I just got back from a memorable pilgrimage to the Shrine of my patron saint, Gemma Galgani, in Lucca, a lovely “medieval city” in the region of Tuscany, Italy. It was something I’ve been longing to do for the past 15 years and I finally got it as gift for my golden year of life and silver year of religious profession!What was my motive in going there? Firstly, to know more about this beautiful Saint, then to “listen to her” speak to me about Jesus and finally to speak to her and ask her to intercede for the suffering people I know.
The first words I saw on our way to the shrine were “Do you really want to love? Learn how to suffer first. Sufferings teach how to love.” These are words extracted from one of her dialogues with our Crucified Lord in a moment of ecstasy.
Perhaps our modern reasoning would say, isn’t it the other way around: learn how to love and you can bear all kinds of suffering? I guess with St. Gemma, the approach is through the simple but at times, ruthless, school of life and its many mishaps.
Born in 1878, Gemma lost her mother when she was 11 and after 5 years lost her favorite brother Gino who was then studying for the priesthood. She witnessed how her father, a pharmacist, struggled to keep the family together but had to relinquish everything because of the debts incurred due to family sicknesses and other travails. Finally, he too fell ill with cancer of the throat and died when Gemma was 20. As soon as the creditors got knowledge of his death they rushed to the house where the Galgani children still lived and sequestered everything. Gemma confided to a benefactor later on, “They rummaged my pockets and took away the few coins I had.” She herself bore all kinds of sicknesses: inflammation of the bone which led to temporary paralysis, acute otitis, sharp internal pains and tuberculosis, leading to her death at age 25. Her entrance to the other life was synchronized to the suffering of our Lord. Her acute pains started on Holy Wednesday. She told her aunt Cecilia who nursed her till then, “Don’t leave me till I’m nailed on the cross. I have to be crucified with Jesus…” St. Gemma suffered terribly till Holy Saturday morning, April 11, 1903. Four years after her death, her first biography was published and was translated and read all over the world. In 1933, she was beatified by Pius XI and in 1940, canonized by Pius XII.
In suffering, she was able to identify with the Crucified Lord and find the meaning of her life. And the Lord whom she adored and loved was pleased with the identification that St. Gemma was even “gifted” with the signs of the Lord’s wounds, like St. Francis and Fr. Pio. This identification was not reduced only to the physical signs but to the very motives of our Lord’s death – love for humanity, especially the sinners. St. Gemma was also known for her intercession for the conversion of hardened criminals.
An English lady by the bus stop asked me as I left St. Gemma’s sanctuary: "What is St. Gemma famous for?" And I simply answered—1) her identification with our Crucified Lord to the point of having signs of his wounds on her body and 2) her intercession for sinners. The lady remarked: “Oh, I would need a lot of her!”
