Lucca & Pisa

St. Gemma Galgani - Pray for us!

On Friday we made a short day trip to Lucca in the morning and then we made our way to Pisa in the afternoon. We ended up spending much more time in Lucca than we thought we would but it was a beautiful experience and well worth it. A few years ago a priest friend of mine introduced me to St. Gemma Galgani. If you don't know her, I would really encourage you to learn more about her. Her life is a beautiful witness to sacrificial love and and her intense love for Christ is something that has definitely been an inspiration to me. She was from Lucca so I was really looking forward to visiting her tomb and seeing where she grew up. One of our first stops was the Monastery and Sanctuary of St. Gemma. It was a beautiful, simple Church and St. Gemma's remains are kept underneath the altar. After some prayer time while we were walking around the Church a precious little nun came out and started talking to me. Unfortunately, she didn't speak a single word of English and my Italian, while it is improving, is still pretty minimal. However, we were able to have a little bit of a conversation and she told me to wait for just a minute while she made a phone call to someone who would be able to give us a tour of St. Gemma's home later in the day. When she came back I think she told us to go eat and pray and then come back at 2pm. We did exactly as she told us and when we arrived back there was a man who met us at the Church and took us over to her home to give us a tour. The love that this man had for the Church, and especially for Saint Gemma, was unbelievable. He only spoke a bit more English than we did Italian so with a little bit of team work and lots of Holy Spirit action we were able to understand each other and it was great! He told us all about her life in Lucca and gave us a beautiful tour of her home. The tour ended in the small upstairs bedroom where St. Gemma received the stigmata a few years before her death. We prayed together and were continually reminded to pray for the conversion of our hearts and for the hearts of our families. One of my favorite things about St. Gemma is the relationship that she had with her guardian angel. It is said that she could see her guardian angel and speak to him - what a blessing! After we finished our tour we made our way to Pisa. We were planning on spending the entire afternoon in Pisa but we spent much longer in Lucca than we were planning on (totally worth it!). When we arrived in Pisa we learned that we had 58 minutes until the train to Florence left. It is a solid twenty minute walk from the train station to the Leaning Tower, which is all we really wanted to see. We walked briskly all the way to the tower, stayed for about ten minutes and took some pictures, and ran all the way back to the train station. We barely made it in time to get on the train - it was quite the adventure but a lot of fun. The peace and tranquility in Lucca were incredible - St. Gemma's spirit is truly present there. It was a wonderful trip and I loved every moment of it!

Tomb of St. Gemma.

The altar.

Annie, Lizah, Amanda, and I - We had a great day together!

The plaque outside of St. Gemma's home - It says "In this home on June 8, 1899 St. Gemma Galgani had impressed on her body the marks of the Passion of Christ".

A painting of St. Gemma when she was ill with her guardian angel on one side and Satan on the other. (Just realized the rose in the corner of this picture and its the Feast of St. Therese! And tomorrow is the Feast of Guardian Angels!)

The leaning tower! It was smaller than I imagined it would be but it sure did lean a lot!