Feastday: October 16
Patron: of expectant mothers
Death: 1755
Beatified: January 29, 1893, by Pope Leo XIII
Canonized: December 11, 1904, by Pope Saint Pius X
St. Gerard Majella is the patron of expectant mothers. He was born in 1726 in Muro, Italy to a family of seven. Majella grew up in a poverty with a great respect for the poor. As he was just 12 when his father passed away, he was forced to grow up fast. Shortly after his father's death, his mother sent him away to live with his uncle and learn to become a tailor, like his father. After a few years of working as a sewing apprentice, Majella took on a job with the local Bishop of Lacedonia as a servant.
Once Majella began earning money as a journeyman at the age of 21, he split his earnings with his mother, the poor of Muro and the rest in offerings for the poor souls. As the days passed, Majella began to grow pale and thin, often fasting and in prayer at a nearby Cathedral.
He applied to the Capuchin monastery at Muro twice, but was turned down both times. Majella was told his health was not well enough for such a strenuous life. However, Majella did not give up. In 1749, at the age of 23, he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer and just three years later became a professed lay brother.
Majella lived with the three vows of Poverty, Chasity and Obedience. He stayed close with the poor and worked very many different jobs. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women. Majella was often called on by the poor and the sick. Wherever his presence was demanded he graciously presented himself. He was there to "do the Will of God."
This humble servant of God also had faculties associated with certain mystics including, levitation, bi-location and the ability to read souls. His charity, obedience, and selfless service as well as his ceaseless mortificationfor Christ, made him the perfect model of lay brothers.
Throughout his years of life, several reported miracles are tied to Majella including, restoring a boy's life after he fell from a high cliff; blessing a poor farmer's crops, ridding it of mice; blessing a poor family's supply of wheat, causing it to last until the next harvest; and he multiplied bread for the poor on several occasions.
Along with his miracles effected through prayers for woman in labor, Majella's last recorded miracle is one that many credit toward his becoming the patron of expectant mothers. Shortly before his death, Majella encountered a young girl. He had dropped his handkerchief and she set out to return it, only to be told to keep it. Majella told her she "may need it someday." Years after Majella's passing, the young girl became married and with child. She unexpectedly went into labor and was on the verge of losing her baby. She called for Majella's handkerchief to be applied to her. Almost immediately, her pain abated and she proceeded to give birth to a healthy child, something very rare during that time.
His prayers are sought for the children, unborn children, women in childbirth, mothers, expectant mothers, motherhood, falsely accused people, good confessions, lay brothers and Muro Lucano, Italy.
Even as Majella became ill with tuberculosis, he only desired to live in God's will. His one last request was that a small placard be placed on his door stating, "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills." Majella was told the Will of God wanted him to get better, and almost at once he became well. However, this only lasted for a month and quickly he became very ill once again. St. Gerard Majella died of disease on October 16, 1755 at the age of 29, living in the religious life for six years.
Due to the numerous miracles performed through Majella's prayers, proceedings for his canonization began shortly after his death. In 1893, Majella was beatified by Pope Leo XIII and on December 11, 1904, Pope Pius X canonized the man of God.
Prayer: O Great Saint Gerard, beloved servant of Jesus Christ, perfect imitator of your meek and humble Savior, and devoted Child of the Mother of God: enkindle within my heart one spark of that heavenly fire of charity which glowed in your heart and made you an angel of love. O glorious Saint Gerard, because when falsely accused of crime, you did bear, like your Divine master, without murmur or complaint, the calumnies of wicked men, you have been raised up by God as the Patron and Protector of expectant mothers. Preserve me from danger and from the excessive pains accompanying childbirth, and shield the child which I now carry, that it may see the light of day and receive the lustral waters of baptism through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
"Saint Gerard Majella" redirects here. For other uses, see Saint Gerard Majella (disambiguation).Gerard Majella, C.Ss.R. (Italian: Gerardo Maiella; April 9, 1726 – October 16, 1755), was an Italian lay brother of the Congregation of the Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, who is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church.
His intercession is sought for children, unborn children, women in childbirth, mothers, expectant mothers, motherhood, the falsely accused, good confessions, lay brothers and Muro Lucano, Italy.
Life
Majella was born in Muro Lucano on April 23, 1726, the youngest of five children. He was frail, and his parents had him baptized the day he was born. He was the son of Domenico Maiella, a tailor who died when Gerard was twelve, leaving the family in poverty. His mother, Benedetta Galella, then sent him to her brother so that he could teach Gerard to sew and follow in his father's footsteps. However, the foreman was abusive. The boy kept silent, but his uncle soon found out and the man who taught him resigned from the job. After four years of apprenticeship, he took a job as a servant to work for the local Bishop of Lacedonia. Upon the bishop's death, Gerard returned to his trade, working first as a journeyman and then on his own account. He divided his earnings between his mother and the poor and in offerings for the souls in Purgatory.
