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| Ut Unum Sint the great cause of Christian Unity, Sr. Maria Gabriella felt immediately involved and interiorly compelled to offer her young life. "I feel the Lord is calling me"
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BLESSED MARIA GABRIELLA SAGHEDDU
(1914-1939)
Maria Sagheddu was born in Dorgali, Sardinia, into a family of shepherds. Witnesses fromthe period of her childhood and adolescence speak of her as a girl with an obstinate, critical,
protesting and rebellious character, but paradoxically with a strong sense of duty, loyalty and
obedience: "She obeyed grumblingly, but she was docile", it was said of her. "She would say,
'No,' but she would do the task at once."
What everyone noticed was the change that came over her when she was 18. Little by little she
became gentle. Her outbursts of temper disappeared. She became more pensive and austere:
more tender and reserved. The spirit of prayerful charity grew in her, togther with a new
sensitivity concerning the Church and the needs of the apostolate. She enrolled in "Catholic
Action", a Church-sponsored youth movement.
A new depth of receptivity was also born in her, one that hands itself totally over to the will of
God. At 21 she decided to consecrate herself to God. Following the guidance of her spiritual
father, she entered the Cistercian monastery of Grottaferrata, an economically poor and
culturally under-developed community, governed at that time by Mother Maria Pia Gullini.
Her life in the monastery appears to have been dominated by a few essential principles:
- The first and most obvious of these was gratitude for the mercy which God had poured
out on her, calling her to belong completely to him. She liked to compare herself to the
prodigal son and could only say, "Thank you!" for the monastic vocation, her monastery, the
superiors, the sisters, everything. "How good the Lord is!" was her constant exclamation and
this gratitude will pervade everything, even the last moments of her illness and agony.
- The second principle of her life is the desire to respond to God's grace with all her
strength, so that what the Lord had begun in her might be completed and God's will fulfilled
in her, because here is where her true peace lay.
In the novitiate she was afraid that she would be sent away, but after her profession this
anxiety was overcome and a peaceful, trusting self-surrender took its place, producing a deep
inner drive toward the complete sacrifice of herself: "Now do what You want with me!" she
would simply say. Her brief life in the cloister -- she lived as a nun for only three and a half
years -- was consumed simply, like the Eucharist, in her daily commitment of conversion, so
as to follow Christ better in his obedience to the Father unto death. Gabriella saw herself as
defined by a mission of self-gift: the total handing over of herself to the Lord.
The memories which the sisters have of her are both simple and meaningful: her promptness
in acknowledging her faults and asking pardon of others without justifying herself; her
simple, sincere humility; her cheerful readiness to do any sort of work, even the most tiring,
without making a fuss about it. After her monastic profession there grew in her the
experience of her littleness: "My life is of no value..., I can offer it in peace."
Her abbess, Mother Maria Pia Gullini, had a precocious ecumenical awareness and a desire to work for Christian unity. She had communicated this desire to the community, so when she explained to the sisters the Church's request for prayer and offering for the great cause of Christian Unity, Sr. Maria Gabriella felt immediately involved and interiorly compelled to offer her young life. "I feel the Lord is calling me" - she confided to her abbess - "I feel urged, even when I don't want to think about it".
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| Sister Gabriella |
On the evening of 23 April 1939, Gabriella ended her long agony, totally abandoned to the will of God, while the bells were ringing full peal at the end of Vespers on Good Shepherd Sunday. The Gospel that day had proclaimed: "There will be one fold and one Shepherd."
Even before the consummation of her offering, her self-gift for the sake of Christian Unity had been communicated to the Anglican brethren and had been welcomed by them. It has also sparked a deep response in the hearts of believers of other Christian confessions. The most concrete gift of Sister Gabriella to her own community has been the influx of vocations, who arrived in great numbers during the following years.
Her body, found intact on the occasion of its recognition in 1957, now rests in a chapel adjoining the monastery of Vitorchiano, where the community of Grottaferrata has transferred. She was beatified by John Paul II on 25 January 1983 in the basilica of St.Paul outside the Walls. It was 44 years after her death, the feast of the Conversion of St.Paul and the last day of the week of prayer for Christian Unity.
Publications in English: - Mary Paula Williamson, R.C.: THAT ALL MAY BE ONE - P.J.Kennedy and Sons, New York 1949. 185 pp. - Martha Driscoll: A Silent Herald of Unity, (Cistercian Studies Series 119) Cistercian Publications, Kalamazoo, Michigan 49008, 1990. 142 pp. - Paul B.Quattrocchi: A Life for Unity: Sr.Maria Gabriella - New City Press, New York 1990. 183 pp. - Pearce Cusack: Blesed Gabriella of Unity: A Patron for the Ecumenical Movement, Cistercian Press, Ros Cré, Ireland 1995. 166 pp. - Monica Della Volpe: "Blessed Maria Gabriella Today" in Cistercian Studies Quarterly 35 (2000), pp.335-344.
