Read about this 19th century saint in her official and authoritative biography written by her spiritual director, Venerable Fr. Germanus, C.P., "The Life of St. Gemma Galgani". An excerpt follows:
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THE LIFE OF ST. GEMMA GALGANI
by Fr. Germanus of St. Stanislaus, Passionist
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Chapter 20
Assistance of St. Gemma's Guardian Angel.
A Great Help to her Sanctification.
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One of the most consoling dogmas of the Holy Faith is that of the assistance of the Angels.
After the fall, man had need in his misery and weakness of being especially helped and protected, in order to attain the end for which he was created. And God in His Love, wishing to give him assistance, deputed for this purpose the ministering spirits of His heavenly court. He accordingly assigned one of these holy spirits, rightly called "our good Angels," to each one of us. They take us by the hand on our first entrance into life and never leave us while life lasts. "Behold," says the Lord, "I will send My Angel, who will go before thee, and guard thee in thy way, and introduce thee into the land that I have prepared for thee."
. . .
She, [Gemma], was well prepared to treat with Angels by her many striking virtues: They were innocence, purity, candor, child-like simplicity and, at the same time, a most lively faith that enabled her to see, as it were without veil, the sublimest heavenly truths. Her holy Guardian must have found in his consoling charge something partaking of the angelic nature, which enabled him to carry on a familiar relationship with her.
What assuredly will be thought most singular in this angelic communication is what I may call the sensitive as well as the constant presence of the Angel. Gemma saw him with her eyes, touched him with her hand as if he were a being of this world, remained talking with him as one friend would with another. "Jesus," she said, "has not left me alone; He makes my Guardian Angel stay with me always." She thanked God most earnestly for this benefit and also declared her deep gratitude to the Angel. "If I am sometimes culpable, dear Angel," she said to him, "don't be angry with me, I wish to be grateful to thee." And the Angel to her: "Yes, I shall be thy guide and inseparable companion. Dost thou not know who it is that gave me charge of thee? It is the merciful Jesus." At this the angelic girl, unable to restrain her emotion, stood rapt in ecstasy with her Angel. What happened then is told by Gemma herself in the following simple words: "We both remained with Jesus. Oh, Father, if you also had been there!" And for her to remain with Jesus meant being engulfed mind and heart in the immense abyss of God's Divinity, there to behold and hear and learn secret things.
As a rule during those intimate meetings, a considerable time was spent in praying together and offering praise to the Most High. . . . Now as Gemma all day and during a great part of the night was intent on prayer, and that with great ardor of faith and extraordinary devotion, must not the Angel of the Lord have greatly rejoiced thereat? He let her see him sometimes raised in the air with outspread wings, and his hands extended over her or else joined in attitude of prayer. At other times he knelt beside her. . . . When it was the time of meditation, the Angel inspired her with sublimest ideas and moved her affections so that the result of the holy exercise might be perfect. And as the subject of these meditations was, for the most part, the Passion of Our Lord, the Angel, like a good master, laid open its profound mysteries to her soul. "Look," he would exclaim, "at what Jesus has suffered for men. Consider one by one these Wounds. It is Love that has opened them all. See how execrable sin is, since to expiate it, so much pain and so much love have been necessary." These and other such exquisite reflections, like rays of light and fire, went straight to the heart of the fervent child.
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