CHAPTER IX

June, July, August, September—1899

The Servant of God meets the Passionist Fathers for the First Time More about the Stigmata and other sufferings of the Passion

HAVING CONSIDERED the marvels of God’s Infinite Love in His chosen faithful servant, her full participation in His sacrifice—the excess of His love on Calvary, we are enabled to form an idea of the nature of her Communion on the morning of the 9th of June. It followed the wonderful phenomena of the day before that likened her in body as well as soul to her Crucified Lord. Then for the first time, with her hands and feet pierced through and through, and a deep wound throwing open her heart, she went to the Holy Table. With what ardor will not Gemma have repeated in her thrice happy state: “My Beloved to me and I to Him!” And with St Paul: “I am truly crucified with Jesus; I live, but it is not I who now live, but Jesus Who lives in me.”

On her return home she had no difficulty in explaining things to her Aunt as on other occasions. But she had yet to do what she found most difficult and painful. She had to give a minute account of everything to her Confessor to whom she had previously made known her presentiment of receiving an extraordinary grace. She had always felt the greatest difficulty in speaking of herself and of her spiritual experiences; the having to make such manifestations caused her intense pain and confusion; she would have rather died.

Imagine now what her feelings must be in a matter so far from all expectation and so mysterious.

“And what will my Confessor think,” she said to herself, “on hearing what I have to say, he who fully knows how unworthy I am of heavenly favors? And won’t others also, knowing how sinful I am, be scandalized at all this?” Even repeated admonitions and reproaches of her Angel Guardian were needed in order to overcome her repugnance.

The whole month of June passed in these perplexities and Gemma had not resolved to do her duty. But at last God in His loving Providence taking pity on her, came to her aid and put her on the way by which He destined her to walk. Here is how it came about: Pope Leo XIII. had ordered Missions to be given in all the Dioceses of Italy, and the Passionist Fathers were sent to Lucca where they opened the Mission in the Cathedral Church of St Martin towards the end of June.

Gemma just then was attending sermons on the Sacred Heart of Jesus in another Church, and at the beginning of July, urged by Divine impulse, she hastened to the Mission at St Martin’s. Her joy was great at recognizing in the garb of the Missioners precisely the same habit in which her beloved Protector, Blessed Gabriel of the Dolours, had appeared to her. “The impression was such,” these are her words, “as not to be described. The First time I saw those Fathers I felt a special affection for them, and from that day I did not miss a single sermon.”

On this subject of her first meeting with the Passionists she further adds: “It was the last day of the Holy Mission. All the people were assembled in the Church for the general Communion. I also joined with the others, and Jesus Who was pleased at this made Himself strongly felt in my soul, and asked me: ‘Gemma, do you like the habit worn by that Priest?’ (and He pointed to a Passionist who was at a distance). It was not necessary for me to answer Jesus in words; my heart spoke by its palpitation. ‘Would it please thee,’ He added, ‘if you also wert clothed in the same habit?’

“My God! I exclaimed! . . . He then (without letting His Will be clearly understood) added: ‘You shalt be a child of My Passion, and a beloved child. One of these shall be thy father; go and explain everything.”

Gemma taking those words literally, in the sense that she should one day become a Passionist, was overjoyed at it. She also was jubilant at finding that her repugnance to making known the state of her soul had gone; then wishing to obey the voice of God immediately, she hastened to present herself to one of those fathers who happened to be Fr. Cajetan of the Child Jesus, and at his feet unfolded her whole soul with perfect ease, as in her ordinary confessions, and ended by telling him of the Stigmata and her reluctance to speak of them to her Confessor.

The Father, wonderstruck at the recital and at the artless candor of the young girl, gave her prudent advice, and at the same time exhorted her to be very humble and grateful to God; with regard to her more detailed direction, wishing to ponder things well before giving her any final decision, he promised that at his return to Lucca which was to be very soon, he would see her again: he then granted a few of the requests that she made him, and imposed upon her a formal precept to make known everything to her ordinary Confessor.

