By DEB PIROCH
Her “littleness and gentleness” — thus, this great saint canonized in the twentieth century (1878-1903) was described by another saint, Pope St. John Paul II. Just as a diadem is nothing without its crown, this holy woman who died at age 25 was the great “gem” lit within with the fire of holiness. (“Gemma” means “gem” in Italian.)
She was the fourth of eight children and the eldest daughter born to a pharmacist and his wife, living much of her life in Lucca, Italy. When people would visit Padre Pio from Lucca, he would ask what they wanted with him, when they had such a great saint already in their midst.
Her mother was deeply religious as, too, was Gemma, who was already trying to read the breviary at age five. She was sadly meant to grow up without her mother, who would die of tuberculosis when she was only eight. Gemma, not surprisingly, had wanted to go to Heaven with her mother. Two siblings also died of the disease — one a baby, one a seminarian — and she was plagued with other illnesses which caused her to drop out of school early.
The first illness mentioned that removed her from school was a disease affecting her foot, which developed into necrosis. At first the surgeon thought only amputation was possible but, in the end, he was able to remove the diseased tissue. Gemma would take nothing for pain and she healed. However, she continued to have poor health plague her, though the next serious illness was that of her brother Gino, whom she nursed before he died, and then that of her father. His affairs were on the decline when he developed throat cancer, passing away in 1887, leaving the family in dire poverty.
Gemma went for a time to live with her aunt and uncle and, kind as they were, she missed home…where young men did not beg for her hand in marriage! Unfortunately, her wish to return to Lucca was answered, but it came in the form of another illness, this time most serious.
In 1899, when she was 21, she was diagnosed with either spinal meningitis or tuberculosis. Doctors thought her case hopeless, and she even received the Last Sacraments. It was suggested she offer up a novena to the Sacred Heart, which she twice began but could not finish. She had managed to get through a book about a saint of the Passionists, St. Gabriel Possenti.
Despite wanting to offer up her suffering, she was saddened by her illness. Despondent, the Devil grabbed her this moment, saying to her, “If you listen to me, I will not only free you from pain, I will make you very happy!” Her sufferings must have been great, for the doctors had cauterized her body at least 12 times and told her she had developed a brain tumor, as well.
But then Gemma recalled the book about St. Gabriel Possenti under her pillow, and invoked the saint’s name. Again, the Devil tried to win her over. Still she crossed herself, resisting after crying out, “First the soul, then the body!” and invoked the saint again. Then the Devil left her in peace.
St. Gabriel did more than answer her prayer. He appeared to her on February 23 when she began the novena a third time, and appeared nightly, saying the novena with her, due to her weakness. On the ninth evening, he asked her if she wished to be cured and she assented. She was healed on a first Friday. She would later receive the stigmata on the vigil of the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Like Padre Pio, this mystic was close with her Guardian Angel, experienced ecstasies, and also received the stigmata. Her singular trust in God is as remarkable in that it was second nature to her more than it will ever be to us. For instance, she never seemed to have postage stamps and regularly had her Angel deliver her letters for her. She was exceptionally devoted to Our Lord’s Passion and wished to join the Passionists, but our Lord told her this would only happen after her death. Indeed, because of her health she was not accepted but she was buried in the habit of the order. She felt explicitly called to offer sacrifices for sinners, which “the burglar,” as she called the Devil, hated more than her offering sufferings for herself. This, no doubt, was because she was winning souls back to Heaven.
The same year as her miraculous healing, she received the stigmata while in ecstasy, June 8, 1899. Jesus had told her she would receive a signal grace. Gemma described the event this way:
“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 [Mary] held me up, while all the time I remained beneath her mantle. 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 go to bed.”
The bleeding began on Thursdays and the wounds would leave her on Fridays or Saturdays. After two or so years, her confessor asked the bleeding to cease for the sake of her health. The outward bleeding did cease in obedience, but Gemma continued to feel pain inwardly. She would endure much humiliation and doubt over the stigmata. Her confessor describes her wounds movingly in great detail, for she not only had marks from the nails and the crown of thorns, but also the lash and carrying the cross on her shoulder. Additionally, she would at time pour forth a sweat of blood, as Christ had in the Agony in the Garden.
Especially upsetting and painful to her was her sister, Angelina; she mocked her for hours, got her aunts to laugh at her piety, and was ready to bring her schoolfriends by to mock Gemma, as well. But when Gemma grew greatly upset, her Guardian Angel gave comfort, saying very gently: “Why are you so upset my daughter? Don’t you know that you must conform in every way to the life of Jesus? He suffered so much for you….The world is not a place for rest: rest will come after death; for now,…suffer all things, to save some soul from eternal death.” And this she did, with all her strength, for four more years.
At the end, some doctors judged her final illness to be tubercular while others simply did not know. During Gemma’s final struggles, Satan made many futile attempts at getting her to despair. But in her torment, she held fast to a relic of St. Gabriel Possenti and repeatedly murmured the names of Jesus and Mary. Then this “Daughter of the Passion” went home. She had a smile on her lips and her last words were, “I recommend my poor soul to Thee . . . Jesus!” The day was Holy Saturday.
She had asked after her death that her heart be examined. This happened when her body was moved at a much later date. Her heart was found not only to be greatly enlarged, but to such an extent that certain ribs were contorted to make room for it. In ecstasy she had once said, “Jesus is too great and my heart is too small to contain Him. Then let this heart be dilated, let it grow large that Jesus may dwell there at His ease.” She is the patron saint of pharmacists, migraines, and many other causes, including purity of heart.
Her feast day is April 11.
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