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March 12, 1878 - April 11, 1903 (Holy Saturday)
Feast Day: April 11th

“The Cross is the throne of true lovers.”  Such were the words of a voice heard by St. Gemma Galgani.  Words that she lived by, daily seeking a greater intimacy with Jesus crucified so much so that she could say with St. Paul: “Let no man harm me, for I bear the marks of Jesus in my body.”

Born on March 12th, 1878 in a small village outside of Lucca, Italy, Gemma Galgani was the fourth of eight children.  While her loving father was a chemist, her mother was a saintly housewife, who took great care to hand down her faith to her children, first through her constant prayer, even attending daily Mass, and through talking about Jesus, something little Gemma would repeatedly beg of her: “Mamma, tell me a little more about Jesus.”  Her mothers holiness would bear fruit, for at only five years old, Gemma was praying the Office of our Lady and the Office of the Dead from the Breviary.  At the request of her mother, Gemma was confirmed when she was eight years old.  Nevertheless, Gemma’s mother was to be taken from her shortly after, dying from consumption which she had heroically endured for five years.  

A year later, after much begging, Gemma received her first Holy Communion on the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  “Give me Jesus,” she would say, “and you will see how good I shall be.  I shall be quite changed.  I won’t commit any more sin.  Give Him to me, I so long for Him, and I cannot live without Him.”  Such a longing for Christ was only to grow in the heart of the Gem of Christ.

Though her cross was limited for a time to the daily trials of youth, Gemma was remarkably faithful to denying herself and seeking the will of God.  Then, more tragedy was to strike.  At fourteen, her favorite brother died an enviable death, after which Gemma was bedridden for three months with illness, and another brother died within two years.  Then at age nineteen, her father, whose good nature had caused many to take advantage of him, died of throat cancer, leaving the children orphans and without even the means of supporting life.  Shortly after, Gemma began to develop a curvature of the spine.  Then meningitis set in causing a temporary loss of hearing, large abscessed formed on her head, her hair fell out, and finally her limbs became paralyzed.  She suffered this way for a year, until one day, after reading the life of Venerable Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother, a Passionist brother appeared to her and instructed her to pray a novena to the Most Sacred Heart.  At the end of the novena, the first Friday of March, Gemma was miraculously cured.

Nevertheless, this cure was not to a life of luxury, but to one of even greater union with our Crucified Lord.  She greatly desired to be a bride of Christ in religious life, but it was not to be.  A year after her miraculous cure, on June 8th, Gemma was to receive another great grace.

 “At that moment Jesus appeared with all his wounds open, but from these wounds there no longer came forth blood, but flames of fire.  In an instant these flames came to touch my hands, my feet and my heart.  I felt as if I were dying, and should have fallen to the ground had not my mother [the Blessed Virgin] held me up, while all the time I remained beneath her mantel.  I had to remain several hours in that position.  Finally she kissed my forehead, all vanished, and I found myself kneeling.  But I still felt great pain in my hands, feet and heart.  I rose to go to bed, and became aware that blood was flowing from those parts where I felt pain.  I covered them as well as I could, and then helped by my Angel, I was able to got to bed...”

Many witnessed this miracle of the stigmata, which was to appear every Thursday evening and remain until Friday evening or Saturday morning for three years, ceasing only when forbidden by her spiritual director.  She also would occasionally undergo the scourgings and the crowning of thorns, not to mention the spiritual marytdom that accompanied them.  Although she was consoled by visions of the Lord, our Lady, and her Guardian angel, the devil would also appear to her, tempting her and when he failed to taint her purity, he would attack and beat Gemma bloody.  All of this, Gemma suffered with patience and joy, longing only for intimacy with her Jesus.  With amazing humility, she did everything she could to hide such extraordinary phenomenon, only going outside twice a day, once in the morning for Mass, and in the evening for Vespers, remaining faithful to her prayers without ever neglecting her household duties.  Although she could not keep it hidden from the family she then stayed with, very few in the town knew anything of the holy virgin.

Although much more could be said about St. Gemma, including her ascension to the heights of mystical contemplation, her profound union with Christ can be summed up by St. Paul:   “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”  The inscription over her remains reads: “Gemma Galgani from Lucca, most pure virgin, being in her twenty-fifth year, died of consumption, but was more consumed by the fire of divine love than by her wasting disease.  On the eleventh of April, 1903, the vigil of Easter, her soul took its flight to the bosom of her heavenly Spouse.  O beautiful soul, in the company of the Angels.”  St. Gemma Galgani, pray for us.