Gemma Galgani

Saint Gemma Galgani was born on March 12, 1878, in Camigliano near Lucca, Italy, the first daughter in a large family. Raised amid sorrow—losing her mother and siblings to illness—she grew in quiet faith and excelled in her studies at a Catholic school. At nine she received First Communion, and as a young woman she developed a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. After surviving a grave illness she believed she was healed through heavenly intercession, and soon found herself orphaned, helping to care for her younger siblings and later serving humbly in the Giannini household. Gemma became known as an Italian mystic whose life was marked by intense prayer and a profound union with Christ’s Passion. She reported visions of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and her guardian angel, and was said to bear the stigmata beginning in 1899—earning her the title “daughter of the Passion,” especially beloved by the Passionists. After a painful decline from tuberculosis, she died on April 11, 1903, and was canonized in 1940. Her feast day is April 13.