The chief among the requests alluded to was, to be allowed to make the three religious vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and the father not wishing to sadden her by a refusal permitted her to make them, as an matter of private devotion, to be renewed at short intervals, with the approval of her Confessor. He was not so ready to give her leave for austerities that she wished to practice. But, on the contrary, he took from her certain instruments of penance that she had made for herself, as he felt sure that her Confessor would not allow her to use them.

Gemma’s joy at making those three vows was immense; she herself will tell us of it: “Having always wished,” she says, “to make those vows, I quickly seized on the opportunity offered me, and the father let me make them from the 5th of July to the 8th of September. This made me feel very happy and was one of my greatest consolations.”

The difficulty experienced by the Servant of God in manifesting the state of her soul to her ordinary Confessor, far from being the result of any caprice, arose in great measure from a combination of circumstances. She was devoted to him and greatly needed and desired his guidance; he had known her and heard her confessions from her infancy, but now, owing to the extraordinary ways by which God was leading her, it became necessary that he should be perfectly informed of all that was happening to her.

He on the other hand overwhelmed by a multiplicity of official cares, works of zeal, the direction of innumerable souls, etc., all matters that kept him occupied from morning till night-found it impossible to give much time to Gemma. She could not find him when needed, and his verbal answers to her letters given hurriedly in the Confessional did but increase her perplexities.

She therefore had good reason to dread bringing the vast matter of the Stigmata, etc., before him. Father Cajetan having seen how things stood and wishing to facilitate matters, undertook on his return to Lucca, at Gemma’s desire, to see her worthy Confessor, Mgr. Volpi, and manifest to him all that had recently happened to her. He did so, and soon after him Gemma also went to see Mgr. Volpi and with her wonted candor told him all. The holy Bishop received them both affectionately, and approved of what the Extraordinary Confessor had done; but with regard to the Stigmata he wished to take time before coming to any decision.

He would not allow of the supposition that such a soul as Gemma’s could be deluded, hysterical, or possessed; but neither would he too readily recognize in her the work of God until he made certain that God was the author of the phenomena under consideration, or at least that they could only be explained by Divine intervention. As those wonders continued to happen as usual on Thursdays and Fridays, he ordered Gemma to do all in her power and to pray that those singular impressions on her body might not be repeated. Her prayer was granted by our Lord for a short time, but then the phenomena returned as at first.

Gemma writing of what had happened at that time said: “I had no longer any fear or hesitation in telling Monsignor everything; and he told me that if Jesus had not made him see things clearly he would not have believed in such representations.” Father Cajetan also resolved to verify the facts of the Stigmata, as appears from the following declaration:

J.X.P. I the undersigned hereby testify and declare that in July, 1899, I saw certain extraordinary Wounds on the hands of the young girl Gemma Galgani. In the inside that is in the palms there was seen a raised piece of flesh like the head of a nail about as large as halfpenny; at the back of each hand there was a somewhat deep laceration that seemed to have been caused by a blunt nail forced through the hand from the opposite side.

I, and those who were with me, had no hesitation in saying that those were Stigmata which could not have come from any natural cause. In fact we saw her hands on Thursday free from any marks; on Friday morning we found them as we have described; we examined them again on Saturday and found no mark except a small reddish cicatrix.

CAJETAN of the Child Jesus, Passionist

This verification of the wonderful fact was soon followed by another—that of the Provincial of the Passionists, Fr. Peter Paul of the Immaculate (now Mgr. Moreschini, Archbishop of Camerino) who came to Lucca on the 20th of August, 1899. He received hospitality from the Giannini family, benefactors of our Order, and as Gemma, but a short time before, had come to share their home, he was able then and later on to satisfy himself fully about her Stigmata, etc. I think it well to give here in his words the account of what happened on the 29th of August and his sentiments on that occasion. “Having heard others,” he said, “speaking of this young girl and relating strange things about her, while suspecting that it was a matter of mere feminine delusions, I thought I would make sure of it with my own eyes. I went to her house—it was Tuesday—and saw the child. I felt inspired to ask our Lord to deign to give me a palpable sign if He was truly the Author of those marvelous things; then mentally, without speaking of it to anyone, I thought of two things: the sweat of blood and the manifestation of the Stigmata.

