BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

her brother Guido married. Gemma was invited to the wedding, but nothing could induce her to go. However,
she at length took the advice of the Mother Prioress and went, but in the same clothes as she always wore.
The guests were very displeased, and so was the bride, who then met her for the first time. Indeed the bride
told her to go away, never to return, and expressed a wish that no one should bring her to the place again,
because she was a stupid person. It must be said, however, that later on her opinion of Gemma changed
and she conceived a great veneration for her. Guido indeed tells us that his sister stayed at their house at
Bagni di S. Giuliano for two months during 1900 or 1901, and that she behaved towards himself and his wife
'with all kindness and attention, never complaining and considering excessive whatever was done for her.'
Gemma on this occasion was accompanied by her Aunt Elisa who, in her testimony, does not agree with her
nephew, for she says that they remained there only ten days. It was during her stay at this place that Gemma
was seen to be wearing gloves while she was at dinner. 'What style! ' her brother remarked. 'Eating your
dinner with gloves on !' Gemma asked him to allow her to keep them on, and his wife pleaded for her. But
after dinner on some pretext she induced her to take them off, and seeing the Stigmata she ran weeping to
call Aunt Elisa.
Gemma gave her sister-in-law as a marriage present a beautifully bound copy of Philothea by St. Francis de
Sales, which had been given to her as a catechism prize. A silk parasol, likewise a gift, she presented d to
her cousin Rosa Bartelloni. Thus she went on stripping herself of everything earthly, from her earliest years
having no other desire than to belong solely and entirely to Jesus.
JESUS ONLY
But God is jealous of the human heart, and demanded one more sacrifice from His Servant. Father
Germanus had several times advised Gemma to detach herself completely from everything, without
explaining himself further, and so Gemma with her accustomed ingenuousness asked Jesus what this
meant: 'I have nothing and don't know from what to detach myself; I have only Thee, my Jesus.' 'But, Father,'
she wrote to her spiritual director, , do you know what happened? Jesus said: "Are you not too attached to
that tooth belonging to the Venerable Gabriel ? " I was astonished, and I was about to make excuses, saying:
"But, Jesus, it is a precious relic." I was almost crying, but Jesus said somewhat seriously: "My child, Jesus
has said so, and that is enough.'" And then she remembered that when Sister Mary, the portress of the '
Mantellate' Convent, asked ·her for a loan of "the relic in order to show it to the nuns, she had cried on
parting with it; it appeared to her a sign of attachment, and she generously deprived herself of it, giving it to
Signora Justina, who considered it doubly dear because of the sacrifice Gemma had made.
Her detachment from all that was not Jesus was truly heroic. Writing to Father Germanus, she said: 'In your
Mass to-morrow morning, please ask Jesus to hide me in His Sacred Heart, that I may see nothing, feel
nothing, think of nothing, love no one, but Him.' This was her continual prayer, her one aspiration. And
everything served to sharpen the intensity of this desire. Aunt Cecilia told her to write to a relation, living far
away. She could not help finishing the letter in this way: 'Jesus does not wish me to succeed in anything,
because He wishes my mind to be occupied with Him alone.' Later on we shall see to what lengths she
carried her detachment from everybody and everything, but here we shall only mention her detachment from
her friends.
During her stay with the Gianninis, in the course of the same year, and within a few months of one another,
her little sister Julia, and her brother Anthony, died. She was most resigned, so much so that she was able to
offer consolation even to Aunt Cecilia, who was filled with great sorrow at the death of Julia especially. The
reader will remember the affection Gemma had for this sister of hers, but she was living a life of faith, and
what counted more with her were eternal interests. 'But why are you crying? ' she asked her adopted mother.
'Don't you know that she is on her way to Heaven? ' When Anthony died she had a revelation that Julia
was .in Heaven. She said joyfully: 'Now I am no longer afraid. How good Jesus is! Before He gave me this
new cross, He granted me the consolation of knowing that Julia was in Heaven.'
Gemma led a very secluded life, and even in Lucca she was known by few. She never in any way
encouraged public attention, so much so that when after her death the fame of the marvels God was
deigning to work through her began to spread abroad, her fellow citizens were very much astonished. They
could hardly believe that God had bestowed in such profusion His choicest gifts upon that humble and
obscure girl.
Even in her everyday dealings with those around her, she was unassuming, modest and reserved. Joseph,
the advocate, deposed that had he not seen her several times in ecstasy, he would never have known the
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