Portrait of Saint Gemma: A Stigmatic
Sr. Saint Michael
An intimate portrait of 20th Century victim soul and stigmatic Saint Gemma Galgani told through her letters, autobiographical passages, and excerpts from the ecstasies she experienced in the last years of her life. Out of print since its publication in 1950 and now back in this paperback edition, the book traces her growing perfection through the lens of St. Teresa of Avila's Seven Mansions of the Interior Castle.
Here's an excerpt:
“Then there was that little white-haired Passionist monk that God had shown her in her dreams. Already she had come to love him in her characteristically ardent way when there was no reason for restraint. He was a gift from God. He it was who was to lead her out of this labyrinth of doubts, fears, puzzlements and sometimes terrifying experiences. God had said so, and yet so often she had sought permission of Monsignor to write to him and had not received it. Her request finally granted, she still failed to lay bare that which was of most importance. She accuses herself of unconquerable pride where the reader will see only a natural reticence or a sensitiveness to revealing one’s innermost soul. Sensitiveness—this fear of what others will think or say she would call but a subtle form of the same pride. Though her soul longed to be unburdened, her mind refused to submit to the ordeal.
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