BLESSED MARIA GABRIELLA
CISTERCIAN NUN
WOMAN OF UNITY
BEATIFIED ON
JANUARY 25th 1983
A Brief Life by Fr. Bonaventure ocso,
Monk of Mount Melleray Abbey.
Chapter 1:
| Early Years |
| Chapter 2: | Grottaferrata |
| Chapter 3: | The Novice |
| Chapter 4: | "Spouse of Christ" |
| Chapter 5: | An Ordinary Life |
| Chapter 6: | Our Mission is Prayer |
| Chapter 7: | The Oblation |
| Chapter 8: | Suffering |
| Chapter 9 | Beatification |
Maria Sagheddu was the fifth of eight children, born on March 17th, 1915 in Dorgali near the east coast of Sardinia. Her father Marcantonio and her mother Caterina were relatively poor, being small holders and shepherds. Maria was baptised on Laetare Sunday, March 22nd. 1914. Her father failed to register her within the time-limit of five days and so gave the incorrect information that she was born on March 18th to bring the birth within the legal time-limit.
She was an ordinary girl. From the evidence of witnesses we know that she was rebellious and stubborn at times. Later on she felt that she resembled the son in the parable who grumbled when asked to work in his father's vineyard.
Her father died when she was nine. The burden of rearing the family now fell on the mother's shoulders. The children worked with her on the farm and so Maria grew up sturdy and accustomed to hard manual work. At school she was intelligent and a favourite with her companions, being vivacious and full of fun. She liked playing cards and took part in the recreations of her friends and neighbours. She had two offers of marriage and refused both.
"CONVERSION".
Maria was an ordinary peasant girl and some of her childhood companions were surprised when they were asked to give evidence in the cause of her beatification. They could not remember anything special about Maria Sagheddu. Some of them testified that she was "even a little negligent in religious matters". She never missed Sunday mass but was careless about receiving the sacraments regularly. If her mother told Maria to go to Benediction while she was out, the daughter would always find some excuse not to go. When somebody remarked to her that she should have been as devout much earlier (she was then only 18!), she replied that she had not seen the need to be devout nor had she understood the importance and beauty of virtue. The witnesses all remarked on her extraordinary spirit of prayer. She prayed at home , on the street, at her work. One night her brother came home late and found her asleep in the kitchen, her Rosary in her hand. She became hungry for more knowledge about her religion and read whatever books she could come by. Her method of teaching Catechism to the children did not meet with the approval of the curate Don Meloni; she used a stick! She was doubtless following the example set by her own teachers. To make sure the stick Was merely a symbol of authority, Don Meloni left a note for her : "Arm yourself with patience and not with a stick". Don Meloni was God's guide for Maria at this critical stage of her spiritual development. He marvelled at the work of the Spirit in her soul and so he was not surprised when she told him that she felt called to give herself to God in the religious state. She wanted only one thing, to give herself entirely to God. The place and the time of departure were of secondary importance to her. When Don Meloni asked her what convent she wished to join, she re plied , "Send me wherever you wish". For Maria there could be no half-measures. From the time of her sister's funeral she had given herself to Jesus Christ.
Within seven years of her "conversion" and less than five from her entrance into the monastery, she was to become a saint. Don Meloni suggested the Cistercian monastery at Grottaferrata, some 60 kilometres north of Rome. This was an enclosed contemplative Order and nothing could have pleased- Maria more. She tried to keep her approaching entry to the convent a secret but the news inevitably leaked out. There were some who could not un der stand why a young woman of Maria's calibre should want to bury herself alive in an enclosed Order. Others acted the prophets of doom and foretold that she would be home again after a couple of months with the Cistercians.
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On September 30th 1935, the Abbess of Grottaferrata, Mother Pia, met for the first time the postulant from Dorgali whom she had agreed to accept for trial on the recommendation of Don Meloni. She was confronted by a tall, good-looking young woman with finely-chiselled features and large serene eyes. She looked healthy and the Abbess approved of her strong physique, the result of hard work and fresh air on the farm. Those steady friendly eyes , the cheerful tone of her voice, her laughter combined with a certain seriousness, all indicated to Mother Pia that here could be promising material for the Cistercian way of life. Time alone, of course would test her suitability.
THE CISTERCIAN ORDER.
The Cistercian Order was founded in the year 1098 by a group of monks who left the monastery of Molesmes in Burgandy (France) and went to a place called Citeaux near Dijon to start a new monastery. They wanted to live in poverty and austerity and in freedom from the secular establishment of the day. They were called Cistercians after the latin name for Citeaux, which was Cistercium.
