By CAROLE BRESLIN
God works many miracles through the weakest persons so that their lives read like a fairy tale. Old or young, sick or poor, powerful or destitute, all are touched deeply by their encounters with such men of God. Such was the life of St. Gerard Majella, the patron saint of expectant mothers and young children.
Domenica, a tailor, and his wife Benedetta had three daughters in Muro, a village in southern Italy, when on April 6, 1726 they received their son, Gerard, into this world.
As the mother of this devout, hardworking family, Benedetta frequently ushered her three youngest children to the chapel at Capotignano. When Gerard was four years old, he told his mother that he especially liked the pretty lady with the baby. One day Gerard rushed excitedly to his mother exclaiming, “Mama, Mama, see what I got from the little boy!” and handed her a roll.
After several more days of the same behavior, Benedetta decided to follow Gerard and discover where he was getting this bread.
Her findings stunned her. She followed him as he ran nearly two miles to Capotignano and into the chapel. To her amazement the statue of our Lady and the Christ Child came to life. Mary leaned forward and placed the Child Jesus on the floor where He played with Gerard. Benedetta fled back to Muro and when Gerard came home he gave her another roll.
Around 1740, Gerard worked for Bishop Albini at Lacedonia, and he became well-known for the entertaining holy stories he told the children. Their parents also recognized the uncommon virtues for such a young man. He was generous, giving food to the poor from the bishop’s table, ministering to the poor and sick, and most important, spent many hours praying in the cathedral.
The Child Jesus continued to favor Gerard — especially when he dropped the bishop’s house key into the well. Much distressed, Gerard rushed back to the cathedral where he grabbed the statue of the Christ Child and fled back to the well praying, “Gesù Bambino!” asking Jesus to retrieve the key from the well. He carefully lowered the statue in, continuing to pray, and then pulled out the statue with the Baby Jesus holding the key in His hand.
In 1744, when Bishop Albini died, Gerard returned to Muro and worked as a tailor. He soon became famous for his honesty, workmanship, and fairness. When one man brought in a piece of material much too small for the requested clothing, Gerard told him not to worry. Gerard not only made the suit, but handed a sizable remnant back to the customer.
When Gerard celebrated his 21st birthday, he considered his state in life and wondered what God wanted him to do. Although he had a sizable income which he gave away — one-third to his mother and sisters, one-third to the poor, and the other third for Masses for the Poor Souls in Purgatory — he really wanted to be a saint. (He left no money for himself, trusting completely in God’s Providence.)
Gerard was frail from his frequents fasts, endless hours of working and serving the poor, as well as praying in the cathedral. Nevertheless, he was a joyful and much loved man. When the Capuchins rejected his request to join their order, he decided to become a hermit, but his spiritual director advised against it.
The holy tailor stayed in Muro and continued to work many miracles. When Amata Giulani, a young girl, fell into a vat of boiling oil, his touch cured her terrible burns. Another time he passed some idle carpenters, and when he discovered that the lumber they had was cut too short, Gerard told them to stretch it with ropes. Is it more surprising that they obeyed his suggestion, or that it worked? The wood then fit perfectly.
One night his cousin, a sacristan at the cathedral, decided to play a joke on Gerard during his all-night vigil. The cousin said in an ethereal voice, “Pazzarello — my little fool — what are you doing?” To which Gerard instantly replied, “Ah, but you are more a fool than I, a prisoner for me in your tabernacle.”
The event that made such a dramatic change in Gerard’s life happened on April 13, 1749. He attended a retreat led by Fr. Paul Cafaro, a priest belonging to the new order founded by a lawyer, Alphonsus de Liguori. At the end of his retreat, Gerard gave away all his worldly possessions and went to see Fr. Cafaro only to be rejected again because of his frail appearance. In addition, his mother and sisters all strongly opposed his ambition.
Gerard would not accept the rejection and prayed unceasingly to his “pretty lady” while beseeching the priest for the next three days. Finally, the priest relented and sent Gerard to Iliceto with a note to the rector indicating that Gerard was so persistent that he asked the rector to give him a chance despite his weak stature.
Fr. D’Antonio hesitantly accepted Gerard, warning him of the difficult life of the Redemptorists. When Fr. Cafaro returned to Iliceto in October 1749, he was surprised to learn that Gerard had become the “jewel of the house,” doing the work of four men, curing people of their ailments, converting sinners, and following the least order with prompt obedience.
Gerard also anticipated orders before they were given or even considered by his superiors. When the rector sent Gerard to Lacedonia with a letter to a priest, the rector remembered he forgot to include some important information. Within a minute, Gerard knocked on the door and handed the rector his letter.
Like Padre Pio, Gerard could read souls, drawing sinners to confess their sins and return to God. One day a ragged man presented himself to the rector asking for Confession. When the rector asked, “Why?” the man told him that he met a brother on the road as if he had been waiting for him.
He described Gerard to the rector and told him how he had tried to pass Gerard, but Gerard would not let him until Gerard told the traveler that he knew what his trouble was, that the man was in despair, and on his way to sell his soul to the Devil. Gerard then told him that God had sent him to save the man and that he needed to turn around and go to Confession.
Gerard’s novitiate finally came to an end and he was accepted to profess his religious vows after he made his retreat. He began that retreat on the Feast of Our Lady of the Visitation in 1752. On July 16, of the same year, he made his final vows — the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel.
There are many more miracles that this simple man worked by God’s grace. After a long illness, Gerard died on October 16, 1755. Even more miracles were attributed to his intercession after his death. His feast is celebrated on October 16.
Dear St. Gerard, how you loved our Lady and the Child Jesus with a simple, pure love! Obtain for us by your intercession, a pure and childlike love of the Holy Family that will enable us to save souls. Amen.
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(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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