St. Gemma Galgani was a woman of heroic virtue, courage, strength, and faith.  On one occasion, while in ecstasy, she pleaded with Our Lord for the conversion of a particular sinner:

“.....You have not measured the Blood that You have shed for sinners, and now do You wish to measure the enormity of our sins? Do You not listen to me? And I, to whom must I turn? You have shed Thy Blood for him as well as for me. Will You save me and not him? I will not rise from here. Save him. Promise me that You will save him. I offer myself victim for all, but particularly for him. I promise not to refuse Thee anything. Will You grant it to me? It is a soul. Remember, oh Jesus, it is a soul that has cost You so much.”

Source: StGemmaGalgani.com

"Among these Divine favors [that Gemma received] was the very special one of manifesting in her virginal flesh the living image of Christ and mysteriously sharing in the various sufferings of His passion."

Pope Pius XII, as written in the decree
of St. Gemma's canonization

St Gemma Galgani - April 11th

Born: March 12, 1878 at Capannora, Italy
Died: April 11, 1903 of tuberculosis at Lucca, Italy
Title: "Daughter of the Passion"
Claim to Fame: Victim soul; Stigmatist; Episodes of ecstasy, levitation, communication with Our Lord, Mary, and the Archangel Gabriel  
Path:  Fully investigated; Canonized on May 2, 1940
Patron: Students, pharmacists, migraine sufferers.  
Quote: "I felt an inward sorrow for my sins, but so intense that I have never felt the like again ... My will made me detest them all, and promise willingly to suffer everything as expiation for them."


"It is an easy love, oh Jesus, to love someone that never gets angry with those who offend Him. Many times I have seen, oh Jesus, that while justice demands that I be punished, You take steps to prevent this punishment, even to have it withdrawn. I have found a Jesus so infatuated with my heart that He knows not how to punish it…..”

On her deathbed, being asked by one of the nursing Sisters in attendance what virtue was the most important and dearest to God, Gemma answered ‘humility; humility is the foundation of all the others'.

Galgani is alleged to have experienced stigmata on 8 June 1899, on the eve of the feast of the Sacred Heart. She writes:

I felt an inward sorrow for my sins, but so intense that I have never felt the like again ... My will made me detest them all, and promise willingly to suffer everything as expiation for them. Then the thoughts crowded thickly within me, and they were thoughts of sorrow, love, fear, hope and comfort.

In the subsequent rapture, Gemma saw her guardian angel in the company of the Blessed Virgin Mary:

The Blessed Virgin Mary opened her mantle and covered me with it. At that very moment Jesus appeared with his wounds all open; blood was not flowing from them, but flames of fire which in one moment came and touched my hands, feet and heart. I felt I was dying, and should have fallen down but for my Mother (Blessed Virgin Mary) who supported me and kept me under her mantle. Thus I remained for several hours. Then my Mother kissed my forehead, the vision disappeared and I found myself on my knees; but I still had a keen pain in my hands, feet and heart. I got up to get into bed and saw that blood was coming from the places where I had the pain. I covered them as well as I could and then, helped by my guardian angel, got into bed.

Source: Wikipedia

The Deathbed of St. Gemma