What is Saint Gerard Remembered For?

“Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills.” 
-St. Gerard Majella

Trusting in God’s will was a tenet of St. Gerard Majella’s life from his birth. His parents had him baptized immediately on the day he was born, April 6, 1726, fearing for his frailty. It could be because of his poor health that when other boys might be found playing or working, St. Gerard often retreated to the church, where even at 5 years old he took comfort in the presence of the Eucharist.

He was fed not only spiritually during those times but also physically; he often returned home with a loaf of bread, mysteriously obtained. Growing up in poverty with his four brothers and sisters, this was a generous blessing. When questioned by his mother, Gerard would tell her about the boy who visited him at church and presented him with the loaves. His sister, unable to contain her curiosity, once followed him to the church and was a witness to the first of many miracles in which St. Gerard would participate. As he was praying before a statue of Madonna and Child, the child came down to him, played, and handed him a loaf of bread before returning to his statued state.

With such early confirmations of the presence of God, it is no surprise that St. Gerard grew in spiritual strength so that even as a 12-year-old boy, sent to live and work with his uncle after his father’s passing, he would look for the hand of God in all circumstances. When the tailor with whom he apprenticed would abuse him, Gerard looked to unite his suffering with Christ. After that foreman resigned due to Gerard’s uncle exposing his actions, the boy found work with a local Bishop whose temper was difficult to endure. All of this he bore with a spirit of expectancy, firm in the faith that God’s will would provide a path.

Eventually, Gerard would find his way - but not quite how he desired or imagined. He hoped to become a priest in the Franciscan Order but was turned away from the Capuchin monastery twice because of his poor health. He finally found a home with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (the Redemptorists) at the age of 23. At 26, he took his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience as a lay brother of the order.

Gerard’s next three years would be his last but most impactful years on earth. God used the humble and simple son of a tailor, deemed too frail for the priesthood, to revive a young boy who had fallen to his death from a high cliff. Gerard had the gift of reading consciences, and a supernatural ability to bestow courage upon those struggling with an honest and thorough confession. He once prayed over a farmer’s field, immediately driving out an infestation of mice that threatened to destroy the entire crop. He paid forward the miracle he had witnessed in his childhood when he multiplied the loaves he was distributing among the poor. He once blessed the harvest of an impoverished family, and their wheat supply miraculously lasted until the next year’s harvest.

In addition to these areas of impact, St. Gerard was also called upon as a spiritual aid to mothers and childbirth. Birthing children was an often dangerous endeavor in his time, and one distraught mother who was at risk of losing her own life and that of her baby had a healthy delivery after asking for St. Gerard to intercede and pray for her. On another occasion, he accidentally left a handkerchief at a friend’s home. When the daughter of the household went to return it, Gerard had a vision that prompted him to leave it with her. “It will be useful to you someday”, he told her. Years later, she was experiencing trauma in childbirth and recalled the cloth. It was retrieved, laid across her stomach, and she and her child were spared the fate that nearly befell them.

Prophetic visions were just one of the mystical aspects of St. Gerard’s spiritual life. He was known to levitate while in deep meditation and he experienced authenticated bilocation on more than one occasion. It seemed there was no earthly barrier that could keep him from carrying out God’s will.

With such blessings bestowed upon him, it is easy to forget that he was not a healthy man. When he was plagued with hemorrhages of the lungs at 29 years old, he requested that the following words be written on his door: “Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills.” Ever obedient, when the superior came to him and commanded that he overcome what seemed like an inevitable death, Gerard did in fact recover - though only for a short time. His visions revealed to him that he only had a few weeks before he would pass into his heavenly life, and in fact, his death did come just a month after that miraculous recovery. He faced his death as he faced his life: Steadfastly obedient to the will of God.

St. Gerard remained benevolent to expectant mothers, the poor, confessors, working people, those with vocations, and any who called on him for intercession even after his death, performing miracles as the patron saint of these communities. His life was one of quiet, consistent service and deep conversion-inducing relationships with people. It is no wonder that upon his death, many mourned the loss of “their saint”, claiming him as a friend; or that feast day bells were rung to announce his passing instead of the traditional funeral bells. Now those feast day bells can continue to ring each 16th of October, the day set aside to honor St. Gerard of Majella by Pope Pius X in 1904.

St. Gerard is our saint, too. We can call on his intercession for expectant mothers or our own childbirth experiences. We can ask him to help draw out our true confessions and for the courage to know our most authentic selves. We can relate to him in our workdays, our illnesses, our recoveries, and our simple decisions to obey the will of God in all things.

Prayer to St. Gerard
St Gerard, dear friend of God, pray that our sense of God will grow strong. Pray that Jesus Our Lord, will be a living presence in our lives. Pray that the fullness and beauty of the faith will take possession of us and bring us fully alive. Amen