Gemma Galgani (Camigliano, 12 March 1878 — Lucca, 11 April 1903) was an Italian mystic, one of the greatest figures of contemplative holiness at the turn of the 20th century. Orphaned, poor, barred from the cloister by illness, she lived a hidden life of twenty-five years that was entirely a conformation to the crucified Christ: miraculously healed of a spinal tuberculosis in 1899, she shortly afterwards received the stigmata of the Passion, which renewed themselves each week for two years, from Thursday evening to Friday afternoon.[1][2]
Grafted onto the spirituality of the Passion of Saint Paul of the Cross, defended by the young Passionist Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, guided by her director Father Germano of Saint Stanislaus, Gemma was a victim soul offered for the conversion of sinners and reparation for the outrages done to God. Her mystical life — daily ecstasies, familiar conversations with her guardian angel, violent battles against the demon, sweats of blood — is one of the best documented in the history of the Church, because it unfolded before the eyes of an entire family and of a director trained in mystical theology.[3]
She died of exhaustion and tuberculosis on Holy Saturday, 11 April 1903, "crucified with Jesus"; she was beatified by Pius XI in 1933 and canonized by Pius XII in 1940, barely thirty-seven years after her death. The Church made her the patroness of students and pharmacists, invoking her also against temptations and tuberculosis. This article traces her life, her spiritual physiognomy as a "daughter of the Passion" and the path that led her to the honours of the altar; for the spirituality of offering she embodies, see Victim souls, and for the phenomenon of her wounds, The stigmatics.
A Tuscan childhood marked by mourning
Birth at Camigliano and the Galgani family
Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani was born on 12 March 1878 at Camigliano, a hamlet of the commune of Capannori, a few kilometres from Lucca. She was baptized the very next morning, 13 March.[4] Her father, Enrico (Henri) Galgani, was a pharmacist-chemist; born at Porcari, he was descended, it is said, on his mother's side from the family of Saint John Leonardi, founder of the Clerks Regular of the Mother of God; her mother, Aurelia Landi, came from the honourable house of the Landi.[5] Less than a month after Gemma's birth, the family settled at Lucca, where the child would grow up.
The household counted eight children. Gemma was, by her own father's admission, one of his favourites — "I have only two children: Gemma and Eugene", he used to say, speaking of the most devout.[6] From the age of two, the child was entrusted to the Vallini young ladies' day boarding school; at seven, she entered as a day pupil the institute of the Sisters of Saint Zita (known as the "Guerra institute", after its foundress Saint Elena Guerra, canonized in 2024), where she would remain until adolescence.[7]
Her mother's death and an early thirst for heaven
Gemma was about seven years old when her mother died, carried off by consumption. Yet it was this dying mother who lit in the child's heart a burning desire for heaven: Gemma would later confide that she had taken the habit of asking God to carry her off to paradise. Her schoolmistress had to teach her to correct this impulse by resignation to the will of God.[8]
Far from being a morbidly sad child, Gemma was lively, cheerful, at times mischievous — which would later earn her, even amid her sufferings, the nickname of "the joyous one of Lucca". But her precocious piety struck all who approached her. The dominant trait of her character, her biographer notes, was very early this thirst for God which nothing created could quench:
"You alone, my Saviour; for you alone can calm the storms which, from time to time, rise in my heart; you alone can give new vigour to my soul. You alone, my God, for, even when you are alone, you can do all things." — Gemma Galgani, ecstasy[9]
First Communion (1887): "He who feeds on me shall live my life"
On 17 June 1887, at nine years old, after a ten-day retreat, Gemma made her First Communion on the feast of the Sacred Heart. Her confessor, already, was Father Giovanni Volpi, the future bishop, who would remain her ordinary director until the end of her life.[10] That day, a word heard in meditation imprinted itself on her for ever: "He who feeds on me shall live my life." The Eucharist became the vital centre of her existence, the source of all that would follow.
A brilliant pupil, Gemma won the grand religion prize in 1894. But that same year, the death of her brother Eugene, a seminarian whom she had nursed day and night, threw her into a grave illness which forced her to leave school for good. Trial, from then on, would never leave her again.
