BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

We cannot resist quoting here several extracts from her correspondence. While letting us into her confidence
with regard to the efforts of the Devil to injure her soul, they also reveal the sufferings she endured during
this trial.'
She wrote to her director :
‘A new attack was made yesterday soon after I had been to confession. Listen, Father! The confessor said
that he believed it was better to discontinue those small penances he had allowed me to practise for some
time past. To tell the truth, I did not like doing this at all. But as the confessor had often told me that the thing
that pleased Jesus most was obedience (and it seems that I am beginning to understand this a little) I
assured him that I was content to do whatever he desired. If you knew how the confessor tires himself out
trying to make me good, and in particular, obedient! But my head is made of wood, and my body, when there
is question of obedience, how slothful it is! At any rate, when I arrived home after confession I took away
everything and I was therefore very much at peace. However, it did not last long. As soon as I had a moment
to myself, for it was the time of my prayer, I knelt down and began to say the Rosary of the Five Wounds of
Jesus. At the fourth Wound I saw before me a figure like Jesus, freshly scourged allover, with his heart laid
open and bleeding. I finished the Rosary, and then I said in a loud voice:
"Blessed be Jesus and Mary!" He did not answer me. I repeated it and he said: "Blessed, blessed," but he
did not pronounce the names of Jesus and Mary. I understood who it was, and made the Sign of the Cross.
He continued, however, to stay with heart open and bleeding, and he began by saying: " Is it thus, my child, .
that You repay me? Look at me; see how much I have suffered for thee. And now You canst not give me the
consolation of those penances. After all, they did not amount to much, and You canst very well continue them
as before." "No, no," I replied, " I wish to obey; and if I do what You desire, I disobey."‘
And so on this occasion also the astute enemy had to withdraw in confusion. For Jesus had come to her and
had given her a sign by which she might know when the Devil was near and speaking to her. 'One morning
after Holy Communion,' she herself wrote, ' it seemed to me that Jesus warned me that when I saw anything,
I should immediately say those words (that is, Blessed be Jesus and Mary) ; if the words were repeated in
return, it was from Jesus, if not, it was from the Devil.' Thus Jesus continued to comfort her. The only fear
that troubled Gemma after these assaults and these apparitions was the fear of having offended Jesus. She
complained of this to Him. 'I allow these things to happen,' He answered, ' in order that all may know that you
are weak and can sin; and then they will know your misery, and you will learn to be humble, truly humble.
With all your defects, it only requires a little thing to make you proud ! ' 'But, my Jesus,' Gemma replied, 'at
least grant that I may not offend Thee again.' And Jesus then answered: 'Do not follow your own will, and you
will be always safe.'
The reader will pardon us if we linger a little longer on this subject of the diabolical assaults which were
inflicted upon Gemma. She wrote to her confessor:
‘Monsignor, the Devil has again attacked me Listen! Yesterday Aunt told me to draw a bucket of water. I drew
the water, and filled the jugs. I then took the bucket to put it back in its place, and on my way I had to pass an
image of the Heart of Jesus. On seeing that image my heart gave three or four violent jumps. I saluted Jesus
with these words: " 0 my Jesus, hasten to grant me the grace to be united for ever with Thee. Make me so
much Thine that we two can never be separated one from the other." Shortly after I had pronounced these
words I received such a heavy blow on my left shoulder that I fell to the ground, but nothing was broken. I do
not understand what all this means. But it hurt me very much.'
There was another attack on the following day : , This time there were actually two. I was terrified. I was
thinking of Jesus, but I was unable to call upon Him by word of mouth. The Blessed Virgin had said to me
just before : "The attack is about to begin, and it will last until you have in your hands an image of Confrater
Gabriel." This was true.'
In her next letter to Monsignor Volpi, Gemma mentions another visitation:
‘He said that when you decide to put me in a Convent he will not let me go, and that on the evening before,
he will tear me to pieces with pincers. Then he beat me a little. With the help of holy water, and the
intercession of St. Paul of the Cross I finally got rid of him. I began to pray a little and I was in the middle of
my meditation when he came again. I said to him then: "Go away, filthy beast! Do you not see that instead of
making me lose my soul you are helping me to save it?" He ran off quickly very far away. I continued my
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