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Saint Gerard Majella "I would like to take this opportunity to thank Saint Gerard'" a new mother wrote recently to the director of the League of Saint Gerard. "My husband and I tried to have a baby for three years. When I spoke to our parish priest about my frustrations and heartsickness, he asked me if I ever prayed to Saint Gerard. My husband and I began to pray together, asking Saint Gerard to intercede for us. I was pregnant the next month." Another mother turned to Saint Gerard when her family was having serious problems. Her husband's alcoholism and her own irritability and inconsistency with the children profoundly affected them. But her devotion to Saint Gerard brought healing to her and her family: "Now my husband is sober, and the children and I understand more about alcoholism. We've all come a long way because of the intercession of Saint Gerard." Since the 1940s, mothers, mothers-to-be, and women trying to conceive have written over one hundred thousand letters to the League of Saint Gerard. Some women never bear children but believe Saint Gerard helped them adopt. Who is this saint who inspires thousands of mothers to unburden their hearts and seek his aid? Child's play Born on April 6, 1726, Gerard was the frail fourth child and only son of an Italian tailor named Do-menico and his wife, Benedetta. By the time Gerard was six, he knew his way around the streets of Muro and the neighboring village of Capotignano. Several times after his morning walk, he returned home flushed and animated, recounting his playful adventures with "a very beautiful boy." Each time, he presented his mother with a small snow-white loaf of bread that he said the boy had given him. Curious, Benedetta secretly followed him one day. Gerard slipped into the chapel of Capotignano and approached the statue of the Blessed Virgin with the Infant Jesus in her arms. From a shadowy corner of the chapel, Benedetta witnessed an astonishing sight. When her son knelt before the statue, the wooden figures came to life. The Infant Jesus climbed out of his mother's arms and began to play with Gerard. Fantastic though this story seems, a group of children and several adults witnessed the miracle on subsequent occasions. Gerard himself referred to it twenty years later when he was a Redemptorist Brother. "Now I know that the Child who used to give me that bread was the Infant Jesus," he said to his sister. "At the time I thought he was a child like myself." "Well, then," his sister said, "why don't you return to the chapel to visit the Madonna and the Child?" "No," he answered, "I no longer need to go to Muro to find them. Now I find the Madonna and her Child everywhere." Christ truly present Like many Italian boys his age, Gerard liked to pretend he was a priest. Unlike other boys, he spent hours in prayer before the homemade altar in his bedroom. Given Gerard's private devotions, Benedetta was surprised when her son began showing signs of restlessness during Mass. She attributed it to his longing for Communion, which he was still too young to receive. But one morning the truth came out. Trembling with indignation, Gerard marched into the sacristy after Mass and shouted at the priest, "That's a nice thing you did!" The startled priest turned to face the seven-year-old. "What thing?" he asked. "Eating a beautiful little boy!" Apparently, whenever the priest held up the consecrated host, Gerard saw him hold aloft the Infant Jesus. Workingman The way to heaven is not, of course, all sweetness and delights. At age twelve, Gerard began the rugged ascent to holiness. His first great sorrow was the early death of his father. Gerard lost a loving parent, and the family lost its sole provider. Although Gerard was an exemplary student, Benedetta was forced to remove him from school and apprentice him to a local tailor. For several years Gerard worked long hours under a brutal foreman. The foreman ridiculed and insulted the new apprentice. Gerard remained silent, which unfortunately provoked the foreman to greater fury and physical abuse. Gerard's character is evident in his persistent refusal to answer violence with hatred or spite. At fifteen, Gerard was confirmed. The bishop who conferred the sacrament was so impressed by Gerard that he asked him to become his houseboy. Gerard readily agreed, never dreaming that he would have to reckon with another hot-tempered boss. Although the bishop was not physically abusive, his frequent tirades caused most houseboys to quit. When sympathetic adults advised Gerard to do the same, he cheerfully replied, "No, the bishop wishes me well. He treats me as if I were his