The trial of destitution and illness
The ruin of the family and her father's death (1897)
At the end of the 1890s, imprudent sureties ruined the Galgani family; the bailiffs seized even the furniture. Her father, afflicted with a cancer of the throat, died on 11 November 1897. Gemma, orphaned for the second time, found herself in total destitution, burdened with her young brothers and sisters.[11] Taken in for a time by an aunt at Camaiore, she there refused two proposals of marriage: her inward decision had long been made — she had vowed herself to God alone.
Pott's disease: a young girl condemned
Back at Lucca, Gemma was struck by an affection of the spine of extreme gravity — Pott's disease, that is, tuberculosis of the spinal column.[12] To the lumbar pains were added a deviation of the spine, bouts of meningitis, loss of hearing, falling hair, abscesses, progressive paralysis. The doctors declared her lost. On 4 January 1899, red-hot points were applied to her along the spine without anaesthetic; the operation was useless. On 2 February, she was given the holy Viaticum: she was believed to be dying.[13]
It was in this state that Gemma received, on 7 December 1898, permission to pronounce her vow of perpetual virginity, and that she saw for the first time appearing to her the young Passionist Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, who died in the odour of sanctity in 1862 and who would become her heavenly protector.
The miraculous healing (1899)
On 23 February 1899, on the counsel she attributed to Gabriel, Gemma began a novena to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, the apostle of the Sacred Heart. Each evening, she said, the young religious came to pray with her. At the end of the novena, on the first Friday of March 1899, after Communion, Gemma suddenly rose, perfectly healed: two hours later, she was on her feet.[14] The doctors could not explain it.
"My daughter, after the grace you have just received you will follow me with still greater ardour. I shall always be with you, I shall be a father to you, and your mother, behold her. My fatherly assistance cannot fail one who abandons himself into my hands; nothing, then, will you lack, even though I take from you all consolation and all support on earth." — Jesus to Gemma, at her healing[15]
A thwarted vocation
Desire for the Passionists, and refusal
Healed, Gemma wished for but one thing: to consecrate herself to God in the cloister. In the spring of 1899, she made a retreat with the Visitation Sisters of Lucca — a natural choice, the institute of Margaret Mary who had just obtained her healing. But the archbishop refused to admit her to the novitiate, on grounds of fragile health and poverty. On 21 May 1899, she had to leave the monastery.[16] "My God, what pain!", her biographer notes. All her life, this refusal of regular religious life would remain one of her greatest crosses: Gemma would be a mystic "in the world", with neither habit nor enclosure.
Yet her true spiritual family would indeed be a religious one. When in July 1899 the Passionist Fathers preached a mission at Lucca, Gemma at once felt at home. Jesus, she said, then entrusted her with her mission:
"Thou shalt be a daughter of my Passion, and a favoured daughter." — Jesus to Gemma[17]
Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, brother from heaven
The figure of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (1838-1862), a young Passionist professed religious who died at twenty-four, holds a central place in Gemma's life. Not yet beatified at the time (he would be beatified in 1908 and canonized in 1920), he appeared to her during her illness, defended her against the demon, instructed her, called her "Sorella mia" ("my sister") and promised to return. This heavenly brotherhood rooted Gemma in the spirituality of the Passion: through Gabriel, she was attached to the family of Saint Paul of the Cross, the founder of the Passionists, whose mission is precisely to revive in souls the living memory of the Cross.[18]
The stigmatist of Lucca
The first stigmata (8 June 1899)
On 8 June 1899, Thursday on the eve of the feast of the Sacred Heart, Gemma received for the first time the stigmata of the Passion. In the course of an ecstasy, she related, Jesus crucified appeared to her, his wounds open; from these wounds sprang not blood but flames, which touched her hands, her feet and her heart, and imprinted there the wounds of the Passion.[19]
"Behold, my daughter, and learn how to love. Seest thou this cross, these thorns and these nails, this livid flesh, these bruises, these wounds? All is the work of love, and of infinite love. Behold to what lengths I have loved thee. Dost thou truly wish to love me? Learn first to suffer: suffering teaches how to love." — Jesus to Gemma, vision of the five wounds[20]
The weekly rhythm of the Passion
The phenomenon, far from being unique, renewed itself each week for nearly two years, following a rhythm set to the liturgy of the Passion: the wounds opened on Thursday evening, about eight o'clock, and closed on Friday afternoon, about three o'clock — the very hour of Christ's death.[21] Father Germano, who examined them closely, left a precise, almost medical description: wounds in the palms of the size of a grain of wheat, with a protuberance "like a nail head", wounds in the feet, and in the side a crescent-shaped wound about six centimetres long. At the end of the ecstasy, the wounds closed instantaneously and completely, leaving only a whitish mark.[22]
On the location of the wounds — in the palms and not the wrists, as with most stigmatics — see the article Stigmata: palms or wrists?.
