Gemma endured poverty and ill health throughout her life. Because she was unable to finish her schooling, she could not realize her desire to become a Passionist nun. When she was twenty-one, this mystic and housekeeper began to display signs of the stigmata. In early 1903, Gemma learned she had tuberculosis and died soon after, in a small room next to her employers' house. Gemma is especially revered in Italy and South America.
"Try to think of a light that fills the whole universe, that penetrates and kindles it. At the same time,