own son. I will serve him to the best of my ability till he dies." Not that Gerard wasn't afraid of the bishop's outbursts. One day when he was fetching water, Gerard dropped the bishop's bedroom key down the public well. He panicked, imagining the bishop's fury when he found out. Then his eyes lit up with a sudden idea. He ran back to the cathedral, entered the sacristy, and took the life-size statue of the divine Infant from the episcopal crèche. As curious villagers gathered to watch, Gerard tied a rope around the statue and let it down into the well. "Jesus," he said aloud, "you must find the key—or His Lordship might be tempted to sin by impatience." When Gerard pulled the statue up, the bishop's key was in the Infant's palm. When God closes a door... The bishop died when Gerard was eighteen years old. As Gerard considered what to do next, religious life came to mind. Years before, he had visited his uncle at a Capuchin monastery and asked to be considered for the seminary. The superior had taken one look at Gerard's pallid face and bony body and rejected him. But now Gerard was a bit older and had proven he could handle hard work. A second time he knocked at the door of the Capuchin monastery; a second time he was rejected. Gerard returned home and opened his own tailor shop. Customers flocked to his shop not only because he was a good tailor but also because he was honest and good-natured. He split his earnings three ways: one part for the family, one part for the poor, and the third for the souls in purgatory. When Gerard was twenty-three, fifteen members of a new religious institute founded by Alphonsus Liguori came to Muro to give a mission. Gerard was swept off his feet. He approached the superior, Father Cafaro, and requested permission to join the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. But the effects of tuberculosis, fasts, and harsh penances had left Gerard "looking more like a ghost than a man," as one witness said. Father Cafaro summarily dismissed him. This time, though, nothing would deter Gerard. He hung around the missionaries all day and badgered Father Cafaro. On the last day of the mission, Father Cafaro advised Benedetta to lock Gerard in his room so he wouldn't follow the missionaries out of town. Benedetta willingly complied. Although she no longer depended on Gerard for financial support, she did not want to lose her son to religious life. But when she unlocked Gerard's bedroom door the next morning, her son was gone. The window stood open and a knotted bedsheet hung from the sill. A note on the bed jubilantly proclaimed, "Have gone to become a saint!" Brother Gerard Gerard caught up with the missionaries about twelve miles outside Muro. When his tearful pleas failed to move Father Cafaro, Gerard tried a new tactic. "If you do not receive me," he said sweetly, "you will see me every day begging alms at the monastery gate." Father Cafaro could stand it no longer. Desperate to get rid of Gerard, he scribbled a note of introduction to the Redemptorist novice master and sent Gerard on his way. The note said, "I am sending you a useless lay brother." Gerard arrived at his new home in the summer of 1749. The members of the community at Iliceto doubted that the skinny new postulant would last a month. But Gerard was beside himself with happiness, and that happiness was a terrific source of energy. With joy and abandon, he scrubbed floors, washed dishes, did backbreaking work in the garden, and fulfilled the duties of sacristan. In his free time, Gerard liked to visit the sick. Patients in public hospitals had little consolation and wretched care. Gerard brought them sweets, did what he could to make them comfortable, and took pleasure in their conversation. Once his mentally ill friends were so upset when he rose to leave that they pinned him to a chair to prevent him from going. The hospital staff had to pry Gerard out of the patients' arms. At age twenty-six, Gerard made his final vows as a Brother in the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. To the Redemptorist vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and perseverance, Gerard added a personal vow: "To always do that which is most pleasing to God." Union with Christ In his brief religious life, Gerard proved to be a valuable and versatile member of the Congregation: he served as gardener, sacristan, cook, tailor, refectorian, infirmarian, carpenter, and porter. At heart, though, the hardworking Brother was a mystic. His deep union with God was manifest through frequent ecstasies, the gift of healing, and the ability to read other people's minds. The latter was particularly useful once Gerard began