He tried to join the Capuchin Order twice, but his health prevented it. In 1749, he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as Redemptorists. The order was founded in 1732 by Saint Alphonsus Liguori (1696-1787) at Scala, near Naples. The essentially- missionary order is dedicated to "preaching the word of God to the poor." Its apostolate is principally in giving of missions and retreats.
During his life, he was very close to the peasants and other outsiders who lived in the Neapolitan countryside. In his work with the Redemptorist community, he was variously a gardener, sacristan, tailor, porter, cook, carpenter, and clerk of works on the new buildings at Caposele.
At 27, the good-looking Majella became the subject of a malicious rumor. An acquaintance, Neria, accused him of having had relations with a young woman. When confronted by Alphonsus Liguori, the founder, on the accusations, the young lay brother remained silent. The girl later recanted and cleared his name.
Some of Majella's reported miracles include restoring life to a boy who had fallen from a high cliff, blessing the scant supply of wheat belonging to a poor family and making it last until the next harvest, and several times multiplying the bread that he was distributing to the poor.
One day, he walked across the water to lead a boatload of fishermen through stormy waves to the safety of the shore. He was reputed to have had the gift of bilocation and the ability to read souls.
His last will was a small note on the door of his cell: "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills." He died at 29 of tuberculosis on October 16, 1755 in Materdomini, Italy.
Patron of mothers
One miracle in particular explains how Majella became known as the special patron of mothers. A few months before his death, he visited the Pirofalo family and accidentally dropped his handkerchief. One of the Pirofalo girls spotted the handkerchief moments after he had left the house, and she ran after Gerard to return it. "Keep it," he said to her. "You may need it some day."
Years later when the girl, now a married woman, was on the verge of dying in childbirth, she remembered the words of the saintly lay brother. She asked for the handkerchief to be brought to her. Almost immediately, the pain disappeared and she gave birth to a healthy child. That was no small feat in an era when only one out of three pregnancies resulted in a live birth, and word of the miracle spread quickly.
Because of the miracles that God worked through Gerard's prayers with mothers, the mothers of Italy took Gerard to their hearts and made him their patron. At the process of his beatification, one witness testified that he was known as "il santo dei felice parti," the saint of happy childbirths.
His devotion has become very popular in North America, both in the United States and Canada.
Veneration
Majella was beatified in Rome on January 29, 1893, by Pope Leo XIII. He was canonized less than twelve years later on December 11, 1904, by Pope Pius X. The feast day of Saint Gerard Majella is October 16.
In 1977, St. Gerard's Chapel in St. Lucy's Church (Newark, New Jersey) was dedicated as a national shrine. Each year during the Feast days, which include October 16, there are traditional lights, music, food stands and a street procession. People come from all over to celebrate. Devotees also visit the shrine throughout the year to petition the help of St. Gerard.
The St. Gerard Majella Annual Novena takes place every year at St. Josephs Church in Dundalk, Ireland. This annual nine-day novena is the biggest festival of faith in Ireland. St. Joseph's sponsors the St. Gerard's Family League, an association of Christians united in prayer for their own and other families, to preserve Christian values in their home and family lives.
Legacy
Statue of Gerard Majella at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Trinity, Indiana
St Gerard's Church in Wellington, New Zealand, built in 1908, was the first church to be dedicated to him. Other churches dedicated to him are located in: Sapugahawatte, Dodangoda, Sri Lanka; Kirimatiyana, Lunuwila, Sri Lanka; Preston, Lancashire, England; Bristol, England; and Westminster, Western Australia.
Catholic parishes dedicated to him are located in Hollis (in the Borough of Queens), New York City; Kirkwood, Missouri; Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, New York; and Del Rey, Los Angeles, California.
The Sanctuary of San Gerardo Maiella is a basilica in Materdomini, Italy dedicated to him.
The Senior Coroner for Liverpool and Wirral sits at the Gerard Majella Courthouse in Liverpool.
In Scotland, there is a church and primary school dedicated to St Gerard Majella in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, opened in 1971 & 1973 respectively. The maternity hospital, now a housing estate, was located close by, hence the choice of name of church and school.
Two towns in Quebec, Canada, are named in his honour: one in the Montérégie region and another in the Lanaudière region.
In Ghent (Belgium) a model school was named after Saint Gerard. This school was exhibited on the world exhibition of 1913 in Ghent as a model for Belgium's future school buildings. In 1914 it was rebuilt after the exhibition with the same stones. Nowadays the Saint Gerard School is used by a charity organisation "Geraarke" (local name) which supports poor people with clothes and food packages. In Nigeria, there is a shrine dedicated to St Gerard Majella at a place called Oba, in Anambra State. It was given to the Redemptorists of the Vice-Province of Nigeria by the Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev. Valerian Okeke. The Redemeptorists also built a school for the poor and most abandoned in the shrine site dedicated to St Gerard Majella.
He was featured on an Italian 45-eurocent postage stamp in May 2005.