Soon after the foundation of this new monastery, the group was joined by St Bernard and thirty friends of his. Bernard was to become the great light of the Church of his day. His sister entered a convent and this marked the beginning of the Cistercian nuns. They followed the same rule as the monks, living in poverty and austerity, and devoting a large part of the day to prayer.
With the ebb and flow of history, the Order underwent several reforms and by the 20th century had about 30 or so houses of nuns following the Observances of the Reformed Cistercians. These were especially notable for enclosure, separation from the world, long hours of the divine office in choir, severe fasting and very early rising for prayer, generally about 2a.m.
When a young woman entered such a monastery as Grottaferrata, she underwent a preliminary trial period (postulancy) of about six months, and was then given the monastic habit, that is the dress of the nuns. She lived with the other novices for two years under the direction of a senior nun, who guided her in the ways of the spirit. If the community agreed, she was then accepted by the Abbess for vows and took her first vows for a period of three years. Only after this would she be admitted to final vows, which would commit her for life to the monastery.
FIRST STEPS AND IMPRESSIONS.
A nun needs staying power. She needs the stamina and endurance of the marathon
runner - sprinters need not apply ! St Benedict did not receive an aspirant with open
arms. He is off-putting in his approach in the Rule and prescribes that the applicant
should be kept waiting for a few days before being admitted. A relic of this practice
endures to the present day and so Maria was not admitted to the community until October 5th , 1935, five days after her arrival. Here are her first impressions, as set out in her letters home :
........ I am very well, thank God, and want you to know that I am dressed as an or di nary young lay-woman............. If you could hear the sisters singing in choir you would say they were angels and not mortals you were listening to. Everything here breathes peace and quiet . . . . I shall write again, once I am 'in the Enclosure'. She was a peasant girl leaving home for the first time, and seeing a way of life completely new to her. Small wonder that she was enthusiastic ; small wonder that she thought the choir sounded like angels.
In her second letter to her mother she describes the reception of a Novice and the Solemn Profession of Sr. Michael : "Pray, mother, that this day will come for me too, that I may not have come here just to see the place, but to remain here forever as faithful spouse of Jesus". Then she shows her honesty and commonsense and scotches certain rumours current in Dorgali about the contemplative life. She has good descriptive powers and wants to paint as true a picture as possible of herself and her surroundings in order to put her mother's mind at ease : "Now that I am enclosed don't believe that what has been said on the matter of enclosure is the whole truth, that the meals are served to the Novices through a hatch. That is not so. As a matter of fact we dine comfortably in the Refectory with the rest of the Community". Then lest her mother should picture her as being cooped up she lets her see that she has quite a large enclosure, a feature of all the monasteries of Cistercian Sisters. "As for the monastery and grounds, it is like paradise on earth. Yesterday, on a tour of the gardens and orchards I saw a marvellous sight - vines still laden with grapes ! I also saw vegetables, cabbages, fennel (used for flavouring), and everything it is possible to grow in a kitchen garden. I walked around the garden and saw a few flowers still in bloom, but there are also flower-beds for flowers that bloom at other times". It was a new world full of wonder and beauty for her.
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Her letters are full of information about her new home and the Community. In this short account of Maria's life it is not possible to quote them in full. However, short extracts must be given because it is from her letters that we see what kind of person she was. Within ten days she felt fully at home and accepted by the 50 sisters in the Community. "I have met so many sisters here all wishing me well ; there are more than 50 of us. The day after my arrival I felt lost as in some strange place. But to-day it is no longer so ; I do not seem to be among people whom 20 days ago I had never even met. Instead I seem to be with people amongst whom I was born, lived and grew up. It is so wonderful living in the Lord's house. The time for prayer is fixed, as is also the time for work, so that no sister follows her own whim. It is only during the intervals that each one is free to read, write and pay a visit to the Church as she wishes. With regard to rising, the Novices and professed sisters get up at 2a.m., but the other postulants and 1, still on our first month here, get up at 4 a.m..... The silence is a wondeful safeguard, because we do not spend time as they do in Dorgali criticising one another and grumbling, but each one gets on with her own work and pays no heed to anything else. If you only saw the sisters communicating in signs you would surely laugh...... Times are when even I have to laugh when they make signs to me because I do not yet know all the signs and so do not always understand them. I hope you will like my name ; it is so beautiful, the name of the Archangel Gabriel, whom the Lord chose to announce the Great Event to the Blessed Virgin............
