Religious Figure. She was recognized for being a Roman Catholic Saint, who became known as Saint Gemma of Lucca and since 1898, as an Italian mystic. A quiet and reserved child, she had a ready smile for everyone. She attended a school run by the Sisters of St. Zita, but chronic ill health forced her to quit before completing her studies. Favored with many mystical experiences throughout her life, she was often misunderstood by others and frequently ridiculed. Holding an immense love for the poor, she helped them in any way she could. After her father's death, as a nineteen-year-old, she became a mother to her seven brothers and sisters. When some were old enough to share this responsibility, she lived briefly with a married aunt. At this time, two young men proposed marriage to her, but she refused. Shortly after returning home, she almost immediately became ill with meningitis. Throughout this illness, her one regret was the trouble she caused her relatives who nursed her. Feeling herself tempted by the devil, she invoked the intercession of Venerable Gabriele Possenti and was miraculously cured. Although she held a zealous passion to become a nun, her poor health prevented her from being accepted in a monastery. She predicted that the Passionists, a congregation of men, would establish a monastery at Lucca, and two years after her death, they established a convent. Today, the venerated remains of Gemma are inside this church. On June 8, 1899, signs of stigmata began appearing on her hands, feet and heart with blood flowing from them between every Thursday evening, when she would fall into rapture and the marks would appear, until Friday afternoon or Saturday morning when the bleeding would stop and the wounds close. This phenomenon lasted three years, until her confessor forbade her to accept them any longer. The said confessor, Padre Germano Ruoppolo CP, took her to live with a family named Giannini. There she had many ecstatic visions and her words spoken were recorded by her confessor and a relative of her adoptive family. Diagnosed with tuberculosis in early 1903, she died quietly on April 11th of that year at aged 25. Beatified on May 14, 1933 by Pope Pius XI, she was canonized by his successor, Pope Pius XII on May 2, 1940. On that day Gemma officially became Saint Gemma Galgani. Under heavy scrutiny, two miracles were required between being beatified and canonization. The first miracle occurred in September of 1932 when a 10-year-old child, with cancer of the face and throat that medical treatment would not cure, placed a photo of Gemma to her cancerous face while praying for a healing, and she was healed of the cancer. The second miracle occurred in 1935 when a bedridden man had a chronic draining leg ulcer that would not heal. His daughter placed a relic of Gemma's on the ulcer while the family prayed, and the next morning the ulcer was gone. Her liturgical celebration is held on April 11th. She is the patron saint of students, pharmacists, paratroopers, those suffering with back injuries or headaches, grieving for parents, and those seeking a pure heart.