The crown of thorns and the sweats of blood
To the stigmata of the hands, feet and side were added the pains of the crown of thorns and sweats of blood. Gemma sweated blood from her forehead, head and hands, particularly when she heard blasphemy: "When I hear blasphemy, I see Jesus suffering greatly, and I suffer with Him." The blood that then flowed was like the bodily echo of the compassion that consumed her.[23]
Medical examination and the prudence of the Church
Gemma's confessor, Msgr Volpi, prudent to the point of mistrust, submitted the phenomena to medical examination. The result was disconcerting: before the doctor summoned on a given day, nothing observable occurred. Gemma herself saw a grace in it — Jesus, she said, "baffles science" to preserve the humility of her soul.[24]
The most famous episode of this discernment occurred on 8 September 1899. The priest directing Gemma, the daily witness of her stigmata and their bleeding, had the idea of having them verified by a doctor, to cut short in advance any dispute. The doctor dipped a cloth in water and wiped the young girl's hands: at once, Father Germano reports, "the blood disappeared, the skin appeared without scars, cracks or stigmata, as if there had never been any wounds". Amazement of the priest and the doctor — and as soon as the doctor had left, the stigmata reappeared and began to bleed again.[25]
"Immediately after the latter had left, the stigmata reappeared and began to bleed again. Following this incident, Gemma Galgani naturally passed for a fraud and had, on that account, to endure many great humiliations." — Ennemond Boniface, quoting Father Germano[26]
The incident did indeed earn Gemma a reputation as a fraud and great humiliations, even from those who had most respected her. This initial reserve of the Church, far from discrediting Gemma, attests on the contrary the rigour of the discernment to which she was subjected; it is this same prudence that would render, at the trial, the testimony in her favour all the more solid. On the manner in which the Church evaluates these phenomena, see Should we believe private revelations?.
An extraordinary mystical life
The guardian angel, companion of every day
One of the most remarkable traits of Gemma's life is her familiarity with her guardian angel, whose presence was sensible to her, almost continual. The angel instructed her, corrected her, scolded her, protected her from the demon, and — a fact attested by Father Germano — actually carried the sealed letters she entrusted to him for her distant director. As early as 1895, an angelic vision had set the tone of her whole life:
"The only jewels which adorn the spouse of a crucified king are the thorns and the cross." — The guardian angel to Gemma[27]
The angel dictated to her rules of life of an evangelical exactingness:
"Remember that he who truly loves Jesus speaks little and bears all things. I command thee, on Jesus' behalf, never to give thy opinion unless asked; never to uphold thy own feeling, but to withdraw into silence. […] Forget not to watch over thy glances, remembering that the mortified eye shall contemplate the beauties of heaven." — The guardian angel to Gemma[28]
On the Church's doctrine on this subject, see What does the Church say about guardian angels?.
