BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

why he endeavored in other ways to prevent her from receiving It. Sister Julia Sestini attested, that one day
Gemma asked her whether she would have courage enough to receive Holy Communion when the Devil
stood by the side of the priest with weapons in his hands. Sister Julia answered that it would be a beautiful
thing to die thus with Jesus in one's heart. Gemma confessed that she had received the same answer from
her confessor, and then confided to her friend that when receiving Communion she very often saw the Devil
by the side of the priest, threatening her with death.
THE ATTACK BECOMES FIERCER
The Devil never laid down his arms in this attack upon Gemma. The very fact that he was unable to conquer
her in anything, only deepened his hatred. It was not only to keep her away from Holy Communion that he
persecuted her. His assaults were directed against all the virtues. One would think, as Father Germanus
remarks, that the Devil would have had something more important to do in his kingdom of darkness.
Certainly nothing seemed to please him more than to torment this innocent child, always employing new
means of assailing her with temptations, and disturbing her with his persecutions.
The violence of these attacks increased when she went to live permanently with the Gianninis. Because her
soul was every day. becoming more absorbed in God, Satan had recourse to every stratagem to hinder her
flights towards the supernatural. We mention here some of the vexations to which she was subjected by the
Devil -vexations attested to in the Processes. Afterwards we shall return to her own writings. Her
ingenuousness and singular can dour of soul being admitted, there is no reason to doubt the veracity of her
own confessions, especially when they were obtained from her through the command of obedience. I t took a
lot to make Gemma speak of them herself: 'You would need tongs to get a word out of her,' said Cecilia
Giannini, referring to these confidences. , Often I grew tired of putting questions, as in the end it was difficult
to get her to speak. It would seem that it took her an hour to say something about the matter. These facts,
moreover, to which we have referred are not unusual in Christian hagiography.
Because Gemma confided in her so much, Aunt Cecilia often had proof of these facts. Sometimes she saw
the bed shake under Gemma, who was trembling from head to foot, and she knew then that she was being
beaten by the infernal enemy. Cecilia sought to help her by the use of holy water. One day these attacks
occurred while she was in ecstasy. Cecilia placed the scapular of the Seven Dolours over her shoulders and
immediately she was freed. 'Now, now, vent your rage upon me if you can! ' she was heard to say to the
demons. And then she remembered that Monsignor had forbidden her to speak to the demon, and wishing to
confess it as a disobedience she told it to Aunt Cecilia. Aunt Cecilia was standing by and so could hear her
say that . the Devil had beaten her so much that she believed -these are her own words- that her lungs
would collapse. Then she saw the Devil retire to a corner under the window, and it was at this moment that
she spoke the words referred to above. Aunt Cecilia told her that it was the Blessed Virgin who liberated her,
and Gemma thereupon asked for the scapulars and wore them ever afterwards, even to the grave.
[Summarium Proc. super virtutibus, pp. 506-510, for the attacks described in this paragraph.]
These vexations -we still quote from Aunt Cecilia --did not cease as long as she lived. In the beginning they
occurred at intervals, but continuously towards .the end of her life. It made one shudder to witness her
sufferings. When she knelt down to pray, the Devil fell upon her from behind. When she went to bed, Aunt
Cecilia, who slept in the next room, heard the usual noises and the usual blows, and running to her very
often found her either dragged ,under the bed or stretched out on her face, now in one place, now in another,
and heard her all the while beseeching Jesus: 'Do not let that ugly beast come near me!' However, one thing
particularly remarked by all who witnessed these frightful scenes was her great modesty. For example, never
would she allow her feet to be seen, but kept them tucked up under her dress, which she did not take off on
going to bed, contenting herself with removing her corset because she had been ordered by her adopted
mother to do so. In particular the Devil must have feared and hated Gemma's prayers, for he used every
means of preventing her from saying them, disturbing her, striking her, and knocking her down. Aunt Cecilia
deposed that she saw her while at prayer fall backwards, ' with her legs from the knees down tucked under
her.'
But there is more still. There was a period lasting about a month when, according to Monsignor Moreschini,
Gemma seemed to be really obsessed. This is what he says:
‘Scarcely had she begun to pray when, as I observed myself on two occasions within four days, the Devil
assaulted her, and obtaining dominion over her senses made her behave like one obsessed. She was
thrown down upon the earth; she repulsed whoever offered her any object of devotion; she spat upon the
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