“When it was Vesper time she withdrew quite alone to say her usual prayers before the Crucifix. In a few minutes she was in full ecstasy. I entered and with my own eyes beheld her totally transfigured so that she looked like an angel although torn by terrible pain. From her face, head and hands there flowed fresh blood, and I suppose it was the same all over her body.

“That flow of blood lasted for about half an hour, but did not reach the ground, because it dried quickly while flowing. I withdrew, greatly moved, and Gemma coming out of the ecstasy, being alone with her aunt, said: ‘The Father has asked for signs from Jesus, and Jesus has told me that He has already given him one of them and will also give him the other. Oh! What do these signs mean? Does He say it?’

“In the evening the lady just mentioned asked me quite anxiously: ‘But, father, would the other sign you have asked for be that of the Stigmata?’ I was astounded, and she continued: ‘I ask this because if it was so, Gemma has them already opened, come and see.’ I went, and found that blessed creature in ecstasy the same as the first time, with her hands pierced (I say pierced) through and through by a large freshly opened wound from which blood flowed in abundance.

“The affecting spectacle lasted about five minutes (and he goes into a detailed description of it all, which coincides in every respect with that already given by me) with the cessation of the ecstasy the wounds closed, the blood ceased to How, and the torn skin returned at once to its natural state, so perfectly that nothing more was needed but to wash her hands in order to find that every vestige of what had happened was gone. Jesus had heard me, and thanking Him I laid aside every doubt, established in my belief that digitus Dei esi hic.”

He also at the same time wrote to Mgr. Volpi as follows:

RT. Rev. Mosignor,—I make it my duty to inform you of what I witnessed in Gemma Galgani on Tuesday the 29th of August. I saw with my own eyes the wounds on both sides of her hands, and that they were truly torn open.

When the ecstasy ended everything healed up, the cicatrices alone remained. How could such a wound heal thus instantaneously by natural means? My opinion is that it is the work of God, and I still think that you ought to place her for a time in some convent for the reasons I have given you.

PETER PAUL of THE IMMACULATE,
Passionist Provincial

The above attestations served to impress on Mgr. Volpi even more profoundly the delicacy of his own position; hence he believed it his duty to act with the greatest prudence and reserve. After mature consideration he determined to have recourse to a proof that he thought would be decisive. It was, that a qualified physician, as learned as he was religious, in whom he had confidence, should examine Gemma’s Stigmata. The matter was not mentioned to the Servant of God; but Our Lord made known to her what had been resolved upon.

In her autobiography she writes thus: “Monsignor thought it well to have me visited by a doctor without my knowing it. But Jesus gave me notice of it and said to me, Tell the Confessor that I will not do anything he wants, in presence of the doctor. I told this to the Confessor, as commanded by Jesus.”

Her words to the Confessor were: “Yesterday evening Jesus gave me a message for your Lordship in these words: You shalt say to thy Confessor, that I will give him any sign he wants provided he be alone; he may rest assured that it is not an ailment as they have believed.” What then will Monsignor do? Will he go alone? His simple inspection unwitnessed will not lessen his responsibility; and if the suspicion existed that it was an ailment, or, to put it better, a case of auto-suggestion, he alone would not be able to dispel the doubt. He therefore adhered to his decision. And to Signora Cecilia Giannini, Gemma’s adopted Mother, who gave him particulars regularly of all that happened to her protégée, he said: “I should like to have Gemma visited by the Doctor, and let him examine the Stigmata.”

It was arranged for him and the Doctor to come on the following Friday. On the 8th of September, 1899, Feast of Our Lady’s Nativity that fell on the Friday, about ten in the morning Gemma withdrew to her room and went into ecstasy. About an hour later she returned to the use of her senses and wrote a few lines to Monsignor telling him that if he wished to come he was to come alone, and not bring anyone with him, as Jesus was not pleased and would not let them see anything; however, that he was to act as he pleased, and that she was satisfied with whatever he did. She gave the letter open to her adopted mother, who read it and sent it immediately to Mgr. Volpi.

