Official feasts used to be an important part of the human community. People would gather together to remember something sacred, express their faith and hope for the future, and / or just be together formally, recognizing each other as being part of a shared community. Few things express a desire for shared companionship and social intimacy more than dining together. Sadly, the gathering together for feasting is increasingly a relic of the past – at least here in the West.
It need not be so! Today we will remember the ancient feasts.
The Feast Day of St. Gemma Galgani
This feast day is a Christian religious celebration of 19th and early 20th century Italian mystic Gemma Galgani called the “daughter of the Passion” because of her profound imitation of the Passion of Christ. She is the Patron Saint of students, pharmacists, paratroopers and parachutists, loss of parents, those suffering back injury or back pain, those suffering with headaches/migraines, those struggling with temptations to impurity and those seeking purity of heart.
Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani (12 March 1878 – 11 April 1903), also known as Gemma of Lucca, was an Italianmystic, canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church in 1940. She has been called the “daughter of the Passion” because of her profound imitation of the Passion of Christ. She is especially venerated in the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus (Passionists).
Early life
Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani was born on 12 March 1878, in the hamlet of Camigliano in the province of Capannori. Gemma was the fifth of eight children and the first daughter; her father, Enrico Galgani, was a prosperous pharmacist.
Soon after Gemma’s birth, the family relocated north from Camigliano to a larger new home in the Tuscan city of Lucca. Her parents moved the family to Lucca to increase educational opportunities available to their children. Gemma’s mother, Aurelia Galgani, contracted tuberculosis when Gemma was two and a half years old. Due to the difficulty of raising a child without her mother, young Gemma was placed in a private nursery school run by Elena and Ersilia Vallini.
Several members of the Galgani family died during this period. Their firstborn child, Carlo, and Gemma’s little sister Giulia died at an early age. On 17 September 1885, Aurelia Galgani died from tuberculosis, which she had suffered from for five years, and Gemma’s beloved brother Gino died from the same disease while studying for the priesthood.
Shortly after turning 19, Galgani was orphaned, and thereafter was responsible for raising her younger siblings, which she did with her aunt Carolina. She declined two marriage proposals and became a housekeeper with the Giannini family.
Mysticism
According to a biography by her spiritual director, Germano Ruoppolo, Galgani began to manifest the stigmata on 8 June 1899, at the age of 21. She stated that she had spoken with her guardian angel, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and other saints especially Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. According to her testimonies, she sometimes received special messages from them about current or future events. With her health in decline, Ruoppolo directed her to pray for the disappearance of her stigmata; she did so and the marks left. She said that she resisted the devil’s attacks often.
Galgani was frequently found in a state of ecstasy. She has also been reputed to levitate: she claimed that on one occasion, when her arms were around the crucifix in her dining room and was kissing the side wound of Jesus, she found herself raised from the floor.
Stigmata
Galgani is said to have experienced stigmata on 8 June 1899, the eve of the feast of the Sacred Heart. She wrote:
I felt an inward sorrow for my sins, but so intense that I have never felt the like again … My will made me detest them all, and promise willingly to suffer everything as expiation for them. Then the thoughts crowded thickly within me, and they were thoughts of sorrow, love, fear, hope and comfort.
In her subsequent rapture, Gemma saw her guardian angel in the company of the Virgin Mary:
The Blessed Virgin Mary opened her mantle and covered me with it. At that very moment, Jesus appeared with his wounds all open; blood was not flowing from them, but flames of fire which in one moment came and touched my hands, feet and heart. I felt I was dying, and should have fallen down but for my Mother (Blessed Virgin Mary) who supported me and kept me under her mantle. Thus I remained for several hours. Then my Mother kissed my forehead, the vision disappeared and I found myself on my knees; but I still had a keen pain in my hands, feet and heart. I got up to get into bed and saw that blood was coming from the places where I had the pain. I covered them as well as I could and then, helped by my guardian angel, got into bed.
The physician Pietro Pfanner, who had known Galgani since her childhood, examined her stigmata. In his opinion, the marks were signs of hysterical behaviour, and he suspected Gemma may have suffered from a form of neurosis. Pfanner examined Galgani and noted spots of blood on the palms of her hands, but when he ordered the blood be wiped off with a wet towel, there was no wound. He concluded the phenomenon to be self-inflicted. On another occasion, Galgani’s foster mother Cecilia Giannini observed a sewing needle on the floor next to her. Psychologist Donovan Rawcliffe claimed that Galgani’s stigmata were “self-inflicted wounds of a major hysteric”.
