The Story of Saint Gemma Galgani, the Saint of Lucca

Saint Gemma Galgani was a mystic and seer from Lucca who died very young. Closely associated with the Passionist movement, she never entered a monastery, but she is still remembered today by those who seek urgent grace.

On 11 April, the Church celebrates the liturgical memory of Saint Gemma Galgani, a mystic and seer who died at only 25 years of age, beatified in 1933 and canonised in 1940 by Pope Pius XII. The Archdiocese of Lucca, the city where the young woman lived her brief life, and the Passionist Order, with which she was always closely connected, celebrate her memory on 16 May.

Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani was born in 1878 in Camigliano, in the municipality of Capannori, in the province of Lucca. Her family was well-off, with properties and land, but her father lost everything after the premature death of his wife, Gemma’s mother, who died of tuberculosis in 1886. It seems that it was on the occasion of her mother’s death that Gemma first heard the inner voice that would accompany her throughout her life, asking her to let her mother go. The child, who was then seven years old, was forced to give up all the comforts she was used to and move with her father and many siblings to a modest home. It was while studying with the Oblate Sisters of the Holy Spirit that Gemma began to feel a growing closeness to God and had the opportunity to meet many religious figures who nurtured her faith, such as Monsignor Giovanni Volpi, who would become her spiritual guide and confessor. Sister Camilla Vagliensi and Giulia Sestini encouraged her to delve deeper into and meditate on the sufferings endured by Jesus during the Passion and to practise humility and penance. However, due to her frail health, Gemma was never admitted to a convent, despite her fervent desire.

In 1894, Gemma Galgani also lost Gino, her favourite brother, a seminarian who died of tuberculosis at eighteen. Gemma suffered so deeply from this loss that she tried to fall ill herself by wearing her brother’s clothes and indeed contracted the disease, becoming bedridden.

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Shortly after, her father also passed away, and the family’s scant finances were depleted. At nineteen, she was taken in by her aunt, Carolina Galgani. She rejected the advances of several young men who wished to marry her, having already decided to belong solely to Jesus.

Since 1899, Gemma had been drawn to the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ, founded in 1720 by Saint Paul of the Cross, and had followed the preaching of the Passionist Fathers. It was Father Gaetano Guidi who spoke with her and guided her to embrace for the first time the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Meanwhile, the young woman’s health deteriorated further, with excruciating kidney pain and progressive paralysis of her legs due to osteitis of the lumbar vertebrae, compounded by acute purulent otitis media. Bedridden and nearing death, Gemma came into contact with Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, a young Passionist mystic who had died very young, to whom Gemma was deeply devoted, and who would appear to her several times. The girl claimed to feel his presence while praying, even sensing the warmth of his hands and breath. On Monsignor Volpi’s advice, Gemma prayed a novena to Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, and once again, she heard the inner voice asking if she wished to be healed. So it happened, to the astonishment and disbelief of all.

After her recovery, Gemma tried to enter the Monastery of the Visitation in Lucca but was not accepted there either. The Giannini family, a wealthy household that hosted Passionist Fathers passing through the city, offered her food and lodging. Through the Passionists, Gemma had befriended Cecilia Giannini, who lived with her brother Matteo Giannini, a pharmacist, and his large family. She lived with them for four years, guided by Monsignor Volpi and Germano Ruoppolo, a member of the Passionist movement who would become her first biographer and tireless advocate for her beatification.

She was removed from the house out of fear of contagion when her tuberculosis worsened. She died shortly after, on Holy Saturday, 11 April 1903, at just twenty-five years old. Shortly before her death, Gemma had received from Jesus the exhortation to found a monastery of Passionist nuns in Lucca, which was established after her death. Her body was dressed in the Passionist habit, which she had longed to wear in life, and her remains are still preserved in the monastery built according to her wishes.

The Diary of Saint Gemma Galgani

Gemma Galgani’s diary offers a remarkable testimony of her life and faith journey. Here, the Saint speaks of the vow of chastity she pronounced in 1899 and her first mystical experiences. Her mystical ecstasies occurred every Thursday, characterised by the apparitions of an angel and, according to popular tradition, by sweating blood, crowning with thorns, and other physical manifestations, which led to the appearance of stigmata on 8 June 1899, the Octave of Corpus Christi and the eve of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. During each ecstasy, the stigmata would reopen and bleed, closing again on Saturday morning.

The diary also contains her dialogues with Jesus, Mary, her Guardian Angel, and Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

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The Sanctuary Dedicated to Saint Gemma Galgani

The Monastery of the Passionist Nuns on Via del Tiglio in Lucca was fervently desired by Gemma Galgani, who, during one of her mystical ecstasies, received the commission to establish it from Christ. Today, the monastery is dedicated to her memory. The original building dated back to 1771, while the new project began in 1935 and was completed, after several interruptions, in 1965. Here, beneath the main altar, the remains of the young Saint rest in an urn.

Prayers to Saint Gemma Galgani

Due to Gemma Galgani‘s spiritual intensity and her ceaseless dialogue with God, many of the faithful turn to her in search of specific graces and for help and support in times of emergency. Here are some prayers to Saint Gemma to obtain urgent grace and to invoke her intercession with God.

“Saint Gemma, you who were touched by divine grace and lived an exceptional spiritual life, I pray you to intercede with God to obtain the grace that is so dear to my heart. I entrust this request to you, hoping it may be granted and that you may be my comfort and help in this difficult moment. Amen.”

Or:

“Saint Gemma, beloved saint, I pray you to intercede with God for me in this time of need. I ask you to grant the grace I so ardently desire. With faith and devotion, I turn to you, confident that you will help me with your powerful intercession. Thank you, Saint Gemma, for all the blessings you have already granted me, and I pray you to continue to protect and guide me always. Amen.”

To Obtain a Grace Through the Intercession of Saint Gemma Galgani:

“Dear Jesus, here I am at your holy feet to show you how much I appreciate all you have done for me and all you still wish to do. When I needed you, Jesus, you always made me happy. On many occasions, I have turned to you, and you have always comforted me. Dear Jesus, how can I express my gratitude? I would like to ask for another favour, O my God, if it pleases you.

(state the grace you desire)

If you were not omnipotent, I would not ask you this. O Jesus, have mercy on me! May everything be done according to your most pure will.

(Recite the Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be)

Another Prayer of Saint Gemma:

“O my Crucified God, here I am at your feet. Do not reject me now that I come before you as a sinner. I have offended you greatly in the past, my Jesus, but it shall be so no longer. Before you, my God, I present all my sins… I have already considered them and see that they do not deserve forgiveness, but look, I pray, upon your sufferings and see the value of the Blood that flows through your veins. Close your eyes to my unworthiness at this moment and open them to your infinite merits, and since you have been pleased to die for my sins, forgive them all, so that I may never again feel their burden, for that burden, O Jesus, oppresses me greatly. Help me, my Jesus, I want to become good at all costs: remove, destroy, annihilate all that is in me that is not in accordance with your will. I pray you, Jesus, to enlighten me so that I may walk in your light. Amen.”

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