Page 136 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS

and make him enter into himself.”
The next day this poor man came in a state of great terror to the
convent, saying that Brother Gerard had appeared to him and spoken
to him with great severity. He then went to Confession with signs of
the most sincere repentance.
A Redemptorist was once speaking to a certain Marchioness of
Granafe about the simplicity of Saint Gerard's religious obedience.
“Tell me no more about him,” she cried out, “I see clearly that he
was only a holy fool!”
“I pray God,” replied the Redemptorist, “that you will never be
obliged to have recourse to one whom you call ‘a fool.’”
Two months had not passed before this lady was attacked by a
dangerous illness, and given up by the doctors. In her extreme need
she turned to Brother Gerard, and said:
“If you really are the Saint they say, show it, and I will contribute
to the expenses of your Beatification!”
Scarcely had she made the promise, than she was completely
cured.
Out of the vast number of miracles that Saint Gerard is related to
have worked after his death, we will now select the four regarded by
the Holy See as proved beyond all reasonable possibility of doubt,
and accepted as such for his Beatification.
Joseph Santorelli, grandson of the doctor who attended the Saint
with such loving care during his last illness, had a most dangerous
attack of typhoid fever. His death seemed so imminent that his
relations had actually made all the arrangements for his funeral. It
occurred to them, however, to place on his head a picture of Brother
Gerard, when immediately, to the stupefaction of all present, the sick
man sat up on his bed, completely cured. The Saint had appeared to
him, and said:
“Get up without any fear.”
In the year 1849 Teresa Deheneffe received a dangerous cut in her
left side. For three years the wound got gradually worse. At last the
doctors had to perform a very dangerous operation, but it was of no
avail. Two days after the operation they pronounced the case to be
hopeless. Her Confessor then recommended her to make a Novena
to Brother Gerard. At the close of the Novena the bandages and
plasters fell off of themselves. The medical men found the sore place
healed up, with no trace of any scar, although the evening before it

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