The Flower of Luca: St. Gemma Galgani

Canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1940, St. Gemma Galgani stands in the shadow of an august handful of modern era saints. Which is just the way she'd like it. Great saints you might call her contemporaries, like St. Therese of Lisieux with her flowers and her  Little Way and St. John Bosco with his merry laugh and love of children, have  captured the imagination and attention of the world, while little Gemma, with her beautiful, solemn face -- that you'd think might steal the limelight -- has been largely ignored. Funny how people are, but not surprising; the lighter parts of  St. Therese and Don Bosco's messages to the world are easily picked out and magnified, while their spirit of  discipline, sacrifice, and penance are ignored. You can't ignore this spirit in St. Gemma, however. It's what she was all about.

Often called the Daughter of the Passion, Maria Gemma Umberta Galgani was born in Campannori, Italy, on March 12th, 1878. The fifth of eight children, she was left the responsibility of raising her three younger siblings upon the death of her parents shortly after her eighteenth birthday. In the course of her early adulthood, she refused two marriage proposal and became a housekeeper in the home of a neighbor family, the Gianninis. Though she wished to join the Passionist order, it was never possible, partly because of family responsibilities and ill health, but also due to the manifestation of her extreme holiness that became known and were not at that time verified. Her mystical experiences were extreme enough that, to many, they seemed to indicate mental illness, a common misconception among the world of saints throughout history. Religious houses, understandably, were cautious of any kind of scandal, and none would allow entrance.

Gemma, however, was not daunted in her quest for holiness. She was a mystic: a visionary and a stigmatist (though her wounds became invisible after she prayed for no notoriety to be attached to her); she was known to fall into raptures during prayer and even to elevate. In spite of her wishes and prayers, these extraordinary facts about her became known and, during her lifetime, she suffered many trials due to the cynicism of the public, her religious superiors, and even her family, but this suffering she accepted serenely, uniting it to the ignominious sufferings of Christ, the focus of all her devotion.

 Gemma's sanctity did not become clear to all until after her death of tuberculosis in Luca, Italy, in 1903 at the age of 25. With little opposition, her cause was swiftly raised, and her beatification and canonization accomplished within 37 years -- particularly fast work if you know the history of the slow-moving wheels of the Church's canonization process throughout history.

St. Gemma Galgani is the patron saint of students, orphans, those who suffer with headaches, those who struggle with purity, pharmacists and paratroopers. She might also be called upon by those who suffer by the world's misunderstanding of earnest piety. 

St. Gemma, Flower of Luca, pray for us! Help us to love suffering, as suffering teaches us to love.

We're blessed to be custodians of a first-class relic of St. Gemma.

We break the "rules" of Passion week today by displaying our relic with

photos of St. Gemma. How wonderful it is when you have a saint who's 

recent enough to have real life photographs!