That long extract gives an idea of Blessed Gabriella's temperament. We get the impression of a normal well-balanced girl, at pains to set her mother's mind at ease and to console her in her loneliness, whilst painting a picture of herself and her surroundings. This picture comes across consistently in the forty or so letters that have been preserved, from those written during her earliest days in the Abbey to the last letter written in pencil to her mother a few days before Gabriella died. She never lost her enthusiasm and preserved her uncritical admiration for the Cistercian life and the Cistercian nuns. Three months after her entry she wrote : "Ask him to make me suffer a hundred deaths rather than depart from these holy walls, where I have been welcomed with such great love". Convinced of her unworthiness, the Novice had a dread of being sent home. She refers to this several times : "I enjoy good health and am very happy to be in God's house. If sometimes the thought enters my mind that they might send me away, it fills me with such horror that I shun it as I would a poisonous snake. My heart misses a beat at the very thought and I would be happier if they cut me to pieces rather than have to leave the monastery". The following sentence from the same letter shows just how highly she appreciated God's goodness in calling her to the monastic life : "I should be grateful to the Lord for all his favours but most of all for having given me a religious vocation and having brought me here..." The Cistercian Novice has to spend two years in the Novitiate ; and although strictly speaking , only the first year is required for profession, the second year is never dispensed with in any house of the Order. Having surmounted the first year, Sr. Gabriella reaffirms her determination to persevere with the help of God's grace : "Please tell my cousin and his father that the trial year they allowed me has ended and that far from regretting it, (i.e. her entry to the convent), I am very happy and would not exchange my place in the monastery where I dig, hoe and do everything that is needed..... I would not exchange this for anything I could have had if I'd stayed on in the world. I would prefer to suffer any martyrdom than cross the threshold of the monastery ". A year later she reassures her aunt that she was not offended by what her husband had said about her ; presumably, from the context, he had remarked that Sr. Gabriella would not persevere. "Please tell her that I never even think of them (his remarks) let alone feel offended by them because if I continued to think along those lines I should do wrong because they were not said to offend me but rather to test me. But even if I had been offended, it is impossible to harbour a grudge when one lives in the house of the Lord. That is absolutely alien to our spirit. If I have recalled those words, it is only to make you understand that, even if I was undecided when I left home, which is far from being the case, Jesus has now strengthened me more than ever in my vocation". One final quotation from a letter written just three days previously shows the determination of the young Novice to be faithful to her vocation : "Thank God I have no illness, and as regards losing the spirit of my vocation I beg him to let me die not one but a thousand deaths sooner than let that happen".
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The realization that she was a spouse of Christ was a very important characteristic of Gabriella's spirituality. Naturally this idea is more likely to appeal to women; it could be off-putting to a man unless he sees the reality that is behind it and that it expresses - that we are as closely bound to Christ as a married couple are to each other, making one with him. As St. Paul puts it, a man cleaves to Christ and becomes one spirit with him. ( I Cor. 6 ; 17 ) . The spiritual life is concerned with a loving relationship with God. There is a certain fittingness in using the spouse-analogy in the case of women. Sacred scripture has spoken frequently of Israel, the chosen people, as having entered into a marriage-relationship with God. Tradition in the church has applied the language of the ' Song of Songs' to the church at large and also to individuals. St. Paul speaks of the church as the Spouse of Christ. The Church herself in the Liturgy of Virgins and in the ceremony of profession (at least formerly) has approved of the idea. From the moment of her 'conversion', Sr. Gabriella gave her heart unreservedly to Jesus Christ and she consistently referred to herself as his spouse. Before profession she felt called to be his spouse. Her profession made her entirely his. She said in a letter: " I have become a Spouse of Jesus". We have seen that she asked her mother in her second letter to pray for her perseverance, that she too would reach profession and remain in the monastery ' forever, as the faithful spouse of Jesus. Fidelity is a characteristic of marriage. One is inclined to think that it was this notion of fidelity that appealed so much to Sr. Gabriella. Here again we shall have to restrict ourselves to a few references in her letters. It is only a personal opinion, but the writer of this brief account of Blessed Gabriella is convinced that her commitment to Christ was so total from the beginning that she speedily reached the summit of the spiritual life, traditionally referred to as the stage of "Mystical Marriage" . She was only three months in the monastery when she wrote to her mother.' Mother, you too thank him, as I am not capable of thanking him sufficiently. Keep praying constantly (note the insistence) that he will soon make me a spouse worthy of him." (29, 12,35,) Even before profession she made some kind of pact or engagement with Christ' " I have entered into the bond of Eternal Love ( sic ) with Jesus. He will be all mine, I all his. He, my Creator, has not disdained to call me his spouse" ( 13. 4. 36 ) . This is how she tells her mother about her approaching reception of the habit: "I am so happy to be able to give you the good news of my clothing. The news fills my heart with joy. . . . The day after the resurrection of the Lord I shall become his spouse" ' (29.3.36) . "Beg of him for me that I may soon become a holy, religious spouse of his, not only in name but in manner of life" (21.12.36). Her mind was so full of this idea that the soul's relationship with God could best be expressed in terms of espousal or betrothal that it surfaces in a most unlikely place, in a letter to her brother, Salvatore, urging him to make his Easter Duty. "I do genuinely want to know if Giomaria and you have made your Easter Duty. Have you? I hope so". She reminds him that he once told her that he lived out in the country and could not go to Church but that he raised his mind to God wherever he happened to be at the time. You do well to think of God where you are, but that is not enough. Tell me, brother, if you were engaged and said to your fiancee: 'I love you but I cannot come to see you , because I have to stay with the sheep all the time. However I think of you where I am', what would she say to you in reply? She would send you packing and certainly say to you: 'if you are always with your herds and never come to see me, it is a sign that you love them more than you love me, and are certainly not worthy of me.
