San gemma galgani biography

At other times he would kneel beside her. In her autobiography, Gemma recalls a time when her guardian angel appeared while she was praying and encouraged her: "I became absorbed in prayer. I joined my hands and, moved with heartfelt sorrow for my countless sins, I made an act of deep contrition. My mind was wholly plunged in this abyss of my crime against my God when I beheld my Angel standing by my bed.

I felt ashamed of being in his presence. He instead was more than courteous with me, and said, kindly: 'Jesus loves thee greatly. Love Him greatly in return. Gemma also writes about when her guardian angel gave her spiritual insight into why God was choosing not to heal her of a physical illness she was going through: "One evening, when I was suffering more than usual, I was complaining to Jesus and telling him that I would not have prayed so much if I had known that He was not going to cure me, and I asked Him why I had to be sick this way.

My angel answered me as follows: 'If Jesus afflicts you in your body, it is always to purify you in your soul. Be good. After Gemma recovered from her illness, she recalls in her autobiography that her guardian angel became even more active in her life: "From the moment I got up from my sick bed, my guardian angel began to be my master and guide.

He corrected me every time I did something wrong. He taught me many times how to act in the presence of God; that is, to adore Him in His infinite goodness, His infinite majesty, His mercy and in all His attributes. While numerous miracles have been attributed to Gemma's intervention in prayer after her death in , the three most famous are those that the Catholic Church investigated during the process of considering Gemma for sainthood.

Read more on Wikipedia Since , the English Wikipedia page of Gemma Galgani has received more than , page views. Others Born in Go to all Rankings. Others Deceased in Go to all Rankings. Others born in Italy Go to all Rankings. When i found out that St. Gemma had scoliosis and had to wear a metal brace, i immediately asked Jesus if i could have scoliosis.

A few months later after praying feverently, my mom was measuring me for a new leotard i am a dancer she noticed that i was not standing up straight. I went to the doctors and founded out that i had scoliosis! It has been over a year now that i have been wearing my back brace. I am only now realising the pain that Gemma experienced when she wore her metal brace for her back.

Gemma Galgani Pray for us!!! Hi Anonymous, Its nice to hear from you. Thanks for sharing a small bit of your life's journey here. I'm very happy to hear of your love and devotion to St Gemma. I pray that she may always be very close to you, and may she inspire you to love Jesus and Mary with all your heart, just like she did. And I pray that your scoliosis may be healed.

May God bless you and your family. I wish to buy a book of The life of St. How can I get one? I live in Vancouver, Canada. Do not grow weary my friends, the time is coming soon. I am praying for you and praying also for everyone else who suffers in this blog. In this life we should be of service to others, and this service will always offer pain.

This pain can be physical pain through illness or spiritual pain through our failures to live the Gospel. There is redemption through suffering. Just recognise it and offer it to God. You will most often find that this offering will relieve your personal suffering and grant you blessings. The bible has shown us there is a battle between good and evil.

We have the holy ones like St Gemma who show us the way and show us how to suffer and offer that suffering back to God. Take care and bless you. Post a Comment. Life of St Gemma Galgani. Biographical sketch of St Gemma Galgani. Saint Gemma was a layperson whose life was marked throughout by divine favors and extraordinary graces, and also great trials and sufferings.

Though she was a extraordinary mystic and stigmatic, bearing in her body the marks of the Lord Jesus, her spiritual life was quite hidden from the world. She was never the object of public curiosity or veneration. From outward appearances her life seemed ordinary, but her soul lived in the heights. She was especially chosen by God to be a soul victim, that is, she was especially called to sacrifice and suffer for the conversion of sinners.

In other words, she was a victim of Divine Love. Hers was a life of sacrifice and suffering for the conversion of sinners and in reparation for sin. Early childhood. Gemma was born at Camigliano, Italy on March 12th, She was the fourth of the eight children, and the eldest daughter of Henry and Aurelia Galgani. Her father was a very successfull Pharmacist Apothecarist.

A month after her birth the family removed to Lucca, where she remained the rest of her life. Sacrifice and suffering began for her at a very young age. Like all children, Gemma loved her mother with all her little heart. Her long lingering illness, endured with saintly resignation, was made more difficult by the thought that she must soon leave her children when they most needed her care.

