Gerard Majella

Admitted to the Redemptorists as a lay brother, Gerard Majella took his vows on July 16, 1752, at the convent of Deliceto. Lacking clerical studies, he dedicated himself to the material occupations of the community: cook, gardener, porter, sacristan, and above all, questor charged with collecting alms for the missions. These duties led him to travel through the remote villages of southern Italy, where he distributed generously to the needy what he received. Saint Alphonsus Liguori, his founder, esteemed him deeply and held him as a model of regular observance. Gerard distinguished himself by absolute obedience, great mortification, and constant humility. Several extraordinary phenomena were attributed to him during his lifetime by his contemporaries and biographers: healings, multiplications of food in times of famine, and the gift of discernment of souls. According to his spiritual director, when asked about his deepest desire, he summarized his ideal in three words: to love God much, to remain always united to God, and to do everything for the love of God. On the door of his cell, he had inscribed a motto that has remained famous, expressing his total abandonment to providence.

The spiritual figure of Gerard Majella is revealed particularly in the trial of slander. Around 1754, a young woman, Neria Caggiano, falsely accused him of conduct contrary to chastity. Rather than justifying himself, Gerard chose silence, entrusting himself entirely to the judgment of God. Saint Alphonsus Liguori, required to act with the necessary prudence, then forbade him from communion and all contact with the outside world; Gerard accepted the sanction without complaint. When the accuser retracted her statement and acknowledged her lie, his innocence was fully recognized. This episode, reported by all his biographies, illustrates the confident abandonment to the divine will that characterizes his spirituality. On the door of his cell, he had engraved a sentence that became emblematic: 'Here the will of God is done, as God wills it and as long as God wills it.' This radical docility, joined to his poverty, his penance, and his charity toward the most destitute, earned him during his lifetime a reputation for holiness that spread rapidly after his premature death and led to the opening of his cause.

The reputation for holiness of Gerard Majella was maintained and grew after his death in 1755, both in southern Italy and within the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer. Pope Leo XIII proclaimed him blessed on January 29, 1893. About a decade later, Pope Pius X inscribed him in the catalogue of saints during the canonization celebrated in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome on December 11, 1904. The Church set his liturgical memorial on October 16, the anniversary of his death, celebrated as his "dies natalis," his birth into heaven. The sanctuary of Materdomini, in Caposele, in the province of Avellino, where he gave up his soul and where his relics rest, has since been an important place of pilgrimage, particularly frequented around the saint's feast day. The spread of his devotion, carried by the Redemptorists, extended well beyond Italy, reaching North America and many Catholic countries.

The legacy of Gerard Majella is primarily associated with his patronage of expectant mothers and childbirth, which makes him one of the most popular saints among pregnant women. Tradition links this patronage to an episode involving the Pirofalo family: a handkerchief left behind by Gerard, requested years later by a young woman experiencing a difficult labor, was said to have been linked to a safe delivery. Numerous accounts of protection during pregnancies and childbirths consolidated this reputation, and Gerard is today invoked for mothers, unborn children, and childbirth, but also by those unjustly accused, in memory of the slander he endured. On April 21, 1994, he was proclaimed patron of Basilicata, his native region. His devotion, spread by the Redemptorists, has proliferated in many countries: parishes and localities bear his name, notably in Quebec. The sanctuary of Materdomini, in Caposele, remains the center of his cult.