Thursday 28th March 2024

Home » saints » Currently Reading:

Catholic Heroes… St. Gerard Majella (1726-1755)

September 10, 2020 saints No Comments

By DEB PIROCH

Part 2

Last week’s column examined the basic outline of St. Gerard Majella’s life. Because so many are unfamiliar with just how exemplary this “saint of obedience” was, we have been asked to delve more into the life of the saint who died so young, at age 29. He attributed all the miracles he performed — too numerous to mention, even in a second column — to the virtue of obedience.
This religious brother was a Redemptorist, a relatively new order at the time St. Gerard joined it. Indeed, it was founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori a mere six years after Gerard’s birth. Its mission is primarily focused on “imitating the virtues and examples of Jesus Christ, Our Redeemer, consecrating themselves especially to preaching the word of God to the poor.”
St. Alphonsus was greatly devoted to Christ in the Eucharist and the crucifixion, and to the Infant Jesus. St. Gerard had similar traits. He prayed hours before the Blessed Eucharist, often through the night, and yet it was an effort to tear himself away. He wished to personify Christ crucified and at times scourged himself. Even the image of Christ crucified was said to bring him to ecstasy.
Indeed, just as there is joy in Christ, there is no Resurrection without the crucifixion. And St. Majella was perhaps happiest in uniting his sufferings to Christ.
Many born into poverty despise it. Not so St. Gerard. He embraced it. For instance: He sought his cell for its darkness, and no light was said to penetrate the inside; he slept on a straw mattress, which a brother found on examination was on a couch filled with stones; when ordered to sleep on a regular mattress, he begged and was allowed to sometimes sleep on planks, with nothing but tiles for a pillow and a rock tied to his feet.
He often wore a hair shirt and practiced added mortifications — like fasting and abstinence — beyond the already established holy practices of the Redemptorists.
Another of our greatest saints is Padre Pio. Like St. Gerard, he was most firm and devout in the practice of obedience. Ordered for years not to say the holy Mass in public, to hear Confession, or to advise his spiritual children, he suffered greatly. But in all things Pio’s answer? “Obedience!” He once stated, “Without obedience, there is no virtue.” Is it not obedience that we ourselves seek in praying the Lord’s Prayer and asking, “Thy will be done.” St. Faustina remarked, “The Devil can imitate humility but he cannot imitate obedience.” And to St. Margaret Mary, our Lord revealed:
“Satan is angry and will try to deceive you. So do nothing without the approval of those who guide you. Being thus under the authority of obedience, his efforts against you will be in vain, for he has no power over the obedient.”
Also like Padre Pio, St. Gerard was frequently attacked by the Devil. Not only could St. Gerard defeat or evade the Devil’s torments, he freed numerous persons from diabolical possession. Often, he was assaulted on Friday, the day of Our Lord’s Passion. One night when cooking, demons appeared as wild dogs, and fiercely attempted to drag him into the fire. St. Gerard addressed them: “You may bark, but as long as I have on my side Mary, my Mother, and Jesus Christ, my Savior, you cannot bite me.”
He is also documented to have been beaten (again like Padre Pio) and nearly stifled by attacks by devils, they so feared his power for the Good.
In reading souls, St. Gerard asked a certain Francesco how things had gone during his Confession. After he lied that it had gone well, St. Gerard responded, “Look what you have beside you.” Seeing a demon, Francesco ran straight back to the confessional to make a proper reparation for his sins.
Even St. Gerard’s cincture (belt) was holy enough to bind demons. In one case, two mothers approached him, desperate as both their daughters were possessed. Taking pity on them, he handed them his cincture and said to place it upon their daughters. As soon as the spirits departed, St. Gerard said, have them immediately repair to Confession and receive the Holy Eucharist. Both were delivered.
Mary’s blessed name, so dear to Christ her Son, also provoked ecstasy in St. Gerard. The Redemptorists had built into their rule many devotions to Mary. They were required to say the rosary daily, to visit the Virgin and say a certain number of Ave Marias. They also abstained each Saturday and fasted on her feast days. But St. Gerard did more. Every time he drank water, he prayed the Hail Mary. When the clock chimed the next hour, he did the same. And ordered at one juncture to document his thoughts by a superior, he wrote among the many devotions he added daily were six Hail Marys in the morning and six more at night, with his face prostrate to the ground. On one occasion he placed a ring on the finger of a statue of Mary, and said he considered himself betrothed in his purity to the Blessed Virgin.
On one occasion St. Gerard could not be located and had not been given permission to leave the premises, but apparently was also seen elsewhere. When his superior questioned him on the details, Gerard replied that he had been the whole time in the chapel, only he had requested God to allow him to be invisible so as to work undisturbed in two locations. His superior had to request that in obedience, St. Gerard cease making himself invisible!
Why, one asks, would the Lord allow so many countless miracles be documented to this saint or that — certainly there is a very long list attributed to St. Gerard Majella. One might as well ask why Christ multiplied the bread into loaves to feed the multitudes or raised Lazarus from the dead: “To restore all things to Christ.”
After the beatification of St. Gerard, there was seen no need to re-establish his holiness, as the miracles were so plentiful. Soon after, his case for canonization was therefore opened and two miracles sought for canonization. Two miracles were eventually approved by another saint, Pope Pius X, on what is now the Feast of the Assumption.
The canonization was done three days after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, by a visibly moved Holy Father, in 1904.
Much of this testimonial may be found in a biography from the late 1800s, in Italian, Life of St. Gerard Majella (1993), translated from a French version in 1907 by Fr. Edward Saint-Omer and granted duly both the nihil obstat and imprimatur at that time.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil,” They Celebrate Killing Babies

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed,  It is only right and fair that people have access…Continue Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)