Saint Gemma Galgani

Saint Gemma Galgani

The 11th of April is the feast day of Saint Maria Gemma Umberta Galgani (March 12, 1878 – April 11, 1903). 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.

She was born in Italy, the fifth child of eight children to a pharmacist. When she was young, her mother and three of her siblings died. When she was 18 years old, her father died too, and she had to take care of her younger siblings. Rejecting two marriage proposals, she tried to enter the Passionist as a religious. But she was rejected because of her bad health. She instead became a Tertiary member of the Order. She developed spinal meningitis and was miraculously healed, attributing this to the intercession of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows and Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She experienced suffering as she united herself with the Passion of Christ and had many visions, being visited often by her guardian angel, Jesus and His Mother, Mary. She is known as a mystic and developed the stigmata at the age of 21, according to her spiritual director. She died on the Vigil of Easter, aged 25 years old.