Battles against the demon
In the measure of her graces, Gemma endured diabolical assaults of extreme violence. The demon, whom she familiarly called "the ugly beast", appeared to her in the form of a black dog, a giant, a cat; he struck her, tore out her hair, tore up her writings and snatched the pen from her hands, going so far as to disguise himself as her confessor, as an angel of light, even as the scourged Jesus, to deceive her.[29] The saint opposed him with a disarming serenity:
"Begone, ugly beast. Seest thou not that instead of harming me, thou makest me merit?" — Gemma Galgani[30]
Ecstasies and conversations with Jesus
Gemma's ecstasies — daily for years — rendered her totally insensible to the outward senses (she could be pricked, brought near fire, without reacting) while she conversed aloud with Jesus, the Virgin or her angel. These conversations, collected by the Gianninis and Father Germano, count among the most burning pages of Catholic mysticism. In them is heard a soul asking to be conformed to the Passion to the very end:
"Lord Jesus, when my lips draw near to yours to give you a kiss, make me taste your gall. When my failing shoulders seek support in you, make them feel the scourges that break you. […] When you press me to your sacred heart, grant also that the lance wound my side." — Gemma Galgani, ecstasy[31]
Gemma's spirituality: the daughter of the Passion
"Learn to suffer: suffering teaches how to love"
Gemma's whole spirituality lies in an identification with the crucified Christ. She did not seek suffering for its own sake, but as the surest path of love. To reproduce in herself the living image of the suffering Jesus was, her biographer says, the supreme aspiration of her life. To those who spoke to her of the consolations of the spiritual life, she answered by choosing Calvary over Tabor:
"Believe me, Father, I willingly renounce all the consolations of Jesus; I do not want them. Jesus is the Man of sorrows, and I will be the daughter of sorrows." — Gemma Galgani[32]
"I want to suffer with Jesus; speak to me of nothing else. I want to be like Jesus, to suffer always as long as I live, and to live always in order to suffer always." — Gemma Galgani[33]
The victim soul and reparatory love
Gemma knew herself called to be a victim soul: offered in holocaust for the conversion of sinners and reparation for the offences done to God, particularly sacrileges. This vocation she received from an inward word of striking gravity:
"My daughter, I need victims, and strong victims. I need souls who by their sufferings and tribulations make expiation for sinners and the ungrateful." — Jesus to Gemma[34]
She then offered herself without reserve, even to the point of wanting "to save them all":
"I absolutely want to be a victim for sinners, to live as a victim and to die a victim. […] They are all your children; do not abandon them, then. Know it well, Jesus: I want to save them all." — Gemma Galgani, ecstasy[35]
This doctrine of reparatory offering attaches Gemma to the great line of mystics of offered suffering; see the background article Victim souls and How to grow in reparation.
Abandonment, obedience and humility
Gemma's soul, despite the extraordinary character of her graces, was one of perfect abandonment and obedience. She recognized no merit of her own:
"Expect nothing good from me. And what can you hope for from a little mud fit only to offend you?" — Gemma Galgani, ecstasy[36]
Her obedience to her confessor and her director went so far as the annihilation of her own will — the mark, with the spiritual masters, of true abandonment:
"I am dead, Father. A dead person never says: 'I want, I would like, I should be glad'; but he is silent and lets things be done." — Gemma Galgani, letter[37]
This abandonment turned every cross into joy:
"Oh! how I perceive, Father, that in doing what the goodness of Jesus wills, every cross becomes a joy, to the point that suffering is too sweet for me! There is no cross nor fear for one who unites himself closely to Jesus." — Gemma Galgani, letter[38]
Hunger for the Eucharist
The Eucharist was for Gemma the daily source of all her mystical life. She described Communion as a foretaste of heaven:
"Communion, Father, is a felicity which, it seems to me, can be compared only to the beatitude of the Saints and Angels. […] For Jesus enters each morning into my heart, gives himself wholly to me; and I give him nothing, absolutely nothing." — Gemma Galgani, letter[39]
Her circle: the Giannini family and Father Germano
A second family at Lucca
Orphaned and without resources, Gemma was taken in during the summer of 1899 by the Giannini family, a patriarchal family of Lucca where lived Chevalier Matteo Giannini, his wife, his twelve children and his sister Cecilia Giannini. The latter became for Gemma a "second mother" — her adoptive "aunt" —, a privileged witness of her hidden life, charged by the director with putting everything down in writing.[40] It was under this roof, amid an ordinary family life, that the most extraordinary phenomena took place — a circumstance which guarantees their credibility, for lack of any possible staging.
The spiritual director and the correspondence
Father Germano of Saint Stanislaus (in French "Germain"), a Passionist residing in Rome, became Gemma's spiritual director in 1900. At first profoundly sceptical — he went so far as to advise trying exorcisms —, he was convinced in September 1900 by the ecstasy in which Gemma obtained, at a distance, the conversion of a sinner who confessed to him that very hour.[41] Directing Gemma chiefly by letters, he became after her death the postulator of her cause and the author of her reference biography, The Seraphic Virgin of Lucca, whose first edition received in 1907 the praises of Pius X through Cardinal Merry del Val.[42] Her letters invariably ended with the same formula of humility:
"Pray for me; I am poor Gemma." — Gemma Galgani's habitual letter formula[43]
On her director's advice, she signed herself for a time "poor Gemma of Jesus", before returning to her formula.