After reading those references to herself as the Spouse of Christ written before her simple profession, we are not surprised at the following which have a direct bearing on that great event in her monastic life. She made simple profession on 31st October, 1937, the Feast of Christ the KING. Her letter describes the change in her monastic habit. She now wore a black scapular and leather girdle and the monastic cowl. To give her mother some idea of the cowl she says it resembled the 'garment worn by St. Maurice (in Parish Church) only ours is white'. Before the Community Mass, referred to in those days as a high Mass, she shared in four Masses. There were two Abbots of the Order present at the Profession. Gabriella writes: "after the Ceremony there was a High Mass celebrated by three priests (obviously the Celebrant, Deacon and Subdeacon as these were the days before concelebration) at which I was given Holy Communion. I was also asked if I were willing to take Jesus as my model and my Spouse. I read aloud the promises or vows of my profession, signed the document in the middle of choir, and added a cross a detail that proved significant in the light of what was to follow. The secret of Gabriella's rapid progress towards divine union is to be found in the opening sentence of her letter written on the day of her profession. The words, used in the offertory for the Dedication of a Church, probably impressed themselves on her mind: "Lord, in the simplicity of my heart I joyfully offer you everything In theory the whole question of perfection in the spiritual life is simple. God loves us infinitely. He cannot love otherwise. Since love craves union with the beloved, God has an infinite desire to unite himself to us. If we do not reach union with God, the obstacle is on our part. It comes from our selfishness, or disordered self-will, our sins. Love must be given freely and God will not force our freedom. The ordinary trials of life help to get rid of too much self-love and show us our total dependence on God. Only then can the love of God be poured forth into our hearts", in all its full ness. With most people the process is a long life one. Others, like Blessed Gabriella, make such a total offering of themselves under the inspiration of grace but without outstripping grace, that God is free to satisfy his longing for union with them. From the time of her conversion, during her Novitiate and especially on the morning of her profession, Sr. Gabriella could say: I am entirely yours".
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One of the most striking characteristics of Sr. Gabriella's spirituality is its ordinariness. Here again the theory is simple and easily understood. To put it into practice demands heroic virtue, "the heroicity of the humdrum ". Sanctity in practice consists in perfect conformity of our will with the Will of God as expressed in full and perfect discharge of the duties of our state in life. Blessed Gabriella shunned singularity. The Abbess could say of her in a letter written in 1938: "Gifted with intelligence well above the average, she has an extraordinary memory, using it only to be 'faithful'. Always forgetful of herself, she has continued silently and unnoticed and it is only now when the Lord is calling her that I am aware of the treasure she is . . . . . She longs for the celestial nuptials and has written a wonderful letter to her mother. It seems she is living out to the full, very simply and calmly the words of St. Bernadette: 'What concerns me no longer concerns me'. Never a complaint in the midst of all her sufferings. She has reached such a degree of abandonment to God's Will, seeking to please him alone, that the very action to God himself on that chosen soul is obvious for all to see". The Abbess has pinpointed in those words the path that led Sr. Gabriella to the heights; abandonment to the Will of God. She herself is quite explicit about her ordinariness. She had not a very good voice, something that caused her distress at first: "I am certainly incapable of carrying out the duties in choir; indeed at the beginning every time my turn came I wept, because I was such a failure, but now I don't pay any attention to my feelings or failures, I put all the effort I can into it; then if the Lord wants to keep me humbled, blessed be his Will. I desire only to sanctify myself in the love and observance of my duties and in perfect abandonment to the Will of God. He who has brought me so far will support me in the future". (I 7. 12. 37.)
She was only a few days in the monastery when she wrote: "Pray that God will help me not only to understand what they tell me but also to practise it; that is to obey our superiors and observe the Rule exactly and so become holy before God".
The following extract has a charm ing reference to "being raised to the Altar" in the light of her Beatification, and another clear reference to the path she had chosen to follow. Yes, Sr. Gabriella knew what she wanted when she joined the Cistercians and she never swerved from her course: "My only desire is to love my God, more and more; to beg him to make me less un worthy and more holy. Do not think I mean 'to be raised to the Altar'; that would be presumption on my part. I desire only the sanctity that comes from the perfect discharge of my duties".
In a letter written to her mother a few weeks before Sr. Gabriella's death the Abbess could say:.......... Pray that your daughter's virtue - I dare say her sanctity (sanctity springing from joy, humility and abandonment to God) may increase more and more".
