St Gemma miraculously appears in Israel

St Gemma allegedly miraculously appears in Israel

Angelo, a friend in St Gemma, sent me this story that he was told during his recent visit to Saint Gemma's Monastery/Sanctuary in Lucca, Italy. It concerns Gemma's remarkable intercession to a young Muslim man in Israel. Here it is:
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[...]"When I was in Lucca, one of the volunteers in the book store told me of a Saint Gemma miracle. Here is the short version. The volunteer had a visiting priest that was a friend of his in Lucca. This priest was normally stationed in Isreal but was in Lucca for a visit. They were in the book/gift store of the shrine when the priest gets a cell phone call from a young Muslim friend of his from Israel. This was 2003* and all the young Muslims were being made to move out of Israel over the border to I guess Palestine.
[*Editors note: It is interesting to note that 2003 was the 100 year anniversary of Gemma's holy death]

The priest’s friend was very concerned, as he had no paper work and if he was stopped at the border he would be in serious trouble. This young man asked the priest to pray for him. Both the priest and the volunteer told him they would and so they immediately went into the monastery church where Saint Gemma is buried*. They prayed for his safety and then forgot about it.
[*Editors note: St Gemma's remains are kept beneath the main altar of the monastery Church as shown in the photo at the top of this article.]

Three days later the priest gets a call from this young man and briefly this is what happened: The young man asked the priest who the young woman was who he had sent to help him. The priest asked him what he meant. The young friend said that as they were getting into cabs to take them across the border, this young woman all dressed in black came up and asked if she could share his cab. He agreed and she got in. As they approached the border, all the cabs were stopped and checked except for his; his was waved on.


When they got across the border they said farewell, but before she left the young man asked her name. She responded:

'I am Gemma Galgani' (I almost always tear up when I tell this story…)
And she left.
He did not know anything about her or that she was a Saint. The priest then explained to him who she was. Long story short, he later converted to Catholicism!!!!

Regards,
Angelo
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I would like to sincerely thank Angelo for sharing this story. -Webmaster
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"Alas, evening comes and the usual coldness, the usual repugnance assails me; fatigue would want to win over me, but with a little effort I never want to neglect to do my duty.

Tonight Jesus placed his crown on my head at about 10:00, after I had been collected for a little while. My suffering, which in no way equals Je­sus', was very strong: even all my teeth hurt; any movement brought a sharp pain; I thought I could not resist but instead I did; everything went well. I offered those little penances for sinners and in particular for my poor soul. " -Diary of St Gemma, Thursday, August 23, 1900