About one o’clock Gemma returned to her room again and got rapt in ecstasy. Her adopted Mother soon after found her with blood flowing from her forehead, and the open Stigmata in her hands also bleeding. At this ecstasy Signora Cecilia, her brother Signor Matthew Giannini with his wife Justina, and probably others of the family, were present full of devout admiration. About two o’clock Mgr. Volpi came with the Doctor and Signora Cecilia ran to meet them, saying: “Come, come, it is just the right time,” and she brought them into the room with the above-named members of the family.

The Doctor took a towel, dipped it in water, and wiped Gemma’s hands and forehead; the blood immediately disappeared and the skin showed no sign of cicatrix, scratch or puncture, as if there had never been any laceration. Imagine the effect on those present! The Doctor, assisted by Signora Cecilia only, wished to examine her feet and side; but the result was the same. Thus God, Who is admirable in His ways, refused to allow human science to sit in judgment on what He had deigned to operate in the supernatural order, to enliven the faith of His servants Gemma, in her autobiography, narrates the fact with her usual candid simplicity:

“He” (the Confessor), she said, “acted in his own way but things went as Jesus said they would.” And the same evening, she wrote to the Prelate: “If you had been alone Jesus would have thoroughly convinced you; yesterday He told me that you were coming today.”

During the whole of the visit Gemma remained in ecstasy, and knew nothing of what happened; but having come to herself she saw that a certain change had come over the family, who were greatly mortified, upset and puzzled. Her adopted mother, in order to distract her own thoughts and also to revive Gemma, took her as her companion out of doors. As they walked Gemma said to her: “Take me for a while to Jesus, I have need of Jesus.” So her companion took her to St. Simon’s Church, which was at some distance.

After a visit to the Blessed Sacrament of about an hour, when outside the church Gemma said to Signora Cecilia: “I should like to tell you something, but am ashamed to.” Being pressed to speak, she showed her open hands, from which blood flowed as on the other Fridays. The good Signora thought of letting Mgr. Volpi see her in that state, and got a confidential friend to take her to him. Thus with his own eyes he saw not only blood but also the small wound in each hand from which it flowed.

The prudent Prelate showed no sign of surprise, even not to expose his spiritual child to the danger of vanity; he merely satisfied himself by examining her hands, and then let her go. In this way Our Lord in His Mercy willed to lessen the humiliation of His Servant and relieve in part the minds of her Confessor and of the others who had been present at the fruitless visit of the Doctor.

Although God in His Love from time to time afflicts His Servants, yet He never abandons them; nay, the ways of His Providence by which He comes to their aid and consolation in desperate conjunctures are most admirable. Gemma some would say had fallen to a pitiable state from which she could not hope to rise. Such conclusions are false; for it is written: facile est in oculis Dei subito honestare pauperem—It is easy before God to instantly restore the needy; and so it was with Gemma.

In her Autobiography she writes: “From that day of the Doctor’s visit a new life began for me”—she meant a life of prolonged martyrdom. Not only the Giannini family were greatly upset, but even the good Confessor, notwithstanding what he had seen for himself. “I had again,” she writes, “the Confessor’s prohibition of all the extraordinary things of the Thursday and Friday; and Jesus obeyed for a while, but again returned to the same Manifestations and to more than before.”

The Servant of God who was informed by her Jesus of all the doubts and uncertainties of her Confessor was greatly afflicted on his account while in her heart she was gladdened by what she called “the most beautiful humiliation that my dear Jesus has given me.” She could not help feeling pained at the state of mind of him whom she loved from her infancy and venerated as a father. She also saw that in him she was losing the only comfort she had in her constant sufferings. To no one would she more readily recur.

Our Lord however did not long delay to console His Servant and strengthen her weakness of spirit. “My child,” He said to her, “You, in thy afflictions, weaknesses and adversities, thick of them all more than of Me; you hast recourse to others for relief and comfort rather than to Me.” The Divine Master wished by these words to let her know, that however reasonable her attachment, and however holy the confidence she felt in His Minister, she should not lose courage when through no fault of hers such helps came to fail her; that having Him she should be satisfied. Those words so well understood by Gemma were enough to give back peace to her afflicted mind and effect her detachment from every human sentiment together with the total abandonment of herself to God.

