BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

of the Passion besides the wound in the heart.'
Her dear friend, Palmira Valentini, fully agrees with Brother Famiano and says: 'She was always so simple
that she appeared to be a child.' And Signora Carola Puccinelli declared: 'I noticed in this child all the virtues,
and simplicity especially.'
This virtue, as we have shown, accompanied her always, even in her supernatural manifestations. When the
force of the Divine love within her caused two ribs over her heart to bulge out somewhat, this is how she
explained the matter to Aunt Cecilia: , I don't know just what to make of it, but here in this spot a bone has
come out.'
‘In speaking,' Mother Gemma Giannini declared, 'she never pretended to know and understand spiritual
things better than others.' And this is exactly what Cecilia Giannini deposed: 'She never played the teacher;
she spoke on edifying subjects, but without any display of knowledge or ostentation.'
We have mentioned her self-possession, and the absence in her of artificiality. 'When the ecstasy ceased,'
says Father Germanus, 'she got up as if nothing had happened, washed her hands of the blood-stains-the
blood had flowed copiously pulled down her sleeves so as to cover the large scars, and then believing that
no one had noticed her, soon began to talk calmly to members of the household.'
But Gemma's ingenuousness nowhere shines so marvelously as in her writings. She had been to
confession, and her confessor had counselled her to live as if she were dead, and this is how she told Father
Germanus about it:
'. . . From four o'clock to-day I am dead, Father. My confessor has told me that I must be dead. And do you
know why? I was lamenting, now about one thing, now about another. My confessor listened to me for a little
while, and then the only obedience he gave me was this: " You ought to live as if you were dead." I must
speak no more, nor manifest my desires; I am dead, Father.' [This and other quotations are taken from
“Lettere ed estasi”]
A Roman lady, a friend of hers, had asked her to pray to St. Rita of Cascia and St. Frances of Rome for her.
This was her answer:
‘In that letter which you sent to me a few days ago, you asked me to pray for you to St. Rita of Cascia and to
St. Frances of Rome, but how can I do that when I do not even know them? Do you know what I thought of
doing? I have entrusted the matter to Confrater Gabriel by means of a letter addressed to him which I gave
to my Guardian Angel, but an answer has not come back yet. . . . I am expecting an answer every day, and
when it comes, if I am allowed I shall write to you again immediately.'
The same lady was to pay a visit to the Tomb of St. Gabriel, and Gemma, hearing of it, wrote thus to her:
‘I should like to send a message to Venerable Gabriel. Will you, my sister, carry it to him for me? Say this to
him: "Gemma wants you to pray to Jesus very earnestly for her, so that she will be satisfied with everything
that happens simply because He wills it to happen. If He wills things to be remedied, let Him remedy them. If
He does not, she will then know that He had so ordered things . . ." Put thus, it suffices. Jesus will
understand what I mean. Much more so, if our dear Gabriel speaks to Him about it. When you speak to him
use the polite " voi " because the Father does not wish the more familiar " tu " to be used.'
Father Germanus had indeed told her to use , voi' in her conversations with the Angels and Saints.
Though at times Father Germanus received letters from her which were taxed because there were no
stamps on them, he could not be displeased because they were accompanied by such childlike and
ingenuous phrases as these: 'I could write all this because I am alone in the house to-day. As I have no
money, I am putting this letter in the box without a stamp. My dear Father, you will pay for it, won't you? Do
not be displeased, please, I am very, very poor.'
Later on in this chapter we shall treat of the rare mortification of Gemma; but we wish to mention here the
pleasing simplicity with which she asked her spiritual director for permission to beg of Jesus the grace of
being deprived of all sense of taste :
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