Gemma Galgani

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Saint Gemma Galgani

"The Virgin of Lucca"
Born March 12, 1878 in Camigliano, Italy
Died April 11, 1903
Beatified 1933
Canonized May 2, 1940 by Pope Pius XII
Major shrine Passionist monastery in the city of Lucca, Italy
Feast
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Saint Gemma Galgani (born March 12, 1878 in Camigliano, Italy, died April 11, 1903) is a Catholic saint who was canonized by Pope Pius XII on May 2, 1940.

The beautiful and pious daughter of a poor pharmacist, Gemma suffered throughout her life with ill health, because of it she was unable to finish her schooling despite her good grades and was not accepted to become a Passionist nun. At age 20, she even fell extremely ill with meningitis, and contributed her miraculous recovery from the disease to prayers to Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Gemma was orphaned at a quite young age (her mother died when she was 7, her father few after she turned 18); after helping her aunt to raise her younger siblings and turning down two marriage proposals, she was taken in by the Giannini family, with whom she lived and worked as a housekeeper for years.

In 1899, she began to display signs of the stigmata. Every Thursday evening she would fall into rapture and the bleeding would start, by Saturday morning it would stop, leaving only small marks behind. It would continue to happen to her until the last three years of her life, when after a talk with her counselor she prayed for it to stop; still, she was left with some white scars on the places where the stigmata developed.

Gemma often claimed that, during her raptures, she had seen and spoken with her guardian angel (whom she even sent once or twice to run errands for her if she was too busy with housework), though during her last days it was said that she was tempted by the Devil as well, who even came to physically injure her. Before Gemma's death, she was already well-known among the Catholic community of Lucca, her hometown, who nicknamed her "The Virgin of Lucca".

In early 1903 Gemma was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died not long after. She was beatified in 1933 and canonized in 1940. Today, Gemma's remains are treasured at the Passionist monastery in the city of Lucca, in Italy.

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