Regardless of the poor Monsignor’s doubts regarding herself, she ceased not to long for his welfare and continued to ask Jesus to enlighten and console him. This is evident from many of her letters to him and to others who enjoyed his confidence. Even in her colloquies during ecstasy, while pouring out her heart to her God in sorrowful patient entreaty, the thoughts of her Confessor would often come before her and then she would suddenly exclaim:

“O Jesus, go console Monsignor who is so depressed. Some think one thing and others quite the opposite. But do You wish it to be so? Art You better pleased with me now that all think me crazy, than before when they believed me to be a saint? Is it not the truth now?”

And having learned from her Divine Spouse that after the futile effort made through the doctor, another was contemplated, namely to obtain a formal order to have her writings given up to a learned man for examination, she with her usual simplicity, remaining still in ecstasy, thus expressed herself: “O Jesus, and they even wish to have the writings examined by Doctor Boda! May such a thing never happen! O Jesus, they are turning Thee to ridicule. If they wish to see the writings, let them see only blank paper. Go, Jesus, to Monsignor and tranquillize and console him.”

Nor was she satisfied with praying; she always showed by facts that she was most devoted to him. She sometimes thought that he had abandoned her because, for various reasons, he sent her now to one, now to another strange Confessor; yet she continued to use him as her Confessor up to her death, always looking on him as a father. Ah, how true it is, what Jesus said to Gemma: “In suffering one learns how to love.”

God so disposed things that in the same month of September, 1899, Fr. Cajetan returned to Lucca and remained there for two months owing to sickness. Then hearing all about the Doctor’s blank visit, and the Confessor’s discomforting impressions he too was greatly taken aback and began to have doubts and suspicions. But Our loving Jesus willed to do with him as with St Thomas: “Put in thy finger, and see My hands, and bring hither thy hand, and be not faithless but believing.” He (Cajetan) saw again, observed, touched and said: “This is the finger of God.” Then in the letter he wrote to the Confessor explaining his convictions, he added that he too had exacted the same proof as the doctor by ordering the wounds, which he says were deep, to be washed three or four times; but they did not disappear; on the contrary, the blood stopped for a moment but soon again began to flow.

In like manner, Fr. Peter Paul returning often to Lucca on his business as Provincial during the last months of 1899 and in 1900 and 1901, was frequently able to satisfy himself fully regarding the Stigmata, and likewise concerning all the other wonderful things that God was operating in His Servant. He thus was able to formulate a definite opinion on all points and give the world a most authoritative testimony of the wonders of God’s Grace in this chosen soul. Having made his lucid statement giving full particulars of the Stigmata, he proceeded in the following words to speak of the Crowning with Thorns:

“I saw that drops of blood were oozing from the skin around her head, especially from her temples. After the lapse of twenty minutes, when she had come out of the ecstasy and washed, I saw that there no longer existed the death-like pallor and indication of pain which made her resemble Our Savior on the Cross. She had returned to her natural color; nay, after the sweat of blood had ceased her countenance assumed an angelic beauty.”

“On another occasion,” thus he wrote in 1901, “it was told me, that not only the stigmata, but the punishment of the scourging, the crowning with thorns, and the three hours’ agony on the Cross was frequently renewed in the body of this angelic girl and that she suffered terribly. I therefore proposed to be present at that scene of pain, if God would deign to grant me this favor, as He had done before, and thus see everything with my own eyes. Gemma, as usually happened, rose from the family table after having taken very little or no supper.

“After a little I went with D. Lorenzo Agrimonti to her room, and beheld her, in ecstasy, already a prey to the cruel martyrdom. I remained in that room for more than two hours and a half being determined not to leave until I had seen at least the flow of blood with my own eyes. She was having such a violent palpitation that it moved the bed covering in the part near her heart, while her arms remained motionless and extended. The beat was so strong that it made the bed shake, and I confess that I experienced at the same time feelings of terror and devotion.

