CHAPTER VIII

1900

Gemma Participates in the Passion Sufferings

THERE HAVE been very few Saints who had all five sacred stigmata. The Spirit, as we read in St John, “breathes where He will” and as He will. And, whether by much or by little, He attains His most sublime ends. Gemma was to be among the number of the most privileged, participating not only in the five Wounds of His Crucifixion, but in all the torments of His Passion.

After the Sweat of Blood in Gethsemane, the first punishment that Jesus willed to suffer in His Body was the scourging. Gemma was wont to contemplate this painful mystery with tenderest love; she counted one by one those deep gashes with which she beheld the Body of her Divine Savior covered, and kept repeating: “All these are the work of Love.”

Thus she consumed herself in desire to see them imprinted on her own flesh. Our Divine Lord Himself, being pleased to increase this desire in her, frequently appeared to her, as we have seen, bleeding all over, and invited her to touch and kiss those adorable wounds. Gemma, unable to withstand the torrent of her grief and the love that such a sight enkindled in her heart, fell senseless at His feet. At last, on the first Friday of March, 1901, having wept and implored of her Divine Spouse with renewed ardor to grant her some share in the Martyrdom of His Scourging, her prayer was granted during the usual ecstasy. The torment was horrible: “Friday,” thus she told me of it, “about two o’clock Jesus let me feel some slight blows. Father, I am all scars that cause me a little suffering. Jesus be praised for ever!”

And now let us hear the description of these scars, that no one could call imaginary, from her adopted mother, who examined them several times minutely: “I noticed,” she says, “that on that first Friday evening Gemma was suffering more than usual while in ecstasy. I lifted up her arm and saw great red stripes on it. On applying a handkerchief to them I found it stained with blood. She suffered greatly, and in the ecstasy I heard her say: “But are they Thy Stripes, O Jesus?”

“Hence I thought that it was the scourging. This was repeated on each Friday in March, 1901. The first Friday it was as I have stated; on the second the flesh was torn; and on the third still more bruised, so that the bone was almost visible; on the fourth it was something indescribable: wounds everywhere, that must have been nearly half an inch deep. But after two for three days they disappeared. Once however that I bandaged two of them, these only did not heal; they festered, and when I went to undo the bandages it caused her great suffering. When the bandages were removed they healed of themselves by degrees.

“I speak of these two wounds specially because the others healed at once. This is how they were disposed as two on one arm, from two to three inches long and very deep; two on one leg, round, and about the size of a Florin (Italian coin); one near the middle of her breast in the direction of her throat; two very large oblong ones above the knee; one on each knee and elbow, almost laying bare the bone; one nearly round and very deep on each instep, and a long one on each shin. There were others that I could not see so well. At first they were, as I have said, in stripes; then they became deep gashes, and on asking her the reason of this, she answered: First they were switchings, now they are scourgings.” And concluding, this lady (adopted mother) added: “If you wish to form some idea of it, recall to mind the large Crucifix that we have in the house before which Gemma was in the habit of praying; she was like that. The same livid marks, the same torn open gashes in the skin and flesh in the same parts of the body, equally long and deep and equally horrifying to behold. Blood came from her wounds in great abundance; when she was standing it flowed to the ground, and when in bed it not only wet the sheets, but saturated the whole mattress. I measured some streams or pools of this blood, and they were from twenty to twenty-five inches long and about two inches wide.”

All the others who saw those wounds give the same account of them. Hence it is evident how absurd it would be to think for a moment that Gemma could have punished her body in that way by means of disciplines or other instruments of penance. She was forbidden such austerities, and we know and shall see fully proved that nothing could be more perfect or more scrupulously precise than her obedience. And then in any case how could she have done it, never being left alone in the time of ecstasy, during which the phenomena in question always manifested itself?

Moreover it would have to be explained how such deep gashes in the flesh, if the result of natural causes, could have healed in such a short time. It is needless to discuss how the dear victim felt the intense torment of the cruel wounds and heavy blows that tore open her flesh; that was easily seen by her attitude under the torment.

“During the scourging,” says one of the witnesses, “Gemma is seen to suffer greatly, but does not move. Sometimes she is slightly convulsed and her arms tremble. As to her senses, she hears everything; she becomes slightly exhausted, but soon recovers, and after the ecstasy, as I have proved by experiment, she remembers everything. Poor child, how it rends one’s heart to: see her undergo so much! When suffering thus, imagine her saying to me: Recommend me very much to Jesus. Then I hear her saying: My mother! Eternal Divine Father! “On Thursday night, about eleven o’clock, she said Goodbye till tomorrow, and in fact the blows of the scourging ceased under my hand, and she remained as one dead. Her pulse however beat normally, and the action of her heart was more calm, but after a little while the violent palpitation began again.”