Reception
Gemma Galgani, published in 1916
Galgani was well-known in the vicinity of Lucca before her death, especially to those in poverty. Opinions of her were divided: some admired her extraordinary virtues and called her as “the virgin of Lucca” out of pious respect and admiration, while others mocked her. These included her younger sister, Angelina, who would make fun of Galgani during such experiences.
Death, canonization and veneration
In early 1903, Galgani was diagnosed with tuberculosis, and went into a long and often painful decline accompanied by several mystical phenomena. One of the religious nursing sisters who attended to her stated,
We have cared for a good many sick people, but we have never seen anything like this.
At the beginning of Holy Week 1903, her health quickly deteriorated, and by Good Friday she was suffering tremendously, eventually dying in a small room across from the Giannini house on 11 April 1903, Holy Saturday.
After a thorough examination of her life by the Church, Galgani was beatified on 14 May 1933 and canonized on 2 May 1940. Galgani’s relics are housed at the Sanctuary of Santa Gemma associated with the Passionist monastery in Lucca, Italy. Her bronze effigy atop her tomb was crafted by sculptor Francesco Nagni. In 1985, her heart was enshrined in the Santuario de Santa Gema in Madrid, Spain. Gemma Galgani’s confessor, Germano Ruoppolo, produced her biography.
What is something to eat when celebrating the Feast Day of St. Gemma Galgani?
I will be taking my lead (and picture / recipe) from Catholic Cuisine with this particular saint.
Spinach Alfredo Lasagna (with chicken and roasted red bell peppers)
whole wheat lasagna noodles 1 lb ground turkey or chicken 1 jar alfredo sauce 1 15 oz container ricotta cheese 1 box frozen chopped spinach – thawed 1 jar roasted red bell peppers – drained and chopped shredded mozzarella cheese grated parmesan cheese
1. Boil the lasagna noodles. While they cook brown the meat, and mix the spinach and peppers with the ricotta cheese. Drain the noodles.
2. Spread a little alfredo sauce on the bottom of a baking dish. This helps prevent sticking. Reserve some alfredo for the top layer. Mix the rest of the alfredo sauce with the meat. Put down a layer of noodles, a layer of meat, a layer of mozzarella, and then a layer of the ricotta mixture, repeat. (the order really isn’t terribly important, so don’t worry about it too much!) Finish with a top layer of noodles covered with alfredo, mozzarella, and some parmesan cheese
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour. Enjoy!
What is a prayer to say for the Feast Day of St. Gemma Galgani?
St. Gemma Galgani has a Feast Day novena (9 day prayer) that I will share below.
Patron Saint of Students, Pharmacists, Paratroopers and Parachutists, loss of parents, those suffering back injury or back pain.
Day 1 – St. Gemma Galgani Novena
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
O Holy St. Gemma Galgani, I am near you, help me to pray. You who know what I and those near me need, look after my urgent needs, my spiritual and material wants. You take care of them! I confide in you and entrust all to your loving care. Offer up to Jesus that tender and constant care that you bore Him here on earth.
O Holy Gemma, you who physically suffered all the pains of the Passion of Jesus, I beseech of you the grace to meditate on and live the Passion of Jesus and the sufferings of Holy Mary. Pray that I will be able to walk in the path of humility, simplicity, love and sacrifice, fulfilling at all times, and in all ways, the holy will of God. Let me live united with Jesus, the Blessed Virgin and you, for all eternity. Amen
(Mention your request here…)
St. Gemma Galgani, pray for us
Say 1: Our Father… Say 1: Hail Mary… Say 1: Glory Be…
You can read the next 8 days of the novena at the link above.
When is the Feast Day of St. Gemma Galgani celebrated?
St. Gemma’s Feast Day is celebrated on 11 April by the Roman Catholic Church, but on 16 May by the Passionists.
I hope everyone who celebrates has a wonderful day!
I’d need a military guy to back me up on this but I think Michael the Archangel is also a patron saint of paratroopers, too. Given the nature of the job, it makes sense to have multiple saints and angels helping out.
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I’ve heard about the patron saint of paratroopers many a time, and now I know who she is! Unless there’s more than one.
I’d need a military guy to back me up on this but I think Michael the Archangel is also a patron saint of paratroopers, too. Given the nature of the job, it makes sense to have multiple saints and angels helping out.