Gemma came to know that her mother was going to the heaven of which she had so often heard her speak, and her great wish was to go with her. Every day as she returned from school her first thought was to hurry to her mothers sickroom fearing that her mother might have taken flight in her absence. Meanwhile the day of her Confirmation came, May 26th, , and with it the first of those heavenly communications which played such a large a part in her spiritual life.

I will take you to heaven later. Gemma was only eight years old. Zita in Lucca. Under the guidance and direction of the good Sisters she acquired a greater taste for prayer, and a tender devotion to the Passion of Our Lord on which she began to meditate daily. Her love for the Mother of God was always deep and intense, the more so as she had lost her earthly mother.

However, the devout life is often times a hard struggle. And the help she needed and desired most was as yet denied her. She had long expressed the wish to make her First Communion. Her life afterwards was a constant growth in union with Jesus. An injury to her foot which she made light of resulted in a severe and painful infection and she was forced to remain bedridden for some months.

An operation was necessary, but she refused an anaesthetic and with eyes fixed on the crucifix suffered the excruciating pain with little but a moan or two. The doctors were amazed and edified by her courage and endurance. Restored to health she now took her place in the home to do the duties that naturally fall to the eldest daughter in a motherless family.

During this time she kept quite busy, for it was a large household. In the intervals she busied herself in making altar linen and vestments for the church or clothing for the poor. However her activities were not confined to the home. She would often gather the poor children of the neighborhood together for religious instruction. Every time she went out she would ask her father for money to give in charity, and if sometimes he refused she would coax permission to take bread or whatever she could lay her hands on at the moment.

Her home duties and her pressing concern for others were in no sense an obstacle to the growth of her interior life. Rather the contrary: her busy life of active charity drew its inspiration from her life of prayer and union with God. When she was most occupied with external things she seemed to those around her wholly absorbed in God. I wish to suffer for You.

She had felt symptoms for awhile, but her pious repugnance to medical examination made her conceal it until she found herself bedridden. Her pitiful condition, and the patience and sweetness with which she suffered drew those who knew her to her bedside. One of these brought her the " Life of Venerable Gabriel Possenti ", who was known for his sanctity and miracles though not yet canonized at that time.

Not long afterwards he appeared to her amidst her grave illness, speaking words of consolation and encouragement. Miraculous cure In February, , the doctors pronounced her case hopeless and she received the Last Sacraments. Her confessor since childhood, Monsignor Giovanni Volpi, auxiliary Bishop of Lucca and afterwards Bishop of Arezzo, visited her on Feb 19th and suggested she should make a novena to St Margaret Mary Alacoque for her recovery.

Twice she began the novena, but forgot to continue it. I hardly answered I was so weak. Then the voice said: 'Do you wish to be cured? Yes, you will be cured. Pray with faith to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I will come every evening till the end of the novena and we shall pray together to the Sacred Heart. I asked. The novena was to end on the first Friday of March.

Early that morning I received Holy Communion. Oh, what happy moments I passed with Jesus. He, too, asked me, 'Do you wish to be cured? The grace was granted.

San gemma galgani biography

I was cured. I rose from bed. Those in the house were crying for joy. I too was pleased, but not so much that I had been cured as that Jesus had chosen me for His child. For that morning before He left me He had said: 'My child, the grace you have received this morning will be followed by many others still greater. Gemma's cure was complete and permanent.

Her illness had lasted more than a year and had brought her to death's door, but afterwards her health was perfectly normal. Her first thought after her recovery was one she had long hoped for -that of entering a convent. Circumstances up to this point had made it impossible to realize, but now her way seemed clear. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. Italian mystic and Catholic saint. For other uses, see Gemma disambiguation. Early life [ edit ]. Theology and philosophy. People by era or century. Desert Fathers. Contemporary papal views. Aspects of meditation Orationis Formas , Literature and media.

Education [ edit ]. Adolescence [ edit ]. Mysticism [ edit ]. Further information: Mysticism and Religious ecstasy. Stigmata [ edit ]. Reception [ edit ]. Death, canonization and veneration [ edit ].