We do not know if this mysterious phenomenon of the scourging was repeated more often than on the four Fridays named. It is, however, probable that the same thing occurred at other times—but unobserved—because it is well known to how many artifices this humble girl resorted in order to keep God’s gifts hidden.

Once she asked her benefactress’ leave to take a bath in the house, because, she added, “I feel my clothes stuck to the flesh and they are troubling me a good deal.” She went to have the bath, and it was found that those sinless members were furrowed all over by deep gashes; the blood in them had dried with that which had saturated her underclothing, so that it was impossible to remove it without reopening the wounds and causing her immense pain. And yet, her way of putting it was that all these torments were only a few little strokes that Jesus let her feel, and in this way gave her “some little thing” to suffer.

The Savior of the World, as we are told by the Evangelists, after He had been cruelly scourged, was surrounded by the soldiers of the pretorium who having twined a crown of thorns pressed it on His Divine Head.

Adorable Crown! Should not every Christian be enamored of thee, and deem it the greatest, honor to wear thee on his brow after having seen thee crown the Man God? Certain it is that such were the sentiments of the Virgin of Lucca, who so thoroughly understood the Mysteries of Christ’s Greatness, and had already for so long been enamored of the glories of His Passion.

I shall have to mention again the touching vision of the Angel who appearing to her offered her two crowns, one of white lilies, the other of thorns, leaving her to choose which of the two she would have. And Gemma without a moment’s hesitation said: “I want that of Jesus!”—and taking it from the Angel, pressed it closely and lovingly to her heart.

On another occasion Jesus Himself appeared to her crowned with thorns and asked her if she too wished to have that Crown. This saintly child, having by her mystic purification reached the perfection needed for such extraordinary gifts, passed easily from words to facts, from visions to the reality. Let Gemma herself give us instances of this:

“At last, this evening (it was the 19th of July, 1900) after six days of suffering from the absence of Jesus, I have been a little recollected. I went to my prayer as I usually do every Thursday, and began to think of the Crucifixion of Jesus. At first I did not feel anything but after some moments I became rapt in thought, Jesus was near. My state of recollection was followed as usual by the loss of my senses, and I found myself with Jesus Who was suffering terrible pain. How could I bear to see Jesus suffering and not help Him? Then I felt myself consumed by an unquenchable desire to suffer; and begged and entreated of Jesus to grant me this grace. He gratified me at once, and drawing near to me He took the Crown of Thorns from His own Head, placed it on mine, and with His Holy Hands fixed it on my temples. These are painful moments, but happy ones. Thus I passed an hour with Jesus.”

And in another letter: “Yesterday about three o’clock in the afternoon, to say the truth I felt greatly upset, weary and weak. I found myself again before Jesus, but He was not sad as the night before; He soothed me a little, and then seeming quite contented, He took the Crown from my head—that also caused me pain, but less than before and replaced it on His own. I did not feel any more pain, but at once regained my strength, and felt better then than before suffering.”

This refers to July 1900, but would seem to have happened earlier. We have come to this conjecture through some passages in Gemma’s own writings. Facts were here again at hand to show that all this was not the effect of imagination. The dear child’s head was seen at the time to be encircled with punctures from which fresh blood flowed. And not only was this around her head, but all over it. Thus is confirmed what some contemplative saints have left written, that Our Savior’s Crown of Thorns was so shaped as to envelop the whole head. And Gemma herself, speaking of the Crown that was shown her the first time by the Angel, says plainly: “It was not in the shape of a crown but of a cap.”

Sometimes the punctures were almost imperceptible to the naked eye, as was the case with the Stigmatic Louise Lateau, and were only ascertained by the blood that oozed from them; but at other times according to the statement of a most worthy priest and eye-witness: “Holes of a triangular shape, from each of which came large drops of blood, were quite visible on her forehead and under her hair.”

Many others were present at the same time and able at their leisure to observe this wonderful fact. It was repeated regularly for a considerable time from Thursday to Friday in each week—even after the stigmata on her hands, feet, and side had ceased to be visible. It happened very often, that this bleeding of the head began before the time of the usual Thursday evening ecstasy. Sometimes while Gemma was at supper with the family, drops of blood were seen on her forehead, and as they increased in number they ran down her cheeks on her neck and dress.

Another witness says that “drops of blood came from every pore and increased so as to fall to the ground.”

All witnesses agree that this sight would have softened a heart of stone! And had they but thought of calling a photographer to take a picture of that face; oh! then we should have had an excellent representation of the picture of the Ecce Homo.

“If you had but seen, father,” says another,” blood flowing from her eyes, ears, forehead and temples! They seemed fountains; I soaked two handkerchiefs with it. If you had only heard the sound that we heard within her side!”

