Saint Gemma

I haven’t had much time for blogging recently, but I can’t let the Feast of Saint Gemma Galgani go past without some acknowledgement. Gemma died in 1903 without having fulfilled her desire to become a Passionist Contemplative Nun, but she was taken into the cloister after her death when the Nuns founded a monastery in Lucca. Her body now lies under the main altar in the monastery church; near her is the tomb of her spiritual father, Father Germano di San Stanislao C.P.

This is an extract from the Decree Sanctitudinis Culmen of Pope Pius XII:
For some time, the servant of God [Gemma] had desired to enter a religious community, and thought she was being called to the Passionist Nuns. She felt that God was inviting her to greater austerity and more intensive contemplation of the Passion of Christ. Since this is the main mission, a kind of sacred heritage that Saint Paul of the Cross left to the religious he founded, Gemma asked more than once to be admitted into the cloistered monastery at Tarquinia. But there were obstacles, particularly her very poor health and the publicity that had been occasioned by her extraordinary graces. Eventually her illness progressed to such a point that it ruined all hope of her entering. But even though she could not become a member of the cloistered Passionist community, she deserved to be considered a member of it because she had professed private vows. As a laywoman, under the guidance of Bishop Giovanni Volpi and Father Germano of Saint Stanislaus, a Passionist priest, Gemma gave admirable witness to the religious spirit and was a model of Christian perfection. In fact, she practised all the theological and moral virtues on a heroic scale and we can say that her whole life was spent in the continual exercise of virtue.

In the Gospel of today’s (feast day) Mass, Jesus says: I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to children. Most of us won’t follow Gemma in her extraordinary mystical experiences, including the stigmata, but we can follow her in the way of interior simplicity and childlike confidence in Jesus.