St Gemma Galgani – 11 April
By Catherine Sheehan
The Catholic Church has always taught that angels are real. Both the Old and New Testaments refer often to angels as real beings, the messengers of God, who interact with human beings.
The most famous of course is the archangel Gabriel who appeared to Our Lady at the Annunciation.
The Church also teaches that each member of the faithful has their own personal guardian angel.
One saint who had regular encounters with her guardian angel was young Italian woman, St Gemma Galgani (1878-1903). This extraordinary woman grew up in Lucca, Tuscany, and developed a strong love for God from an early age.
Gemma began seeing her guardian angel when she was 17 years-old.
According to her spiritual director, Venerable Fr Germanus Ruoppolo CP, Gemma had a close and familiar relationship with her angel. Fr Germanus wrote, “The visible presence of her Angel Guardian, with which Gemma was singularly favored by God, was for her one of the most natural experiences. Her Angel used to talk to her as ordinary mortals talk to their friends.”
Gemma was able to see her angel standing beside her bed throughout the night to protect her, and throughout the day he would encourage her to practice virtue.
She once said, “My Angel is a little severe; but I am glad of it. During the past days he brought me to order as often as three or four times a day.”
She would send written messages to Fr Germanus via her angel and the priest testified that he did indeed miraculously receive her letters.
In seeking to explain why Gemma was so favoured by God, Fr Germanus thought it was due to her child-like faith.
“Those in Heaven liked to play, so to speak, with a child whose simplicity was so endearing to them,” he wrote.
Indeed, Gemma’s life was permeated by supernatural phenomenon. At 19 she suffered from curvature of the spine and paralysis and was miraculously healed through the intercession of St Gabriel Possenti, who appeared to her.
In 1899 the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to Gemma and she received the stigmata—the wounds of Christ’s passion in her own body.
It seems, however, that Heaven could not long-stand to be separated from Gemma, and she died from tuberculosis on Holy Saturday, 11 April 1903, at the tender age of 25.
Fr Germanus left a valuable piece of advice for those who think such holiness is out of reach:
“Do not envy her,” he wrote. “For we also have received an angel to look after us from the same Heavenly Father. And if, like Gemma, we are very pure, humble, simple-hearted, and full of faith and holy desires to be perfect, we will be surrounded by as much concern and love.”