Saint of the Week: St. Gemma Galgani

Today's saint is brand new to me again.  I was reading through our catechist magazine about Easter and saw the tiniest little blurb about Gemma:

St. Gemma (April 11) often talked to her guardian angel.  Remember to thank yours for his protection (and try not to test his patience too much!)

So, for starters - angels are not humans, nor can humans become angels.  Angels are seperate beings, ethereal in substance and appearance (it's said humans cannot see them under normal circumstances) and were created by God.  Humans, also created by God, are His children, whereas angels are His servants. 

Angelore is something I'll probably get in to later down the road, as it fascinates me.  But for today, we're focusing on St. Gemma.

Here's some more info I found on her: 
March 12, 1878 – April 11, 1903

She was the fifth of eight children, born to a relatively wealthy family (her father was a pharmacist) in Italy.  By the time she was 18, both her parents and three of her older sibliings had died from tuburcelosis.

She was not allowed to join the Order of the Passionists because of her poor health and the visions she received.  Instead, she turned her life to serving her family - she took a position as a housekeeper and turned down two marriage proposals and together, with her Aunt Carolina, raised her brothers and sisters.

At the age of 21 she began exibited the stigmata (wounds of Christ) on her hands.  She received several powerful visions, including one of her guardian angel and Mary. 

Her own young sister, Angelina openly mocked her gift of visions and initial opinion of her from the Church was of grave skepticism.  However, after a series of intense interviews with Gemma, her spiritual director, and others, it became known and accepted that her visions and suffering were true. 

She died at age 35, after a long battle with tubercelosis and was canonized within 30 years, extremely fast for any saint.  She is extremely popular in Italy and Latin American and is a patron saint of pharmicists, as that was her field of study (she was top in her class) at St. Zita's before she withdrew to attend to her family.

Note on Guardian Angels:

We all have them.  In fact, if we ask they will reveal their name.  When was the last time you spoke with yours?  I'm going to go talk with mine. 

Peace, Abby