This was said of her heart that as we have remarked elsewhere beat so strongly during those burnings of love. On one occasion being present I ordered those punctures to be washed and dried and set myself to examine them. In a few moments the blood began to come again from the same points; that angelic face was soon again all covered with it, and I noticed that the flow was very rapid, as if the blood was forced to burst out by some strong inward pressure. It ran down her cheeks but quickly dried on the skin.

Although the Gospel does not mention it, contemplatives, with St Teresa, are accustomed to dwell on the consideration of a particular Wound of the Divine Man of Sorrows. This was the Wound on His left shoulder caused by the weight of the Cross on His painful way to Calvary. And Gemma had this also, although some may have confused it with the many wounds of the scourging. It was very large and deep, and caused the sufferer so much pain that it obliged her to lean to one side when walking. It bled copiously, and also, like the others closed on the Friday evening, or at latest on Saturday morning. It differed from the others however in that it continued to give her trouble for some time.

Things went on in that way up to February, 1901, when I wrote telling her to pray that she might be freed from these outward extraordinary manifestations. This humble servant of God who of herself had so desired and besought her Jesus to free her from all publicity, prayed this time with the merit of obedience and was heard. Jesus, as she wrote, assured her that He would remove the marks but increase the pains. The wounds of her hands, feet, and side never opened again except in the way and for the reasons yet to be explained.

The punctures of the thorns on her head continued for a little time longer and then ceased. The same has to be said of the lacerations from the scourging, and every other lesion of the flesh causing a flow of blood.

It was precisely on the 7th and 8th of February, 1901, that the scourging began and continued on the four Fridays of March. But on the 6th of April Gemma wrote that the stripes ceased through obedience to her Confessor.

The pain however continued to be felt and indeed, much more than before. The bleeding, as the poor sufferer herself said more than once, gave her some relief. And this conclusion was readily come to by all who saw the increased agony she went through after the bleeding had ceased—how she trembled all over, and tears came to her eyes. I God however willed to give her some relief through her heart, which by its beating would seem to have forced the blood to come in quantities from her mouth.

The saintly child rejoiced at this, and while in ecstasy was heard to exclaim: “Jesus, I would give Thee my hands and my feet but I cannot. It has been forbidden me by the confessor. Take my heart; this I can give. My hands also, Jesus, but I cannot.” It would seem that Our Lord here let her see His pierced Hands, as if inviting her, almost tempting her, to give Him all hers in exchange for His Most Precious Blood.

“But I cannot,” she repeated, “I suffer because I cannot, but obedience is worth more than a victim.”

“Oh, if you had seen her this Good Friday”—so her adopted mother wrote to me—“from one to three o’clock! I really thought she would die in my arms. Blood came in quantities from her mouth! and she exclaimed: My Jesus, I cannot give Thee blood from all parts of my body, but I give it Thee from my heart.”

In fact this was the beginning of those ineffable yearnings that almost forced her heat to burst from her breast, violently pressing out her ribs on the left side; and also of those inner fires that, as we shall see, burned the flesh and the skin of the surrounding parts.

To complete my picture, I might here bring forward the dislocation of His bones that Our Divine Savior underwent in His Crucifixion; the dragging asunder of His limbs while hanging on the Cross; the agony caused by the dissolution of all the members of His Most Sacred Body during His last three hours, and His burning thirst which forced Him to call out: “Sitio; I thirst.”

And then I could show how Gemma in reality, after the cessation of the bleeding stigmata, participated also in those other torments of the Passion. She confessed it herself; it was witnessed many times through the external symptoms, and proved by several persons who, struck with wonder, unanimously attest that nothing was wanting in that holy creature to enable her to be looked on as a living image of Jesus in His Passion. But as I have already exceeded the limits of this chapter, I will not detail the statements of those persons or go further into particulars of what I have here stated.

I ought also to make mention of the anguish of Heart which was the most ineffable part of the Mystery of the Cross Gemma after having suffered the Corporal pains of Jesus Crucified, underwent also with Him His Agony of Spirit on the Cross. But how shall I make the reader understand in what those mystic agonies consisted? I will say only that to judge of them from what appeared externally, in the cadaverous color, heaving bosom, sunken eyes, spent lips, etc., they can and ought to be looked upon. as agonies of death, and thus was heard to its fullest extent the fervent prayer that the sight of Jesus Crucified had deeply impressed in the heart and suggested to the lips of the Virgin of Lucca: “Jesus, make me like Thee; make me suffer with Thee; do not spare me; You sufferest, make me also suffer; You are the Man of Sorrows, and I wish to be the child of sorrow.”

Nothing more seems wanting to enable us to assert that Gemma had reached the summit of sanctity. Had she not achieved the end of all the predestined and elect, who according to St Paul represent in themselves the image of the Son of God?