accompanying his confreres on missions. After a brief encounter with Gerard, hardened sinners would head straight for the confessionals. One of Gerard's companions wrote to the superior: "Brother Gerard's good example has attracted everyone and wrought many conversions. From six in the morning until six at night, crowds gather around the house where Gerard has been staying. The people are now asking not only for a mission by the Redemptorists but also a retreat." When Gerard was asked to give a conference on Saint John's Gospel to a group of seminarians, the students grumbled. What could a Brother with a primary school education teach them? But once Gerard began speaking, they were captivated. A theologian who heard Gerard speak wrote, "Learned men are silent before this poor unlettered Brother. He draws knowledge from its source, the heart of Christ, not from the muddy cisterns of the human mind. In his mouth the most obscure mysteries become luminously clear." Accused! Given human envy, perhaps it is not surprising that this good and favored religious was the subject of a malicious rumor. In 1753 a woman named Neria Caggiano accused Gerard of having had relations with a young woman. When Alphonsus Liguori received a letter informing him of the allegation, he promptly summoned Gerard. Gerard had never before met the founder and superior general of the Congregation. He stood before him and listened as Father Liguori read aloud the incriminating letter. When he had finished, Father Liguori looked up, waiting for Gerard's explanation. Gerard remained silent: he was thinking of the Congregation's Rule, which advised Redemptorists never to make excuses for themselves. Father Liguori was bewildered. Although he doubted that this highly regarded Redemptorist was guilty of the reported sin, he was forced to take the allegation seriously. He prohibited Gerard from having any contact or communication with the outside world until the matter was settled. Furthermore, Gerard was forbidden to receive Communion. For three months Gerard was in disgrace. His confreres urged him to clear his name. "It is in God's hands," Gerard answered. "If he wills that my innocence be proven, who can accomplish it more easily than he?" Meanwhile, Neria Caggiano's conscience was tormenting her. She wrote a second letter to Father Liguori, admitting she had lied. Father Liguori summoned Gerard a second time. "You were innocent all the time," he said. "Why didn't you say anything?" "How could I, Father?" Gerard replied. "Does not the Rule forbid me to excuse myself, and does it not advise me to bear in silence whatever mortifications are imposed by the superior?" Father Liguori had never intended the Rule to be taken to such a literal extreme. Nevertheless, he could not help but admire the simplicity and faithfulness of the young Brother. Heaven can't wait By the spring of 1755, Gerard's health was failing. Although he managed to go on a few more missions, it was obvious to the community that his diseased lungs would not hold out much longer. A few months before his death, Gerard wrote in a letter to a friend, "The pain is so very, very severe that I feel death coming on…At present I cannot follow in Christ's footsteps, I cannot walk, I cannot even move, being fastened with him to the cross, and in terrible agony.... Everyone seems to have abandoned me.... I bow my head and say, this is the wish of my dear Lord. I accept it.'" One of Gerard's last requests was that a sign be tacked to his door, saying, "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills." He died around midnight on October 15-16, after crying out from his bed, "Look! Look! It is the Madonna!" Countless miracles were attributed to Gerard's intercession after his death, but there is one in particular that may explain why Gerard Majella became known as the special patron of mothers. A few months before his death, Gerard visited the Pirofalo family and accidentally dropped his handkerchief. One of the Pirofalo girls spotted the handkerchief moments after he'd left the house, and she ran after Gerard to return it. "Keep it," he said to her. "You may need it someday." Years later when the girl, now a married woman, was on the verge of losing her life in childbirth, she remembered the words of the saintly Brother. She asked for the handkerchief and laid it over her womb. Almost immediately the pain disappeared, and she gave birth to a healthy child. In 1904 Pope Pius X canonized Gerard Majella. His feast day is celebrated on October 16. Article By: Alicia Von Stamwitz, Associate Editor of The Ligorian Magazine May 1994, with permission. |
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