BIOGRAPHY of ST GEMMA GALGANI - Get a Free Blog

false devotion. Hide me away from the world, and shut me up where no one will see me. . . . I want to get
away from this sort of life and save my soul.'
WRITING DOWN AND CONTROL OF HER ECSTASIES
There is one thing for which we ought to be very grateful to Father Germanus, his instruction to the Giannini
family to record what Gemma said while she was in ecstasy. Thus we have obtained a marvelous treasure of
heavenly wisdom that bears comparison ' with all that is sublime and beautiful in the writings of the Saints,
with the colloquies of St. Augustine, the meditations of St. Bernard and St. Anselm, the mystical treatises of
St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Jesus, and with the ecstasies of St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi;
everywhere and always there is great precision of ideas, the theology, whether dogmatic or mystical, being
exact on all occasions. What is particularly admirable is the ingenuousness and childlike simplicity which is
revealed in every phrase of the Ecstatic of Lucca.' [Positio super revisione scriptorum, p. 47.]
By this expedient, the truth of what Gemma, after an ecstasy, saw and heard, could be exactly established,
for, being under an obligation to send an account of her ecstasies to her director, these accounts were
compared with what had been taken down during the ecstasies, and were always found to agree perfectly.
With regard to this matter, it is well to quote a deposition of Mother Gemma Giannini, who was among the
most assiduous in writing down these colloquies:
‘As far as we could judge, Gemma was never aware of the fact that we used to keep an account of what she
uttered in ecstasy, because we took care to be out of the room when she returned to her senses. When she
was in ecstasy there was no excess of any kind, neither of tears nor of laughter. She never did anything
extravagantly unusual, or the least unedifying. She was always natural, and even when she had ecstasies
that were more beautiful than usual, or saw apparitions that must have filled her with fervent enthusiasm,
they had no observable effect upon her afterwards. During the ecstasies she was insensible and as it were
dead to every impression, so that she gave no sign of feeling, even when as a test her head and forehead
were pricked with pins. When the ecstasy was over she felt pain where she had been pricked, but she did
not know why. After her ecstasies she was never so weak that she had to go to bed, and was able to
undertake the household work as usual.'
The reader must pardon us for repeating what has been stated before, but we are most anxious to omit
nothing that will help to place Gemma's ecstasies in their true light.
As mentioned before, these ecstasies began when Gemma was still in her own home, and reached their
greatest development while she lived with the Gianninis. During her first stay at the Convent of the'
Mantellate ' Nuns she had several. As she was not living within the enclosure but in the part reserved for
outsiders, and was accustomed to spend most of her time in the Church, the nuns used to watch her from
the grille in the hope of surprising her in ecstasy. On one occasion in order to assure themselves that she
was in ecstasy, they had recourse to means that were certainly unusual. During the day from midday until
one o'clock, Gemma used to perform her daily hour as guard to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and was as a
rule in ecstasy. The nuns opened the door leading from their choir to the Church and seeing Gemma
kneeling on one side of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, in a posture that suggested that she was in
ecstasy, they struck her over the shoulders with a long cane. 'We struck her as if striking a wall,' deposed
Sister M. Julia of St. Joseph. But Gemma did not seem to feel the blows or awake from her ecstasy.
ECSTATIC LEVITATION
Levitation is a phenomenon sometimes associated with ecstasy. When it occurs, the body seems no longer
subject to the laws of gravity, and is raised into the air. Father Germanus assures us that Gemma manifested
this phenomenon, although rarely. The centre of attraction for Gemma in the Giannini household was a
devotional Crucifix, almost life-size, that hung in the dining-room. Her heart on fire with love for her divine
Spouse, she often drew near to kiss His feet. Sometimes, however, she longed to kiss the adorable side
also. But how was she to reach it? At that moment she was seized by a rapture and found herself raised
above the earth, her arms around the Crucifix.
One day in September, 1901, something more remarkable occurred. Gemma was preparing the table for
dinner, but her heart being more than usually on fire with love, she could not keep her eyes away from the
Crucifix. At length she could hold out no longer, and from her heart a cry arose : , 0 my Jesus, let me come to
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