Saint Gemma Galgani. She had the stigmata. She had piercing eyes.
This was about all I knew about Saint Gemma, and I couldn’t really relate. Then a friend received Saint Gemma’s name at religious profession, and I became intrigued.
Born the fifth of eight children on March 12, 1878, she knew grief and loss at a young age. She lost her mother and three of her siblings before being sent to boarding school. Her father died when she was eighteen and she became responsible for raising her younger siblings.
She said of that time, “That morning I complained to Jesus about this and he, always so good and tender, said to me: ‘My daughter, I will always be with you. I will be your father and she (indicating our Mother of Sorrows) will be your mother. He who is in my hands can never lack fatherly help. You will never lack anything even though I have taken away from you all earthly consolation and support. Come, draw near to me, you are my daughter. Are you not happy to be the daughter of Jesus and Mary?’ The overwhelming affections to which Jesus gave rise in my heart kept me from answering.”
She had wanted to become a nun with the Passionist sisters that she had studied under, but was refused due to her poor health. They also refused her because she had been experiencing mystical prayer. Those mystical experiences included visions of her guardian angel and of Our Lady, and her reception of the stigmata—the wounds of Jesus in her body—which she received on the eve of the Sacred Heart.
She suffered from spinal meningitis, and ultimately succumbed to tuberculosis on Holy Saturday, 1903.
Gemma means “little gem,” but looking at her life from the outside, it would be easy to question whether her life was full of precious gems or heavy stones. She knew tremendous suffering, yet Jesus in His Mercy drew Gemma closer to Himself through the many crosses she endured. She said of her life: "It is true Jesus, if I think of what I have gone through as a child and now as a grown up girl I see that I have always had crosses to bear; But oh! how wrong are those who say that suffering is a misfortune!"
{formbuilder:MTAxMDA1}Closing Prayer //
Dear Saint Gemma, you who were so close to the Lord in your suffering, walk with me in the midst of my unfilled dreams, my grief and sorrows. Share with me the wisdom of the Cross. Friend of the Bridegroom, intercede for me when my crosses are too heavy to carry on my own. Amen.
Reflection Questions //
We’ve heard the saying “pressure makes diamonds,” and in the life of Saint Gemma, this is true. What stones has God turned into gems in your own life?
Saint Gemma did not get to experience the desire of her heart and enter the convent. How is the Lord in the midst of your unfulfilled desires today?
Sr. Mary Claire of the Holy Family is a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and currently serves in Corpus Christi, TX. She loves Jesus and Mary, and her students would say every Saint is her favorite. She graduated with a degree in elementary education and is currently working on a Masters in Theology from her Alma Mater, Franciscan University. A Tennessee girl who could live off Dr. Pepper and popcorn, she loves road trips, especially this one we are on to Heaven.
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