The Voices of Gemma Galgani: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Saint

Few in North America are familiar with the writings of Gemma Galgani, the first person who lived into the 20th century to be canonized as a saint. The tempestuous and passionate saint was born in Lucca, Italy, in 1878. (You can tell she's Italian because one of her significant angelic visions occurred in the kitchen while she watched a servant shaping meatballs.) She succumbed to tuberculosis at the tender age of 25, after receiving numerous visits from Jesus, the Virgin Mary and various angels. In The Voices of Gemma Galgani: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Saint, Rudolph Bell (Holy Anorexia) and Cristina Mazzoni (Saint Hysteria) offer the saint's own autobiographical writings, including her memoir of childhood, miscellaneous letters and her diary. The documents raise some fascinating questions about the nature of sainthood and religious devotion. Was Gemma an inspired young woman, heroic in her physical sufferings and prescient in her mystical understanding? Or was she simply mad? Her writings show her to be perhaps a combination of the two-thoroughgoing in her religious devotion, yet also emotionally manipulative and psychologically precarious. This absorbing collection of primary sources and scholarly analysis sheds light on one of the modern era's most intriguing yet understudied female saints.