“After an hour or a little more the palpitation quieted, and she began to shed blood from her head in such abundance that the pillows and sheets were soaked with it. In certain parts of her head, particularly in the upper part of her forehead, blood came in such quantity that, while congealing it became clotted in several places. From the time this flow of blood from her head ceased (it was then half past eleven), until about three o’clock in the morning, the ecstatic, who previously had made some very slight movements, remained perfectly motionless. Her countenance seemed that of a dead person, and to see her in that state, with such a cadaverous color, her features all drawn and stained with blood, anyone would have thought her dead. All pulsation seemed to have ceased and her breathing was scarcely perceptible.

“Thus she passed three whole hours and then came out of the ecstasy. I saw her very soon again the same morning. She was then ready to go to Church for Holy Communion, and her natural color had returned as though she had not suffered in the least. I related that which I had seen with my eyes and touched with my hands to Gemma’s Confessor; we spoke at length of these facts and I told him of the good impressions they had made upon me. He begged of me to continue when an occasion offered itself to examine his penitent, and gave me faculties to hear her Confession.”

Chevalier Giarmini, his wife Justina, his eldest son and in particular his sister Cecilia, of whom we shall have to speak again, all of them worthy of the fullest trust, had for a long time ample and numerous opportunities before as well as after the Medical Visit, of verifying the Stigmata and other signs of the Passion of Our Lord, which He was pleased to manifest in His faithful Servant. To their authoritative testimony the writer of this life can add his own, having had every facility of testing and all full information regarding the wonders worked by God in this favored soul. The reader is sure to appreciate my having united, at a slight sacrifice of chronological order, nearly all that refers to the Stigmata and other Marks of Our Lord’s Passion, as we find them reproduced in the virginal body of His faithful handmaid; because the concentration of so many marvelous facts, verified beyond all shadow of doubt, strengthens the proofs of their reality and supernatural origin.

We have it is true the fruitless visit of the Doctor, which counts for nothing, if not to prove the Divine intervention. Gemma, informed by God, had prophetically and repeatedly warned those concerned of what eventually happened. Her stigmata were well attested immediately before and after that visit, and if they had not been withdrawn from the Doctor’s view, then indeed might the Divine interposition have been questioned. We cannot but admire the most admirable dispositions of Providence in what happened.

Gemma was not in a cloister; she was in the world; she was obliged to go out of doors several times a day, but spent the rest of her time hidden at home. Only a few of the members of the Giannini family knew of the extraordinary things happening to her, and they kept them so secret that they were unknown in Lucca. It is easy to imagine what the result would have been had the Doctor or other outsider verified the Stigmata and the other phenomena.

The scientific, the curious, the praters, the scoffers, etc., would all have been set going. No, God would not allow it. By withdrawing the marvelous phenomena from public gaze, God kept His Servant humble and His treasure hidden. However, the prudence, wisdom, learning and honorable standing of all who have attested the truth of those marvels of Divine Love have amply effected all that was necessary or desirable.

Science cannot pretend to explain supernatural things; it can only certify the existence of facts. And surely, in order to verify facts there is no need to call in the aid of scientists. Then in the case before us, as the phenomenon was not constant, but recurred at intervals, all that a scientist could say would be that at the time of his inspection it did or did not appear; and to prove its presence the testimony of a number of most trustworthy witnesses who had seen it several times was even more than was needed.

It would be ridiculous and a parting with reason to suppose that by force of imagination anyone however hysterical or amenable to hypnotic suggestion could naturally produce deep wounds and lacerations such as were verified in Gemma Galgani. Still more absurd would be the supposition that such wounds and lacerations could be perfectly closed and healed in an instant by any power of nature. . . . We are forced to conclude that in Gemma Galgani’s Case what was seen and happened was the work of God. The Devil can and does effect much by his temptations and wiles, but not in souls so rich in virtue and love of God as was Gemma’s.

As an appropriate ending to this CHAPTER we give the continuation of Fr. Peter Paul’s report of 1889, although he touches on some matters that we must deal with later on. Speaking of his first intercourse with the Servant of God, he writes:

“According to the opportunities offered me I often conferred with Gemma. I heard her General Confession which she wished to finish at three intervals, and I had then the opportunity of knowing that she had preserved her baptismal innocence. I have seen her several times in ecstasy. When she set herself to pray or was spoken to of spiritual things, specially of Our Lord’s Passion, she went into ecstasy. Then she seemed to be transfigured, with her eyes open and fixed on one point, remaining immovable in her person although her limbs were quite flexible.

