Saint Spotlight Saint Gerard Majella
1725 - 1755
Feast Day 16 October
In week four of our four part series We highlight his amazing young man's legacy
Who except God can give you peace? - St Gerard
The fourth instalment in our series. St Gerard Majella is the patron of Majellan Media. We derive our name from him. For each one of us his life is a sharp reminder that we all possess great talents and nobody is useless.
He was once labelled as 'useless' and was always in poor health. However, St Gerard had two great talents: He had tremendous love for God which he expressed in long hours of prayer and he had an enormously generous heart.
In his six short years as a Redemptorist Brother these gifts flourished amazingly to bring miracles of peace and healing to many. We encourage you to read his life story in this 4 part series.
Saint Gerard’s Legacy
The legacy of St Gerard’s is an inspirational story of a young man committed to the dedication to God and to the people around him. It’s also a story of persistence.
During his short life, and after finally being accepted into a religious order, Saint Gerard regularly showed his compassion for the poor. Several miracles attributed to him include one when he visited the Pirofalo family and accidentally dropped his handkerchief. One of the Pirofalo girls saw the handkerchief on the ground soon after he had left the house. She ran after St Gerard to have it back. But St Gerard said, “Keep it. You may need it someday”.
Years later and a married woman, she was on the verge of dying in childbirth, when she remembered his words. She asked for the handkerchief to be brought to her and almost immediately the pain disappeared, and she gave birth to a healthy child.
Word spread quickly and Italian mothers took St 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.
St Gerard was beatified in Rome on 29 January 1893 by Pope Leo XIII and he was canonised on 11 December 1904 by Pope Pius X.
His intercession is sought for children, unborn children, women in childbirth, mothers, expectant mothers, motherhood, the falsely accused, good confessions and lay brothers.
To God we are eternally grateful. Majellan Media is proud to bear his name. His life is our inspiration.
This concludes our 4 part series.
Annual St Gerard feast day blessing of families will be live streamed again.
Families can watch on Facebook and Youtube live on Sunday 16 October from 1:00 pm Australian Eastern Daylight Time.
Send your family prayer intentions to office@majellan.org.au and they will be included in the liturgy.