Page 66 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

O. R. VASSALL-PHILLIPS

to Capucci's house in order to seek the advice of his holy visitor.
Ever full of affability, he was accessible to all. No time was kept by
him as his own. His one desire was to be of service to his fellow-men.
Nor were signs and wonders absent. God glorified His servant before
the world, that hearts might be the more docile in his hands.
On one occasion Gerard was with his host and a large number of
friends in the picture gallery of the house. Suddenly he went into an
ecstasy, and was transported off his feet to the level of a picture of
the Holy Mother of God that was hanging upon the walls. Then
remaining for some time supernaturally raised in the air, beside
himself with love, he cried aloud:
“How beautiful she is! How beautiful! How beautiful is Mary!”
As he spoke, he covered the picture with rapturous kisses. We
may easily imagine the holy confusion he must have experienced
when, on coming to himself, he discovered to his dismay that quite a
large assemblage had thus become witnesses of the Divine favours of
which he was the recipient.
The first person to be cured at Lacedogna was a Priest, Canon
Saponiero. He had received the last Sacraments, and was given over
by the doctors, when Saint Gerard brought him back from the very
jaws of death. This worthy Canon has himself left us an account of
his cure. After describing the complicated nature of his maladies, he
proceeds as follows:
“I thought myself on the point of appearing before the Judgment-
Seat of God. Having heard of the arrival of the holy Brother, I had
myself recommended to his powerful prayers. What was not my
amazement when he sent me word that my illness would not be of
long duration, and that all I needed for recovery was complete
confidence in God. I might then still hope, and when he visited me
the next day, I cried out, ‘Praised be the Lord!’ He answered me,
‘Rejoice, you are cured.’ Then he came close up to me, and made on
my forehead the sign of the Cross. At once I found myself perfectly
well. I should have risen that moment, had he not enjoined upon me
to wait for the morrow. Glory be to God, and to His servant!”
By the sign of the Holy Cross he cured many other persons. Thus
he succeeded in restoring to her former state of health a young girl
called Leila Cocchia, who for some months previously had been the
victim of a terrible form of madness.
Saint Gerard knew Leila of old. On one of his former visits to

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