Death on Holy Saturday (1903)
The last illness
In the spring of 1902, Gemma announced that her part was ending. A first victim illness, in the summer, closed her stomach for sixty days; then, in September 1902, pulmonary tuberculosis declared itself, with spitting of blood. Isolated because of the contagion in a small flat, she lived her last months in total stripping, deprived even of her director's presence.[44] To Father Germano, who came to see her a last time in October 1902, she said simply: "I am going to Jesus, Father."
"Jesus, I commend my poor soul to you"
Holy Week 1903 was for Gemma a slow conformation to the Passion she had so loved. On Maundy Thursday, she had the vision of a crown of thorns being plaited; on Good Friday, arms outstretched, she remained "crucified with Jesus" from ten o'clock to half past one.[45] On Holy Saturday, 11 April 1903, after receiving Extreme Unction, she passed away about one o'clock in the afternoon, in perfect abandonment, with neither priest nor her director present. Her last words were a filial surrender of her soul:
"Now it is quite true that I can do no more. Jesus, I commend my poor soul to you… Jesus!" — Gemma Galgani's last words, 11 April 1903[46]
She died "on the eve of the Resurrection", at twenty-five. She was clothed in black, like a Passionist nun, with the emblem of the Passion on her heart — the habit she had never been able to wear in her lifetime.
The prodigy of the heart
Thirteen days after her death, on 24 April 1903, at the recognition of the body for the trial, Gemma's heart was found fresh, red and full of living blood, of abnormal shape — wider than high, to the point, it was said, of having lifted three ribs. The witnesses saw in it the bodily sign of the love that had consumed her.[47] Her remains rest today in the Passionist shrine-monastery of Saint Gemma at Lucca, which she herself had prophesied and which was founded after her death.
Beatification, canonization and legacy
The trial and the honours of the altar (1933-1940)
Gemma's reputation for holiness was immediate. Her informative process opened at Lucca shortly after her death, then continued at Rome. The speed of the cause is remarkable: Pius XI beatified her on 14 May 1933, after the approval of two miracles, then Pius XII canonized her on 2 May 1940 — barely thirty-seven years after her death.[48] This speed, in a Church ordinarily prudent towards mystical phenomena, testifies to the solidity of the dossier gathered by Father Germano and to the strength of the Gianninis' testimony.
Patronages and cult
The Church fixed Saint Gemma's feast on 11 April, the day of her death (the Passionist family celebrates her on 16 May). Gemma is honoured as patroness of students and of pharmacists (in memory of her father), and invoked quite particularly against temptations, against tuberculosis and against the loss of parents — all trials she herself had gone through.[49] Her cult, at first Italian, spread rapidly throughout the world thanks to the diffusion of her biography, translated into many languages even before the First World War.
Gemma in the Passionist family
Although she was never able to enter religion, Gemma became one of the glories of the Passionist family, alongside Saint Paul of the Cross and Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. All her spirituality — the memory of the Passion, the victim soul, love of the Cross — is the lay blossoming of the Passionist charism. She takes her place in the great line of modern stigmatics, alongside Padre Pio, Saint Faustina Kowalska for the mysticism of mercy, and the victim souls of whom she was, it was written, "the daughter of the Passion". In a century that was beginning to flee suffering, Gemma Galgani recalls, by her life as much as by her words, that the Cross of Christ is not a defeat but the summit of love.
To go further
- Saint Paul of the Cross (1694-1775) — founder of the Passionists, source of the charism of the Passion of which Gemma is the spiritual heiress.
- Victim souls — the spirituality of reparatory offering which Gemma embodies to the highest point.
- The stigmatics — the phenomenon of the stigmata in the history of the Church, of which Gemma is one of the great figures.
- Stigmata: palms or wrists? — the location of the wounds, in the palms with Gemma as with most stigmatics.
