THE PRODIGIOUS LIFE AND MIRACLES OF ST. GERARD MAJELLA
St. Gerard Majella is the patron of pregnant women and
children. There are many stories of remarkable healings
attributed to him; stories of a man of faith that felt such an
emotion for the mothers’ tears and the children’s cries to
respond with the prayer of the heart: a prayer imbued with
faith, that urged God to perform miracles. The worship for
him has gone beyond the Italian borders over the centuries
and it is now widespread in America, Argentina, Canada,
Australia and European countries.
His life was made of obedience, concealment, humiliation
and fatigue: it was marked by the incessant desire to
comply with the crucified Christ and do his will with joy.
The love for others and the suffering made him an
exceptional and tireless miracle worker who firstly healed
the spirit - through the sacrament of reconciliation - and
then the body, operating inexplicable healings.
Over his twenty-nine years of earthly life he operated in
many countries in the south of Italy, Campania, Puglia and
Basilicata, in particular in Muro, Lacedonia, Santomenna,
San Fele, Deliceto, Melfi, Atella, Ripacandida, Castelgrande,
Corato, Monte Sant'Angelo, Naples, Calitri, Senerchia, Vietri
of Potenza, Oliveto Citra, Auletta, San Gregorio Magno,
Buccino, Caposele Materdomini. Each of these places
professes a sincere devotion for him, for the miraculous
events that took place there, facts related to the presence
of the young man who was soon considered a saint on
earth.
Gerard was born in Muro (PZ) in April 6, 1726 from
Benedetta Cristina Galella, a woman of faith that conveyed
him the awareness of God’s immense love for His
creatures, and Domenico Maiella, a laborious and devoted
tailor, who lived in modesty. For his parents God was also
for the poor, therefore the family grew robust and accepted
difficulties with joy.
Since his early childhood he had already drawn to places of
worship, in particular the chapel of the Virgin in
Capodigiano, where he said he often would receive the gift
of a white roll from the son of that beautiful Lady who
moved away from his mother to do so. Only when he was
an adult, the future saint realized that generous child was
the very Jesus, and not a child of the earth.
The symbolic value of that white roll unconsciously got
through to Gerard the enormous value of the liturgical
bread: when he was only eight, he tried to receive the
Eucharist, but the priest rejected him because of his young
age. The following night his desire was fulfilled by the
Archangel Michael who offered him the coveted Eucharist.
At the age of twelve, his father’s sudden death made him
the main source of sustenance of the family. He
apprenticed as a tailor at Martino Pannuto’s, whose
workshop was a place of marginalization and mistreatment
for the presence of arrogant and discriminatory young men.
His teacher, instead, had great confidence in him and took
him to cultivate the fields when work was scarce.
One evening Gerard inadvertently set fire to the barn while
he was here with another child, Martino’s son: everyone
was in a panic except for Gerard who did not lose heart but
made the sign of the cross and concentrated in a short,
silent prayer, after which the flames were instantly and
miraculously extinguished.
The 5th June 1740 Monsignor Claudio Albini, Bishop of
Lacedonia, imparted Gerard the sacrament of Confirmation
and offered to hire him in the service of the bishop.
Albini was known for his rigor and little patience, but
Gerard was happy with the hard life he lived, thinking that
reprimands and sacrifices, to which he added corporal
punishment and fasts, could become a faint means to be
conformed to Christ crucified. Mysterious facts occurred
even here, as when the Bishop Albini’s keys fell into the
well: he ran to the church, took a figurine of baby Jesus
and pleaded him for help before lowering it into the well
with a pulley. When the icon was hoisted again it was
dripping water but held in his hand the keys lost.
Thenceforth the well is called “Gerardiello’s well”. When
Albini died, Gerard mourned him as a loving friend and a
second father.
Once come back to Muro, he experienced a week in the
mountains as a hermit, then he went to Santomenna,
where Gerard hoped to get his uncle p. Bonaventure’s
support to its vocation. But he refused to help him since he
was sickly. From that moment on until he was accepted by
the Redemptorists, Gerard always met a general refusal for
his intentions. Meanwhile he opened a tailor shop and the
following year he compiled the tax return in his own hand.
The craftsman lived a modest condition because its motto
was: “Those who own something, please give it, and those
who do not have anything, please take it”. He was often
withdrawn into adoration of the tabernacle in his spare
time, where he conversed with Jesus whom he
affectionately nicknamed “Madcap” because he is the living
God who chose to be imprisoned there for love of His
creatures.
The celibate life of the twenty-year-old Gerard was constant
object of attention for his countrymen who would urge him
to get engaged, but he was in no hurry and would say them
that soon he would announce the name of the woman of his
life: he did it on the third Sunday of May when jumped on
the platform that was passing in procession, slipped his ring
to the Virgin and intimately consecrated to her with a vow
of chastity, proclaiming aloud that he had engaged to the
Madonna.
The following year, in August 1748 the fathers of the
Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer came to Muro. It
was founded by the future saint Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori
sixteen years before. Gerard applied for novitiate but was
turned down many times because of his frail appearance.
On April 4, 1749 he was chosen to play the crucified Christ
in the living representation of Calvary in Muro. He did it by
trying to offer his people the greatest awareness of Jesus’
sacrifice, his mother fainted when she saw her son covered
in blood from the body and the head, pierced by a crown of
thorns in a silent and stunned cathedral moved by pity for
this young figurant.
On April 13, Low Sunday, Redemptorists returned to Muro
with a full program of catechesis which Gerard participated
with fervor. The Fathers rejected once again his desire to
join them and the day of their departure they advised his
mother to lock him in the room to avoid him to follow them.
The boy bound the sheets and left the room, leaving a
prophetic note to her: “I'm going to become a saint”.
Therefore he reached the fathers on their way to Rionero in
Vulture and implored them to put him to the test. In the
letter sent to the founder Alfonso Maria de’ Liguori, Gerard
was presented as a useless, fragile and sickly postulant.
The twenty-three-year old boy was meanwhile sent to the
religious house of Deliceto (FG), where in July 16, 1752 he
took his vows.
The six years before returning to her father's house are
punctuated by prodigious events narrated in the paragraph
"MIRACLES" of this website.