Page 30 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS

rigour. At this time, thinking constantly of Jesus Who allowed
Himself to be as a fool in the court of Herod, Saint Gerard feigned
madness in the streets, and rejoiced when he was treated with
contumely as a simpleton by the boys of his native town. Truly love
—the love of the Saints for God — is strong as death and stronger
than life itself. Gerard would, had it been possible, have set the whole
world ablaze with the fire of charity that God had enkindled in his
own affectionate heart. Oftentimes he would, as though constrained
by some uncontrollable impulse, call out to his mother, his sisters, or
his friends:
“Come! let us go together and visit Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.
Is He not there, our Prisoner of Love?”
The Sacred Heart of Jesus drew Gerard's heart very close to Itself.
To this burning love for Our Blessed Lord, he joined the
tenderest devotion to Mary, the gentle Mother of God. When he
found himself before one of the images of Our Lady, he could hardly
tear himself from the spot. He loved to say again and again:
“The Madonna has stolen away my heart, and for my part I have
made her a present of it.”
Once when they were celebrating at Muro a novena in honour of
the Immaculate Conception, Gerard remained for a long time on his
knees in fervent prayer before an image of the sinless Queen of
Heaven. Then suddenly in sight of all the people he rose, and, like St.
Edmund of Canterbury long centuries before, placing a ring on the
finger of the statue, cried aloud:
“See, I am espoused to the Madonna!” Thus would he publicly
proclaim that he had consecrated the pearl of his virginity to the
glorious Virgin Mother.
Gerard was now twenty-two years of age, when at length it
pleased Divine Providence to open for him the door to the Religious
State.
In 1749 the Redemptorist Fathers gave a mission at Muro. Gerard
had already, in the previous year, expressed his longing to enter the
Congregation of the most Holy Redeemer as a Lay-brother; and now
he renewed his entreaties with even greater earnestness than before.
However, at first the same fate that befel him with the Capuchins
came to test his confidence in God. Father Cafaro, Rector of the
House at Iliceto, was among the missioners at Muro. He noticed the
delicacy of Gerard's appearance, and thought him to be but ill-suited

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