- What does the Church say about guardian angels? — to illuminate Gemma's familiarity with her guardian angel.
- Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque — the apostle of the Sacred Heart, whose intercession obtained Gemma's healing.
- Should we believe private revelations? — the Church's discernment on mystical phenomena.
Notes and References
Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. VII, "Les stigmates sacrés" (8 June 1899). First stigmata on 8 June 1899 (eve of the Sacred Heart); weekly recurrence for nearly two years, from Thursday about 8 p.m. to Friday about 3 p.m.; description: in the palms, a fleshy protuberance like a nail head two and a half centimetres in diameter, wounds in the feet, side crescent-shaped (six centimetres by three millimetres); after the Friday ecstasy, the flow ceases and the tissues knit together little by little (no vestige left from the next day, at the latest Sunday), leaving only a whitish mark.
1 19 21 22Saint Gemma Galgani — hagiographical notices: beatification by Pius XI on 14 May 1933 (after approval of two miracles), canonization by Pius XII on 2 May 1940; feast on 11 April (16 May in the Passionist calendar); patroness of students and pharmacists, invoked against temptations, tuberculosis and the loss of parents. Cf. stgemmagalgani.com and the Catholic Online notice, catholic.org.
2 48 49Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., author's declaration and preface: he presents himself as a direct witness, quoting the first epistle of Saint John ("what we have seen… touched with our hands"). The biography received, as early as 1907, the praises of Pius X conveyed by Cardinal Merry del Val (letter of 19 September 1907).
3Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, C.P., La Séraphique Vierge de Lucques — Vie de Gemma Galgani, 6th Italian edition (1907), French translation (online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani"). The author, a Passionist residing in Rome, was Gemma's spiritual director and the postulator of her cause. Facts verified by chapter: I — birth on 12 March 1878 at Camigliano, baptism on the 13th, father Enrico pharmacist-chemist born at Porcari (maternal descent, it is said, from the family of Saint John Leonardi, beatified in 1861, canonized on 17 April 1938 by Pius XI), mother Aurelia née Landi, move to Lucca less than a month after the birth; II — day pupil with the Sisters of Saint Zita ("Guerra institute", after its foundress Elena Guerra, canonized on 20 October 2024 by Francis), First Communion on 17 June 1887, confessor Father Volpi; III — grand gold prize for religion (year 1893-94), death of brother Eugene, seminarian, in September 1894; IV — ruin of the family, death of the father on 11 November 1897; V — stay at Camaiore, refusal of marriage; VI — retreat with the Visitation Sisters, departure on 21 May 1899. (Quotations from this work are rendered in English in the body; original in French.)
4 5 6 7 8 10 11 16Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases de Gemma Galgani, ed. Fr. Joachim of the Immaculate Conception, C.P., French translation, Librairie Brunet, Arras, 1920, ecstasy no. 33 ("Hymne sublime d'amour"), p. 268. Wording verified word for word in the French text: "Vous seul, mon Sauveur… alors même que vous êtes seul, vous pouvez tout." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
9Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chapters on the illness: grave spinal affection diagnosed as Pott's disease (spinal tuberculosis, editor's note), deviation of the spine, meningitis, deafness, falling hair, abscesses, paralysis. Red-hot points applied without anaesthetic on 4 January 1899; holy Viaticum on 2 February 1899.
12 13Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. V, "Séjour à Camaiore — Retour à Lucques — Maladie mortelle — Guérison prodigieuse (1897-1899)" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 5). Novena begun on 23 February 1899 to Blessed Margaret Mary Alacoque, with the help of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (died 1862, not yet beatified at the time); sudden and perfect healing on the first Friday of March 1899, after Communion. Word of Jesus reported by Gemma herself and quoted word for word in the same chapter: "Ma fille, après la grâce que tu viens de recevoir tu me suivras avec plus d'ardeur encore. Je serai toujours avec toi, je te servirai de père, et ta mère, la voici [la Vierge des Douleurs] … Mon assistance paternelle ne peut faire défaut à celui qui s'abandonne entre mes mains ; rien donc ne te manquera, lors même que je t'enlèverai toute consolation et tout appui sur la terre." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
14 15Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. VIII, "Gemma et les Pères Passionistes — La famille Giannini (juillet 1899…)" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 8). Last day of the mission preached by the Passionists at Lucca (July 1899), general Communion: account by Gemma herself, quoted word for word — "Tu seras une fille de ma Passion, et une fille préférée. Un de ceux-là sera ton père. Va et révèle tout." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
17Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: part of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (1838-1862, not yet beatified in Gemma's lifetime; beatified in 1908, canonized in 1920), young Passionist, as Gemma's heavenly protector: apparitions during the illness, defence against the demon, the name "Sorella mia". Fr. Germano was himself the author of a Life of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.
18Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. VI, "Aspirations vers la vie claustrale — Au couvent de la Visitation (mars-mai 1899)" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 6). Vision of an April evening of 1899, related by Gemma herself ("J'étais inquiète, écrit-elle, de ne savoir aimer…"): Jesus, showing her his five gaping wounds, says to her word for word "Regarde, ma fille, et apprends comment on aime. Vois-tu cette croix, ces épines et ces clous, ces chairs livides, ces meurtrissures, ces plaies ? Tout est l'œuvre de l'amour, et de l'amour infini. Voilà jusqu'à quel point je t'ai aimée. Veux-tu m'aimer vraiment ? Apprends d'abord à souffrir : la souffrance apprend à aimer." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
20Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: sweats of blood oozing from the forehead, head and hands, notably when Gemma heard blasphemy ("je vois Jésus souffrir beaucoup, et je souffre avec Lui" — quoted in English in the body; original in French).
23Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: medical examination ordered by Msgr Giovanni Volpi (Gemma's confessor, future bishop); nothing observable occurred before the doctor, Gemma judging that Jesus "dérobe la science" ("baffles science").
24Ennemond Boniface, Thérèse Neumann, la crucifiée de Konnersreuth devant l'histoire et la science, P. Lethielleux, Paris, 1979, pp. 411-412: missed verification of 8 September 1899 — the doctor wipes Gemma's hands with a damp cloth, the blood disappears without leaving a trace according to Father Germano quoted, then the stigmata reappear as soon as the doctor leaves; the incident earns Gemma a reputation as a fraud and great humiliations. (Quotations rendered in English in the body; original in French.)
25 26Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. IV, "Vie familiale — Héroïque patience dans de cruelles épreuves (1895-1897)" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 4). Episode "in the course of the year 1895": Gemma, having worn a gold watch and small chain offered by a relative, sees on taking them off her guardian angel, who says to her word for word: "Les seuls bijoux qui embellissent l'épouse d'un roi crucifié sont les épines et la croix." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
27Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. XVII, "L'ange gardien" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 17). The angel has Gemma write her rule under his dictation (she at the desk, he standing at her side "like a master beside his pupil"), quoted word for word in the body; the […] cut corresponds to a real passage (accusation of her faults, punctual obedience to the confessor) properly omitted.
28Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: diabolical vexations — apparitions in the form of a black dog, a giant, a cat; blows, hair torn out, writings torn up; disguises as confessor, as angel of light or as the scourged Jesus.
29Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., letter no. 8 to her confessor ("Elle est tourmentée et frappée par le démon", undated in the edition), pp. 128-129. Wording verified word for word in the French text: "Va-t'en, vilaine bête. Ne vois-tu pas qu'au lieu de me porter tort, tu me fais mériter ?" (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
30Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., ecstasy no. 29 ("Encore à propos de Jésus en croix"), p. 258. Wording verified word for word in the French text (cut of the intermediate passage marked […] in the body): "Seigneur Jésus, quand mes lèvres s'approcheront des vôtres… faites aussi que la lance blesse mon côté." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
31Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. XV, "Soif de souffrances — Victime pour les pécheurs" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 15). Word addressed by Gemma to her director ("Croyez, père, me disait-elle un jour"), quoted word for word: "Croyez, Père, que je renonce volontiers à toutes les consolations de Jésus ; je ne les veux pas. Jésus est l'Homme des douleurs, et je veux être la fille des douleurs." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
32Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. XV, "Soif de souffrances — Victime pour les pécheurs" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 15). Cry of Gemma in ecstasy ("Je veux souffrir, s'écriait-elle"), quoted word for word in the body: "Je veux souffrir avec Jésus ; ne me parlez pas d'autre chose. Je veux être semblable à Jésus, toujours souffrir tant que je vivrai, et toujours vivre pour toujours souffrir." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
33Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chapter on the victim-soul vocation: word of Jesus: "Ma fille, j'ai besoin de victimes, et de victimes fortes. Il me faut des âmes qui par leurs souffrances et leurs tribulations expient pour les pécheurs et les ingrats." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
34Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., ecstasy no. 15 ("Elle prie pour le salut des pécheurs et s'offre en victime pour eux"), pp. 220-221 (ecstasy opened p. 219 according to the table of contents). Wordings verified word for word in the French text: "Je veux absolument être victime pour les pécheurs… je veux les sauver tous." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
35Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., ecstasy no. 27, p. 253. Wording verified word for word in the French text: "N'attendez de moi rien de bon. Et que pouvez-vous espérer d'un peu de boue qui n'est apte qu'à vous offenser ?" (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
36Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., letter no. 89 to her director ("Sur l'avis de son confesseur elle se considère comme une morte", undated in the edition), p. 91. Wording verified word for word in the French text: "Je suis morte, Père. Un mort ne dit jamais : « je veux, je voudrais, je serais bien aise » ; mais il se tait et laisse faire." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
37Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., letter no. 24 to her director ("Toujours l'épreuve et la résignation", undated in the edition), p. 28. Wording verified word for word in the French text: "en faisant ce que veut la bonté de Jésus, toute croix devient une joie… Il n'y a pas de croix ni de crainte pour qui s'unit étroitement à Jésus." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
38Gemma Galgani, Lettres et Extases, ed. Joachim, op. cit., letter no. 102 to her director ("Elle compare les joies de l'Eucharistie au bonheur du ciel", undated in the edition), p. 104. Wording verified word for word in the French text: "La communion, Père, est une félicité qui… ne peut se comparer qu'à la béatitude des Saints et des Anges." (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
39Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: welcome of Gemma into the Giannini family of Lucca (summer 1899); Cecilia Giannini, "second mother" and privileged witness, charged by the director with putting Gemma's hidden life down in writing.
40Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: Fr. Germano, at first sceptical (he advised trying exorcisms), became Gemma's director in 1900, convinced by the ecstasy of the conversion of a sinner (September 1900) who confessed to him that very hour.
41Cardinal Merry del Val, letter to Fr. Germano in the name of Pius X, Rome, 19 September 1907: the Holy Father praises "une science si profonde de la théologie mystique" and expresses the wish that reading the book "ranime dans les cœurs l'amour du surnaturel". Reproduced at the head of the biography. (Quoted in English in the body where cited; original in French.)
42Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. XIII, "Humilité profonde" (Fr. transl., online text: livres-mystiques.com, "Vie de Gemma Galgani", chapter 13). "Her letters invariably ended with the following formula: 'Priez pour moi ; je suis la pauvre Gemma.'" He advised her the pious nickname of "Gemma of Jesus"; she did indeed sign herself "la pauvre Gemma de Jésus, but only for a short time", before returning until the end to "la pauvre Gemma".
43Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit., chap. XXV ("Dernière maladie"), XXVI ("Calvaire") and XXVII ("Précieuse mort — Funérailles"). Stomach closed for sixty days of absolute diet (summer 1902); relapse on 9 September, spitting of blood from the lungs on 21 September; doctors concluding a risk of contagion, isolation of the patient; Holy Week 1903 — vision of a crown of thorns being plaited (Maundy Thursday), ecstasy "crucified with Jesus" on Good Friday from ten o'clock to half past one; death on Holy Saturday, 11 April 1903, about one o'clock in the afternoon.
44 45Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: Gemma's last words on Holy Saturday, 11 April 1903: "Maintenant, il est bien vrai que je n'en puis plus. Jésus, je vous recommande ma pauvre âme… Jésus !" Death about one o'clock in the afternoon. (Quoted in English in the body; original in French.)
46Fr. Germano of Saint Stanislaus, op. cit.: recognition of the body on 24 April 1903 (thirteenth day after death); heart found fresh, red and full of living blood, of abnormal shape (wider than high). Later translation of the body; the relics rest in the Passionist Saint Gemma shrine of Lucca.
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