Dying young

I am always especially interested to learn about saints who were tertiaries (lay members) of other Orders, and I learn that today’s saint Gemma Galgani (1878-1903) was a tertiary of the Passionist Order.  She resembles our St Teresa in that she had many mystical experiences including levitation and ecstasy.  What’s also moving is that she was a near contemporary of St Therese of Lisieux and St Elizabeth of the Trinity; all three of these extraordinary women died young.  Like Therese (and like St Teresa of Avila), Gemma wrote a memoir of her own life at the behest of another person.  This era seems to have been very rich in saints who died young, and soon Therese, Elizabeth, and Gemma would be followed by a fourth who died the youngest of them all - St Teresa of the Andes OCD (1900-1920)  It is so poignant to think of these special lives cut short in their prime – what further treasures they might have bequeathed us had they lived longer! But this thought brings us back to the Adorable Providence that works everything for good.  Perhaps the very fact that they died so young is part of their beauty, a poignancy that draws us to them.

Intercessions:

Brian Davis – cancer

Marie, Bernard (and wife Angela) - cancer

Siena, Elara – sick children

Wojtek – massive heart attack leaving him incapacitated

David - housebound

Sophia – blind infant

Rosemarie – back in hospital