“La povera Gemma”

Poor Gemma – It is how she often signed the letters she wrote to her spiritual director Father Germano Ruoppolo, CP. Saint Gemma Galgani was a lay young woman who lived in Lucca, Italy. Her early childhood was spent in Camigliano at approximately eleven miles from Lucca. Gemma's life was marked with joys in her family that was once united and stable. But everything changed when her father Enrico Galgani died.Zecca, T.P. Santa Gemma Galgani. Torino: San Paolo, 2008: 15.

The Galgani family was reduced to poverty; the children were dispersed among relatives and Gemma became the adoptive daughter of a pious woman Cecilia Giannini who witnessed all the graces she received from God. Gemma is better known as the stigmatized saint of the nineteenth century; having received the visible marks of the sufferings endured by Jesus Christ during his Passion, Gemma experienced adversity, mockery and incomprehension but also love, forgiveness and charity.

Gemma had discovered at an early age the hidden treasures of charity towards the poor; she saw in them the living image of Jesus Christ.

“Every time I left the house I asked my father for money. If he sometimes refused it, I would take bread, flour, or some such thing. And God himself would see to it that I met some poor people, for every time I left the house there would be three or four. To those who came to the door I would give clothes or whatever else I had."The Autobiography of Saint Gemma Galgani. Catholic Way Publishing, 2014: 14.

Gemma's charity was so great that her confessor had to moderate her desires for helping the poor. A similar behaviour is found in the life of Saint Gabriel of our Lady of Sorrows, a young professed Passionist who died at the age of twenty four; he gave everything to the poor, especially the little money he could save. This became a motive of quarrel between his family members reminding him to be moderate in giving.Cingolani, Gabriele. Saint Gabriel Possenti, Passionist. A Young Man in Love. New York: Saint Paul, 1997: 23.

Gemma never felt abandoned by Jesus in the middle of her struggles; she writes to Father Ruoppolo:

“Jesus, during those days of sorrow, made Himself all the more sensibly present in my soul."Autobiography, 22-23.

For Gemma, poverty was not an end; material and spiritual poverty could have fruitful consequences of detachment and deepening a life of prayer.Sainte Gemma Galgani, lettres. Paris: Tequi, 1987: 443. Saint Gemma is a model to follow; our poverty should not be an obstacle for a life of profound union with God. She reminds us that God is always present in our lives and He shares our joys and sorrows.

- Celia Heresco