On October 16 this year we will celebrate the life and witness of St Gerard Majella. This great hero of holiness died aged only twenty nine but in his short but fruitful life left a fragrant legacy of one dedicated and committed to serving and loving God and neighbour, especially expectant mothers!

Who was St Gerard?

It is an unlikely story. A young brother belonging to a religious order called the Redemptorists becomes the patron of mothers, especially at the time when they are expecting their child.

The story begins on 6 April 1726 when Gerard was born in the obscure little town of Muro in southern Italy. Very frail and not expected to survive, he was baptized the same day, but survive he did, although he never enjoyed robust health. Little is known about his parents Dominic Majella and Berita Galella, but we do know they ran a small tailoring business and had a deep Christian faith that was passed on to their new-born child. Gerard’s mother, who died three years before her son, was clearly a pious, obliging woman from whom Gerard inherited his sensitive soul.
Gerard was only twelve years old when his father died. Southern Italy at that time was suffering deep economic hardship and his mother, with no resources, was obliged to take him from school and had him apprenticed to a local tailor, so he became the family bread winner providing for his mother and three elder sisters. The supervisor in the business – a difficult and demanding character – immediately took a dislike to Gerard on account of his obvious piety, and the young apprentice would often be bullied and beaten by him for no good reason.
When Gerard was fifteen he became a soldier of Christ through the Sacrament of Confirmation. The officiating bishop Claudio Albini of the diocese of Lacedonia was very impressed by Gerard’s reputation and piety and suggested that he should work for him as his assistant. He was advised by friends not to take the job and he soon discovered why! Although the bishop was a man of many gifts – administrative and pastoral – he had a most unholy temper. Gerard, though frequently scolded and threatened, genuinely loved bishop Claudio as a father and was distraught when he died in 1744.

In 1745, at the age of nineteen, he established himself as a tailor in his own right. His business flourished but, after setting aside enough money for his family, he gave the rest to the poor or donated it as Mass offerings for the souls in purgatory. There was no startling conversion for Gerard: it was just a steady growth in his love for God.
Then, during Lent of 1747, he resolved to be as completely like Christ as it was possible; he undertook most severe penances and actually sought out humiliation, pretending to be mad and quite happy to be laughed at in the streets. He wanted to serve God totally and applied to join the Cappuchin friars but was not accepted. At twenty-one he tried the life of a hermit. He so wanted to be like Christ that he jumped at the chance to take centre stage in a passion play A Living Tableau in Muro cathedral. So realistic was his depiction of the crucifixion that his mother fainted at the sight.

In April 1749 some Redemptorists led by a Fr Cafaro arrived in Muro and quickly won the hearts of the people. The Redemptorists had been founded in 1732 by St Alphonsus Liguori to preach the gospel to the neglected poverty-stricken people in the country districts around Naples. The young Gerard was drawn to the kind of life they led and, despite objections from various quarters, he left to begin a six-month postulancy at the monastery of Deiceto.

After some months at the novitiate Gerard was appointed sacristan of the church, a role in which he demonstrated deep compassion towards the poor. Gerard’s growth in holiness was firmly based on genuine humility. He sincerely felt he was lacking in many good qualities and was constantly asking others to pray for him that he might remedy what he believed to be a lax life. He was ever ready to accept insults and injuries and express regret to his divine Master that others thought well of him. In time, people began to revere Gerard as the ‘new’ St Francis of Assisi – frugal in eating, given to mortification, serene in demeanour, his heart always given directed to God.

Whenever the monastery embarked on missions to the surrounding area, Gerard would always go to help with the domestic work and would find himself caught up in all the problems of the parish. Blessed with a pleasant and engaging manner, he was happy to teach others how to pray and would walk with them in the way of God, always leading by example. Missioners knew the success of the mission was guaranteed if Gerard was with them.

Gerard’s gifts were well known so people followed him wherever he went; yet when asked for a miracle he would point to the tabernacle and say: ‘Jesus works miracles and dispenses grace, not me.’ He would do anything to avoid the praise which he knew belonged to God. Nothing was unimportant to Gerard if it was God’s will; cooking the dinner, washing the dishes or answering the door was vastly more important than miracles. When he saw a need it had to be met.

He vowed always to do the most perfect thing – the will of God at this moment. Gerard was simply in love with God and he showed it. When the Christmas crib was set up he danced with joy! He revealed the same excitement that King David showed when, as scripture tells us, he danced with joy, whirling around before the Lord with all his might. Full of joy at the love of God he was happy to sing and play. Gerard wanted everyone to be holy and happy, and he was always concerned to help those in especial need – at all costs.

The origin of Gerard’s title can be traced to two dramatic incidents in which his prayers had a profound and miraculous effect. The first occurred in his lifetime in the town of Senechia. A woman was dying in childbirth. Her husband and the family knew Gerard and begged him to pray for them; he prayed and both mother and baby lived.
The second began during his lifetime but was completed after his death. While Gerard was visiting a family in Oliveto he dropped his handkerchief and one of the children picked it up for him. ‘Keep it,’ replied Gerard, ‘it may be useful to you some day.’ Years later, when that same girl was expecting her first child, she became dangerously ill, and the lives of both mother and child were in grave danger. Suddenly remembering Gerard and the handkerchief, she asked for it, and as soon as it was brought to her she began to get better and her baby was born without further trouble. Since then, thousands of expectant mothers have given testimony to the power of prayer to St Gerard.

Just over five years after Gerard joined the Redemptorists, the tuberculosis that had troubled him for many years finally caught up with him. In the last days before he died he asked that a sign be placed on the door of his room: ‘The Will of God Is Done Here’.
An acquaintance with the life of Gerard would suggest that his most radical desire, his basic passion, was to do God’s will. He spoke of this desire so often that it was clear to his contemporaries that the real meaning of his life was to love God’s will. Doing God’s will meant for Gerard an ever-closer union with Jesus.

Gerard died during the night of 15 October 1755 at the monastery of Materdomini. This setting has now become a great centre of pilgrimage to which people flock each year from all over Italy and indeed the world.

In a decree in March 1892, Pope Leo XIII set 29 January 1893 as the date for Gerard’s beatification. This led to an increase in devotions to him in many countries. Favours attributed to this humble Redemptorist brother kept increasing and on 11 December 1904 Gerard Majella was canonized by Pope Pius X.