Page 20 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

CHAPTER 1
HIS CHILDHOOD

A
bout fifty miles south of Naples the traveller will come upon
the picturesque little town of Muro. Nestling snugly amidst
the Apennines, it looks down from the mountain slopes upon
a wide expanse of fertile plain, which stretches away beneath its walls.
Muro is an Episcopal See. Like most Italian cities, it is rich in
religious houses. Here especially the children of St. Francis are to be
found in large numbers. You may mark their humble homes, as they
rise in unadorned simplicity, beside buildings of great architectural
beauty.
It was in this pleasant spot, favoured alike by nature and grace,
that God was pleased to place the cradle of Saint Gerard. His father
was a man of lowly birth, a tailor by trade, but full of piety and
virtue. Upon this worthy man — Dominic Majella was his name —
Heaven bestowed first two daughters and then a son, the story of
whose short but marvellous life we are about to present to our
readers. This boy was born on the 6th of April, in the year 1726, and
was baptized by the name of Gerard on the very day of his birth, in
the cathedral of his native city.
God is wonderful in all His Saints. Yet it is true that these His
chosen servants show forth His Goodness and Wisdom in widely
differing ways. This must necessarily be the case, since widely
different are the purposes that they are designed to effect in the
varied story of the Church's warfare. According to the need, so is the
gift bestowed. Some of the greatest of the Saints have mirrored the
Divine Perfections by the spotlessness of their souls in the ordinary

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