“She was during ecstasy insensible to any noise that was made near her, or to the puncture of a pin, or to the burning with a taper. But although so dead to sense during the ecstasy she was all alive to heavenly things, and was heard to give vent in fervent expressions to her love of God: Yes, I love Thee, my Jesus; I will be all Thine; I will suffer all I can for Thee. Gemma’s bearing during those moments was truly angelic, and her countenance was resplendent with beauty joined with a marvelous majesty.”

He said that what moved him most in Gemma were her virtues, and that they enabled him to assert without fear that the extraordinary things that happened to her were from God. He ended his report by giving an account of those virtues, as follows:

“I have been able to notice in her an angelic purity. Not only did she preserve her baptismal innocence but, as far as I could ascertain, she never committed a deliberate defect during her whole life. Her humility was most profound. She was devoid of self-esteem, desiring to be humbled and corrected; and having been despised and mortified without measure, she gave no sign of the least displeasure or resentment; on the contrary, in her countenance she showed that she was more pleased than otherwise.

“Her obedience was singular and admirable. She never gave any opposition even to the least hint or desire of others. She obeyed with promptitude, simplicity and joy, no matter what the nature of the command might be. She gave clear proof of this perfect obedience with regard to her prayers. Our Lord had raised her to the highest degrees of contemplation, and when her ordinary Confessor bade her keep to the method of prayer for beginners, she obeyed at once, and did herself violence in order to carry his wishes into effect. She underwent this sort of martyrdom for nearly two years.”

Her mortification of her senses was continuous and most severe. She took very little food, so that it seemed a miracle how she lived. And if she had not been restrained by obedience she would have deprived herself of that little; for, as she said, she felt satisfied by the bread of Angels which she received, every morning.

With her everything was good, everything was equal. In her attire she never had any ambition and never asked for any special garment. Nor did she ever seek any amusement or recreation, nor complain of cold or heat, as though she were insensible to everything. A love of suffering was with her almost characteristic. No one ever heard her utter a complaint even in the midst of the terrible pains she underwent during her long sickness, or from the violent assaults of the devil.

Her constant remembrance of Jesus Crucified stimulated her to suffer always, so that she desired nothing more than suffering and whatever she suffered seemed little. This perfect creature had offered herself a victim to the Sacred Heart of Jesus for the conversion of poor sinners and for this end she willingly offered every suffering.

For the same end, and still more through love, she desired continually to suffer with Jesus on the Cross, to live always on the Cross, and to die with Him on the Cross. And in this it would appear that her Divine Spouse satisfied her because in life and in death Gemma suffered always a cruel martyrdom of body and soul.

What shall I say of her union with God? I can certify that this was unceasing. Even in the midst of the most distracting occupations she was always recollected and in mind and heart united to God. On account of this habitual and profound recollection her voice was never heard. She answered briefly the questions that were asked her and then resumed her silence.

Indeed so intimate was her union with God that she seemed more a celestial being than a creature of earth. Behold these are, put briefly, the virtues which Gemma practiced always, and which go to show that she was full of the Love of God. Hence I hold that the wonderful phenomena which we have admired in her, are the work of that God Whom she loved so much and served so well.

FR. PETER PAUL OF THE IMMACULATE,
Passionist

The above statement of the distinguished Passionist in praise of the Virgin of Lucca is most important, and adds great value to her Biography, precisely because of the man who has written it. Better recognized as Mgr. Camillo Moreschini, Archbishop of Camerino, he is widely known and esteemed for his learning, zeal and prudence in the guidance of souls and in the Apostolic ministry. The Holy Father Pius X owing to his rare good qualities and after he had been Superior General of the Passionists, employed him in the Apostolic Visitation of some twelve important Dioceses and then raised him to the Archbishopric of Camerino. Who does not see the importance of such a man’s testimony in such a story as Gemma’s?

When she had been discredited by a few because of her Stigmata, God in His pity and Love sent first Father Cajetan. And after him Father Peter Paul to vindicate her reputation and make known her virtues—“Cast thy care upon the Lord and He shall sustain thee.”