BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

color of her eyes. The greater part of her work in the Giannini household had to do with the little children.
She understood innocence and got on well with her charges. She liked to have sweets to give to them to
help to make them all the more docile. These sweets she would obtain through Aunt Cecilia from the eldest
boy of the family, who was then studying at the University of Pisa. Needless to say, she never tasted those
dainties herself.
HER SPIRIT OF PENANCE
That which was related in the foregoing paragraph reveals Gemma's spirit of mortification. In mortification
Gemma was a heroine. Whoever considers how prone young girls are to vanity will readily admit that she
was heroic, not only in her manner of dressing, but also in what Cecilia Giannini says about her: 'Never did I
see her look at herself in a mirror.'
We have already seen how Gemma burned with the desire of practicing penance: and more will be said on
this subject in the course of this work. Her heart became inflamed at the contemplation of Jesus Crucified.
Her one desire was to be like Him. At table she provided herself with a chair somewhat lower than the others
so that she would be more hidden. Her place at table was in the corner near Aunt Cecilia, very much in the
background. She ate so little that Chevalier Matthew would sometimes say jokingly: 'You had better eat a
little, Gemma, or I shall. make you take some medicine to give you an appetite.' She used to answer with
one of her sweetest smiles. Annetta deposed: 'She would take her soup with a spoon that had holes in it, so
as to let it appear that she was drinking it, and then when she thought she was unobserved, she took her
plate to the kitchen, and was reproved by Aunt Cecilia for doing so. We used to say: "Find fault with us, but
why mortify Gemma." Now and again Aunt Cecilia commanded her in virtue of holy obedience to eat, and
she did so, but she had to vomit it up again.' These last words refer particularly to the complete abstinence
from every food which she practiced from Pentecost to June, 1902, during which period she lived entirely on
Sacramental Communion.
According to Signora Justina Giannini, Gemma slept very little. Sometimes when she was asked in the
morning how she had slept, she answered: , A short hour!' She also knew how to mortify her flesh with tools
of her own making. On one occasion Aunt Cecilia found her in a faint on the ground, which was all covered
with blood, and near her there was a scourge of iron. This Aunt Cecilia prudently hid under her clothes, so
that when Gemma revived, she would think that she had not been observed by anyone. Thus Chevalier
Matthew deposed : ' I heard my sister say that she ( Gemma) had a scourge, and that she used to beat
herself with it. I can truly say that she fasted always, and it really appeared to me that she could not live in
that way without a miracle.' And Brother Famiano declared: 'If she had been allowed to continue she would
have shortened her life through mortification. Once she let me see a knotted cord which I under-stood she
had worn around her waist. Her confessor had ordered her to take it off because the knots had eaten their
way into her flesh. On one occasion she wanted me to exchange a scourge which was of iron for hers which
was of cord, which as I noticed was covered with blood-stains.'
But there were those who watched over the Servant of God and who moderated the ardours of her desire for
penance. Several times, both her confessor and her director deprived her of her instruments of penance.
Father Germanus had done so and thus describes them: 'A belt studded with sixty sharp iron points; a
scourge likewise of iron, with five thongs, and a long knotted cord in which she had inserted nails, which she
wore tight around her waist.' With regard to this matter Mother Gemma deposed: 'She was obedient to her
confessor when he moderated the ardour of her penance, and a thing that made me and all at home marvel
was that the exercise of mortification, even though she was in delicate health, never exhausted her or made
her incapable of carrying out her duties in the family. She did indeed seem to be sustained by a supernatural
strength.'
THE ANGELIC VIRTUE
She who dealt so intimately with the Angels, and who was adorned with so many virtues, could not but be
also remarkable for that virtue which is called angelic. This virtue was visible in her exterior, and appeared in
a special way in her countenance, so much so that Father Andreuccetti could say: 'Her look was something
unique, and I was struck by it to an extraordinary degree, although I cannot describe what it was that struck
me or how or why.' And he sums up his impressions of her in one pregnant phrase: 'The only human thing
about Gemma was her body.'
The reader already knows something of the way in which she strove all her life to keep this beautiful virtue
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