“Battle Buddy”: St. Gemma Galgani inspires military medics

Saint Gemma was an ordinary girl who had the same human faults as any of us — like pride, stubbornness, and egocentricity — but who responded to grace in an extraordinary way. Through her suffering in body and soul, she was called to be a warrior for Christ in a particular way, a “Green Beret soldier” in the spiritual realm.

By Ralph A. Stidham, DHSc, MPH and Nikos Lambdin

Tasked with providing physical, emotional, and spiritual care, our healthcare professionals live out their faith on a daily basis as their work demands noble and dedicated service to others and to God.

As an epidemiologist in the U.S. Army, I have found that St. Gemma Gelgani (feast day: Apr. 11) can be an extraordinary “battle buddy,” along with other angels and saints, as our spiritual intercessor and companion in our everyday physical and spiritual battles. 

Living Sacrifice
Born Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani on March 12, 1878, Gemma of Lucca or the “Gem of Jesus” was an Italian mystic and venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church since 1940. She has also been called the “Daughter of the Passion” because of her profound imitation of the Passion of Christ throughout her very short life, dying on Apr. 11, 1903, just 25 years old. 

Gemma was diagnosed with a brain tumor and spinal tuberculosis (or spinal meningitis). The disease was feared because of its epidemic nature, its penchant for previously healthy children and adolescents, and high mortality. Gemma suffered excruciating pain, yet accepted the will of God with delight, serenity, and obedience. Fortunately, she was miraculously cured from it. 

Instead of becoming resentful from her pain, Gemma joined her suffering to Christ crucified and offered herself as a living sacrifice for the salvation of souls. Her life was marked by many extraordinary graces, including mysticism and the stigmata. 

At her canonization in 1940, just 37 years after her death, Ven. Pope Pius XII stated, “Reliable witnesses testify that, during the last years of her life, the servant of God, Gemma, was often in a state of rapture and was favored by God with prolonged ecstasies and unusual gifts, like those we read about in the lives of many saints. … There was such a union of mind and heart between this chosen virgin Gemma and Christ that she could say with the apostle Paul: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; it is Christ living in me.’”

Parachutist patroness
Saint Gemma is, not surprisingly, the patron saint of those who are ill: specifically, those suffering from tuberculosis, back injury or back pain, and headaches or migraines. She is also the patron of pharmacists and, oddly, paratroopers and parachutists. Why? 

Not long after she was canonized in 1940, Passionist nuns in Italy offered prayer cards of St. Gemma to the elite military paratrooper school known as the Folgore division, who later fought in the battle of El Alamein. The soldiers were so grateful for the protection and intercession of the saint, that after the war they petitioned the Holy See for the designation. 

How ironic that St. Gemma, who never saw an airplane and died eight months before the Wright Brothers made their first flight, should have such a patronage — and a military one at that!

“Give me wings, oh Jesus, so I can fly to Your throne!” she said.

Spiritual Green Beret
Saint Gemma was an ordinary girl who had the same human faults as any of us — like pride, stubbornness, and egocentricity — but who responded to grace in an extraordinary way. Through her suffering in body and soul, she was called to be a warrior for Christ in a particular way, a “Green Beret soldier” in the spiritual realm. 

Military medical professionals are also called to be medical warriors that care for service and non-service members on this earth while keeping in mind the readiness vision mission of the Army Medical Command. When our candle burns down, St. Gemma can be an extraordinary “battle buddy” along with other angels and saints, as our spiritual intercessor and companion in our everyday physical and spiritual battles. 

A tuberculosis nurse that I’ve known many years ago introduced me to St. Gemma and I would pray to the revered saint for protection when I interviewed patients with TB disease. I’ve never tested TB positive. 

“Two-for-One Special”
I prayed to her for success when I attempted to join the U.S. Commissioned Corps, the seventh branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. I’ve tried many times before — Army, Navy, Air Force — but no luck. Surely, I would join this branch because my public health credentials matched up perfectly and I’ve always wanted to join the military as my father did. After all, I was just like him.

But God said no. Instead, I received a shocking diagnosis! Having no symptoms of any kind, and despite being in really great shape because of sports, I was diagnosed with an aneurysm in my thoracic cavity that was about to burst due to its size, so I needed open heart surgery to repair it immediately. My heart valve also needed repair. 

So, within one week, I got a “two-for-one special” (a St. Jude mechanical valve and an aneurysm repair surgery) at one of three hospitals at that time in the U.S. that did this double procedure. While it was extremely painful, I rapidly recuperated, so I have my guardian angel, St. Anthony of Padua (my confirmation saint), and St Gemma to thank. They brought me much closer to Jesus. 

A blessing
Even being extremely disappointed from not being able to join the military, it was actually a blessing in disguise! A few years later, I was blessed to obtain the best job that I’ve ever had!

To this point, I’ve had a few jobs that were pretty good and some that had working environments that were, let’s say, challenging. That job, which I hold to this present time, gives me immense peace because I am in the best working environment ever and doing the next best job ever as a regional epidemiologist working for the U.S. Army without being in the military! What a blessing! 

And so, through the years, I will never forget what an inspiration and a blessing St. Gemma through all of my physical and spiritual battles as a healthcare professional and as a patient, helping me draw me closer to Christ Crucified. 

The Value of Humility
In our struggles, we can also ask St. Gemma for her intercession to increase our knowledge and technical expertise, integrity, honesty, compassion, and most of all, humility. Genuine humility allows us to know our different gifts and talents, be grateful for them, and use them generously on behalf of others, which contributes to better medical care and outcomes. With humility, we can welcome the talents and achievements of others without envy. 

Humility changes the way we see patients. It allows us to empathetically see them as humans and treat them with more compassion. With the lenses of humility, we are better able to think, act, and identify with the perceptions and experiences of patients. Like the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Gemma was moved by the compassion and suffering of another human being and took care of family members when they were ill until she became sick herself.

As medical professionals, we can learn from Gemma to always care for the sick person and to always strive to meet his or her emotional and physical needs regardless of his or her race, religion or any other political or social matter, which separates human beings from each other.

While the Blessed Virgin Mary is the perfect one to make sure our prayers and needs are attended and to bring us to Her son, Jesus, we have an extraordinary intercessor in St Gemma. She also can aid us in during our physical and spiritual battles and draw us closer to Christ Crucified. We can ask for her intercession in helping us to emulate Christ’s love and compassion with the patients we care for. 

Saint Gemma Galgani, pray for us!

To learn more about the life of St. Gemma Galgani, visit StGemmaGalgani.com.

      Dr. Stidham is a regional epidemiologist for U.S. Army Pubic Health Command, W, Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, a Marian Helper at St. Padre Pio Catholic Church in San Antonio, Texas, striving to serve others, inspired by the example of Jesus and the saints.
      Mr. Lambdin is a freelance author/illustrator of Catholic children’s novels, and a Knight of Columbus at Notre Dame Parish in Kerrville, Texas.
      Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Department of the Army, DoD, or U.S. Government.
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