There is one thing a Spiritual Director will be on the look out for in those seeking close union with God in order to access the authenticity of their prayer life; has it an apostolic dimension? Whilst it is true that the contemplative life is its own justification and would be relevant even if there were no souls to be saved, in fact there are souls to be saved and the Church's teaching on the Mystical Body and Communion of Saints stresses that we can and should help others by prayers. Successive Popes, including the present Holy Father, have stressed the importance of the so-called 'Contemplative Apostolate'. A few extracts from Sr. Gabriella's correspondence will lot us see how largely this apostolic dimension figured in her life. She dismisses the accusation of selfishness levelled at Contemplative Orders: "People outside the monastery say that we are selfish, shutting ourselves up in a monastery and thinking only of ourselves. That is a lie. We live lives of continual sacrifice leading to total immolation for the salvation of souls". When she wrote those lines Sr. Gabriella was within seven months of her death as a victim for Church Unity. She never forgot to pray for her relatives and friends whom she had left behind in Dorgali. We find her enquiring for this one and that, rejoicing at the arrival of a new baby and asking God's blessing to the various groups which she had belonged.
Her brother Salvatore had given up the practice of his religion and right up to the last letter written on her death-bed, she sought his conversion. It is not possible to quote her in full, but we notice how consistent she was, how she pinned him down to a straight answer to a straight question; had he or had he not made his Easter Duty? A few days after her first Christmas in Grottaferrata she wrote. "For my part I never fail to pray daily for you and all your family, for your relatives and benefactors, finally for our country and the whole world. Let me know if the mission that was expected took place and if Salvatore and his friend Billie went to confession. I should also be delighted to know if the different societies and religious practices are going ahead, or if the town has greatly resented the departure of Don Meloni".
Apparently Salvatore never answered her letters (but thank heavens he preserved them!), She tells us so in a Christmas letter in 1937: "I have waited in vain for an answer from Salvatore, who seems to have turned a deaf ear to my appeal. We must take upon ourselves the task of praying for these men-folk of ours, and Jesus, who can bring about even miracles, will not fail to give them the grace they need". Here follows one of the few references we have to her devotion to Our Lady, a devotion which was certainly very ardent: "I have started (the devotion of) the fifteen Saturdays in honour of Our Lady, and when these are finished I shall start another and another until we obtain the grace they need".
Her zeal for souls was by no means confined to her brother and those whom she knew. About two months before she died, she gives expression in two letters to her belief that our sufferings united to those of Christ on Calvary help to save souls by winning the grace of conversion for them: "I am certain that our sufferings will be to his greater glory, to our great advantage and will help to save souls........... I'm sure your words were intended to give expression to the infinite anguish that flows from the Heart of Christ into ours when we see him offended, outraged and ill-treated, and also when we see souls being lost, so that, while we want to do everything to save them, they hurl themselves headlong into the eternal abyss".
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We have now reached what is most relevant for the Church of our times in the life of Blessed Gabriella, the oblation she made of her life for Church Unity. So far we have found in Sr. Gabriella a person consumed with love for Christ and for souls, and totally abandoned to the Will of the Father. Had she continued along those lines, there is no doubt that she would have reached high sanctity. There are very many such souls about whom we hear nothing. But for the offering Sr. Gabriella made of her young life to hasten the cause of Christian Unity, it is doubtful if we should have heard of her.
What was the state of the Ecumenical Movement in her time; and how did she come to take such an interest in it. The question can best be answered by recounting the story of the conversion of a monastic community in Wales, which took place just before World War 1. A group of Anglican monks had founded a monastery there on the Island of Caldey, off Tenby, and were living according to the Rule of St. Benedict. In 1913 they were converted to the Roman Catholic Church and almost the entire community was received into the church. A minority did not join them and these men went to Pershore Abbey and later to Nashdom near Slough in Buckinghamshire. The monks of Nashdom have since then been much occupied with reunion; and one of their number, Dom Benedict Ley, who was novicemaster during the 1930's was a friend of Abbe Couturier, the great French apostle of reunion. Couturier was one of the most ardent promoters of the church union and was in constant correspondence with the Abbess of Grottaferrata. He thus let the community to a deep interest in and concern for reunion and to pray constantly for this great intention. The Church Unity Octave had been established since the early part of the century. This is a week of special prayer for reunion between the churches, which lasts from the feast of St. Peter's See at Rome (Jan. 18th) to the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul (Jan. 25th) each year. During this time the nuns of Grottaferrata joined with Christians all over the world in praying for an end to division among the churches. Sr. Gabriella took up this intention with great readiness and enthusiasm; and when Abbe Couturier suggested to the Abbess that there was need for someone to offer her life for the cause of ecumenism she was fired by the idea of doing so. This idea fitted the completely with her own notion of what the monastic spiritual life was all about the total offering of herself to the Will of God.
