The seminarians and their Superiors recently recieved many graces by a visit to Lucca which is around 48 miles from Florence.
During the visit, the abode of Saint Gemma Galgani was visited. St Gemma Galgani (1878–1903) is honoured in the Catholic Church as a Daughter of the Passion, a young laywoman whose short life was marked by deep humility, intense suffering, and extraordinary mystical union with Christ. Orphaned early and afflicted with severe illnesses, she offered every trial for the conversion of sinners and the salvation of souls. After a miraculous healing in her teens, Gemma grew in contemplative prayer and, on 8 June 1899, received the stigmata, entering more profoundly into the mystery of the Lord’s Passion. Guided by her guardian angel and inspired by St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, she longed to join the Passionist nuns, a desire fulfilled only at her death when she was clothed in their habit. She died on Holy Saturday at the age of twenty‑five, leaving the Church a radiant example of sacrificial love, purity of heart, and unwavering devotion to Christ crucified.
