Page 124 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

CHAPTER 19
HIS LAST ILLNESS

O
n reaching Caposele, Saint Gerard went straight to bed. He
was indeed very ill. Reduced to a skeleton, he already looked
the picture of death. The haemorrhage was almost
continual, and a complication of maladies caused him much pain. In
the midst of his sufferings he lost none of his customary tranquillity
of spirit. To suffer together with Jesus, under the eyes of His Blessed
Mother Mary, had been the longing of his whole life. So now his one
request was that a large crucifix and a picture of Our Lady should be
placed by his bedside. His gaze was ever on the figure of his
Crucified Lord, and from time to time he broke forth into loving
exclamations:
“O my Jesus, I suffer much, but it is for Thee Who art dead upon
the Cross for love of me. It costs little to suffer, when one suffers for
Thee”; or again, “My Jesus, Thou didst die for me. I wish to die to
please Thee.”
One day the Father Rector found him, as it seemed, in his last
agony. All the colour had left his face. His pallor was like that of one
from whom life has already departed. Suddenly his eyes fell upon the
crucifix. He at once seemed as a man transformed, his face kindled;
his cheeks were flushed anew as though in health. The Rector asked
in astonishment the meaning of this sudden change. Gerard sighed,
and simply said with much animation:
“O Father, great is my longing to be united to my God!”
On the door of his room the Saint had written in large characters,
so that they might be ever before him, the words:

114