Page 138 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS

The sacred ceremony of his solemn Beatification took place with
great pomp on Septuagesima Sunday, January 29, 1893, the fifth
anniversary of the Beatification of another son of St. Alphonsus who
has since been canonized, Clement Mary Hofbauer.
The following two marvellous cures were recognized as certainly
miraculous by the present Holy Father, Pius X, on the Feast of the
Assumption of Our Lady, 1904, in view of the canonization of the
wonderful Brother.
In August, 1893, Valeria Baerts of St. Trond, in the diocese of
Liege in Belgium, was dying. She had reached the last stage of some
malignant fever, together with meningitis. All the signs of
approaching dissolution had already appeared, and the doctors were
waiting for the end, which, as they said, was very near. It was in this
extremity that Valeria's mother applied a relic of Saint Gerard and
begged him to cure her daughter. When the medical men returned to
the room they found her in her normal state of health.
In the year 1896 a boy named Vincent de Geronimo, aged fifteen,
was studying in the Seminary of Campsano, when he fell ill. The
illness increased daily until his danger became extreme. The skill,
diligence, and assiduity of the doctors, even of the most skilful, were
of no avail in giving him any alleviation: all the symptoms, indeed,
showed that death was certain. A relic of Saint Gerard was laid on the
breast of the sufferer, when he immediately fell asleep and, wondrous
to relate, awoke perfectly cured.
After these two miracles had been, according to the invariable
practice of the Holy See, rigorously examined, and approved by the
Pope, there was no further obstacle in the way of Gerard's
canonization, which was solemnized in St. Peter's, on December 11,
1903.
“De stercore erigens pauperem y tit collocet cum cum principibus, cum
principibus populi sui.”
Ever since he has been enrolled in the catalogue of the canonized
saints, the cultus ,of Saint Gerard has spread marvellously throughout
the Catholic world, and he has worked miracle upon miracle in
favour of his clients, conferring both temporal and spiritual favours
of the most extraordinary character upon those who invoke his aid.
Of these we can only relate one or two of the more recent that
have taken place in our own country.
In July, 1906, a Miss Mumford, of Aigburth, near Liverpool, had

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