"I have given everything in my power to give". These words were written by Gabriella on the feast of Christ the King, the day of her profession. They show inclination to offer herself as a victim. There is of course, no question here of offering her life, but simply a declaration that she wishes to be consumed by divine love, whatever that may involve.
We have seen how the Abbess, Mother Pia, communicated her own enthusiasm for Church Unity to the nuns. In January 1938, Abbe Couturier had compiled a long circular about the matter and sent it to Mother Pia. She read it to the community in preparation for the Church Unity week of prayer. Gabriella sat listening to this document while the Holy Spirit worked in her soul prompting her to make the heroic offering. Fr. Couturier spoke of souls who had offered their lives for this intention. In her own convent of Grottaferrata, Gabriella had the example of an older nun who had made this offering and who recently died. The novice-mistress, Sr. Thecla Fontana, who died in 1955, tells us that Gabriella had writ ten in her notebook (now unfortunately lost): "I have never seen anyone perform a sacrifice without desiring to make a similar sacrifice myself". This was a spirituality of complete acquiescence in the will of God which was frequent before Vatican II but which unhappily is less encouraged today. There is no doubt that this offering of her life presents difficulties. A few remarks may help. First of all there is no question of suicide! IF sickness follows the offering every available remedy is used to seek a cure. This was certainly done in Sr. Gabriella's case. She did not ask for death but expressed her willingness to accept death for the cause of Unity between the Churches, if God should see fit to allow that to happen. Christ himself said that there is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friend. Recently we have seen Fr. Maximilian Kolbe canonised and declared a martyr. He offered his life to set free the father of a family who had been condemned to death in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz in 1941. Sr. Gabriella took the words of Our Lord literally about laying down one's life for others, and what she was saying was something like this: "If you foresee that my dying, with all that it may involve, will help forward the cause of Unity, then accept the offering of my life. As for me I only seek your will in the matter". For her it was a straightforward following of Christ's offering on Calvary.
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Obviously one does not make an offering of one's life without permission and advice. Sr. Gabriella never mentioned her offering for Church Unity to anybody inside or outside her Community, with the exception of her Novice Mistress, the Abbess and the Chaplain of the monastery. She first approached the Novice Mistress and mentioned the strong inclination she had for some time to offer her life for the reunification of the Christian Churches. The following account is to be found in Sr. Thecla's notes: "The prayer made to Jesus to consume her as a little sacrificial victim for his glory and the salvation of souls must certainly have been answered. During her Novitiate she had always been afraid she would be sent home; this had been a nightmare for her. But when she was professed she said to Jesus: "Now do as you please; let me be ill, let me die, it matters little. I am ready for anything'." The Novice Mistress told her is was outside her competence to grant such a permission and advised her to discuss the matter with the Abbess. That the Novice Mistress shared Mother Pia's zeal for Ecumenism is clear from her notes describing the incident: "At that time Sr. Gabriella confided in me how much the Lord was asking from her". Twenty-five years of experience in the Order had shown the Novice Mistress that conversion was principally the fruit of prayer and sacrifices: "Sr. Gabriella, leaving the praying to me, wished to make the sacrifice her self. Could I say 'No' to her? I immediately had the impression that the sacrifice would be accepted and that I should lose a 'daughter' of whom I had such high hopes. But I was pledged to work for the glory of God and I did not delay in giving my consent. I did, however, tell her she must discuss it with the Abbess and abide by Abbess Pia's decision". And the Abbess? Much as she longed for Church Unity, she could not bring herself to give a direct permission. She too probably had a premonition that the offering would be accepted and the Community would lose a healthy, promising young sister. She compromised and said: "I shall neither say 'Yes' nor 'No.' Speak to Fr. Chaplain about it. Then the Lord will do what he wills".
One gets the impression from reading Sr. Thecla's account that, in her anxiety to know the outcome, she either waited nearby to waylay Gabriella as she left the Abbess's room or 'chanced' to meet her on the cloisters. At all events she was able to tell us that "her face was radiant with joy as she emerged from the Abbess's room". This would indicate that she already knew the Chaplain's mind on the matter she would readily obtain his permission. As is customary in the Cistercian Order, the Chaplain was resident and a member of the Order. In the correspondence describing Sr. Gabriella's last days we learn that he was 70 years of age at this time Gabriella were she alive to-day would be 68 years of age!) - and a monk of solid piety. His life long experience of Cistercian life was invaluable in guiding and in restraining the ardour of this young sister. He tells us that his principal function was, not to urge her to make greater progress, but to moderate her over-en thusiastic zeal. It was an agonising decision to have to make. Events have proved that in this case he cor rect ly discerned the move ment of the Spirit.
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CHAPTER 8. "I have not spent a single day without suffering".
