, saw Signorina Gemma Galgani, sitting in a chair, she being as in a trance, with her
face .and hands all stained with blood, and on her forehead certain marks in the form of a crown of thorns.'
Matthew Giannini deposed: 'I saw her and it seemed as if she had a drop of blood on every hair. It was her
own blood. I saw the stains left on the cloths with which my sister wiped away the Mood, and these cloths
were afterwards sent to the laundry. At first the blood exuded from the skin near the hair. Afterwards it came
out all over her forehead, as if there was a crown of small red drops dripping down upon her face.' Similar
descriptions were given by other members of the Giannini family. Joseph Giannini, the lawyer, gave the
following evidence under oath:
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