Today is the Feast Day of St. Gerard – the patron of expectant mothers and the unborn.
St. Gerard was leaving the home, when he dropped his handkerchief. One of the daughters picked it up to return it. He said, “Keep it. It will be useful to you someday.” She kept it as a treasure from her father’s reverent friend.
Years later when she was in labor doctors told her she and her baby were in danger of dying during birth. She remembered and retrieved the handkerchief. Almost immediately her pain was gone, and the child was born alive and well.
St. Gerard Majella was born in 1726 in Muro, Italy, the youngest of four children of Domenico and Benedetta Majella. They attended Mass at the Shrine of Our Lady of Graces.
As a toddler, Gerard particularly loved a statue of the Madonna and Jesus, once able to speak called it his “pretty lady with the baby.”
He was so fond of his church he would frequently run off to go inside. History notes he came home several time to tell his mother, “See what I got from the little boy,” and then hold out his hands to reveal a small loaf of bread. Once his mother followed him and “what she saw stunned her because the statue of Our Lady of Graces apparently came to life and the child she was holding scampered down to play with Gerard,” according to a story in Liguorian Magazine by Alicia Von Stamwitz.
When he was only 12, his father died. So, to support the family Gerard learned to sew and eventually took a job for the local bishop. Accounts of his life note that Gerard was beaten during his apprenticeship. He was ignored and taken for granted by the bishop, who was known for “angry outbursts and nagging.” However, Gerard did not let it break his spirit. On the contrary, he became well known for his genuine kindness and compassion for all people, especially the poor and ill.
He wanted to be a Capuchin friar, but they turned him away, because he was too frail. He eventually entered into religious life as a lay brother for the Congregation of the Redemptorists.