Reared on the family farm and having led an outdoor life working on it, Gabriella enjoyed robust health right up to the day she made her offering for Church Unity. Then her sisters began to notice her pallor, her persistent cough, and her weakness, to the extent of having to pause for breath when climbing the stairs. The doctor prescribed X-rays and the findings were positive. Sr. Gabriella had contacted tuberculosis, that dreaded killer disease of pre-antibiotic days. She had made her offering in January 1938 By the following April she was in a Sanatorium near Rome. There was in fact nothing unusual in this. Strong country boys and girls frequently fell victim to T.B. when confined within the walls of a seminary or monastery. They had little resistance to the germs while urban youngsters were regularly immune to the attacks of that mostly fatal illness.
Having seen how much Sr. Gabriella loved her monastery we can appreciate how she suffered to be away from her community. When the doctors eventually admitted that she was incurable, she succeeded in persuading them to allow her to return to her beloved Grottaferrata, In a letter to the Abbess she gives us a pen-picture of her sufferings in her hospital surroundings: "I am in a huge ward full of people, most of them young. They yell and howl and make an infernal din; there is not a second for recollection. I had hardly arrived when they came over and wanted me to shout and make noise as they did. Now that I have been hurtled from my solitude into this uproar, I feel the whole extent, or the true greatness of my sacrifice . . . . Now when I think of my monastery, especially at night, tears pour from my eyes and I can only keep saying: 'My God, your glory' and I soon regain peace. Please pray for me, because I badly need prayers". In a letter written five days later we read: "I hear around me things I could not have borne when I was in the world. Think what effect they have on me now. Sometimes I plug my ears and cover my face, but I can't do that all the time......... Do, Rev. Mother, all that the Lord inspires you to do, but for the love of God, do all you can to get me back to the monastery". It was a human reaction. She longed for the peace and security of home. She could not live in alien surroundings which had no echoes of either Dorgali or Grottaferrata ' By the month of May when the sputum test, upon which she had placed all her hopes, proved to be positive, she had reached the state of utter abandonment to the Divine Will and could write: " I assure you my sacrifice is utterly complete .... I do nothing except renounce my will......... Now I have understood clearly that the glory of God and being a victim does not consist in doing great or big things but in total sacrifice of the self". It was thus she epitomised the essence of her spiritual values. Small and simple were to her beautiful and holy.
By June 1938, Sr. Gabriella was home in her monastery. Her humility and distrust of herself are apparent in one of her letters written in the hospital (22.5.38): "Rev. Mother pray hard that I may not lose my religious spirit here. I fear this much, very much, because I am so weak and capable of falling at any moment. The Lord will help me, for he never abandons those who put all their trust in him; but I still hope for the help of your prayers".
Until her death on April 23, 1939, Sr. Gabriella suffered much but always without complaint. Many of the witnesses commented on her peacefulness and serenity and joy. As ever the source of her serenity is to be found in her perfect abandonment to the Dive Will. "I thank God for everything. I am always happy doing God's Will, whatever it may be: that is my joy, my happiness, my peace". And the Abbess in turn uses practically the same words when describing Gabriella's condition to her mother: "Sr. M. Gabriella continues all the time to be serene and happy: always edifying: it is a joy to be with her, because one feels she is always with the Lord".
A letter, written in pencil and in handwriting that clearly showed the weakened condition of the patient, was to be sent to her mother to console her immediately after Blessed Gabriella's death. Even in this last letter she is concerned about Salvatore's practice of his religion: "I hope Salvatore and his brother-in-law have made their Easter duty......... Otherwise I implore them to do so as soon as possible ' at least to let me have my last desire and I shall pray hard for them". She reminds her mother that there will be no Enclosure in Heaven to prevent her from being near her and helping her. There is to be no sorrow. She suggests that the whole family should go to Mass and receive Holy Communion on her behalf as soon as they heard of her death. Her last written words were: "I ask pardon of everyone, this last time, for the offences I have ever caused them. I embrace you affectionately in the Heart of Jesus, together with all the family". No inhuman saint, Blessed Gabriella! In fact there are no inhuman saints. There are caricature lives of the saints from bygone days that make them appear inhuman, disembodied creatures. Each of us can identify with Gabriella because she was so ordinary, so human and so insignificant. That is her secret. She is a saint because she did ordinary things so generously.
There was a wealth of detail about Blessed Gabriella's last days to be found in the evidence of witnesses, her own letters written in the sanatorium and in the infirmary on her return to the monastery, as well in the letters written by the Abbess to her mother keeping her informed of her daughter's illness. It is not possible in this biographical sketch to make full use of all that material, so we shall let the following extracts from the very long letter written by the Abbess to Gabriella's mother on April 26, 1939 described her last moments have been staying up with her at night, in spite of the distress she felt at causing us in convenience. Holy Communion was brought to her at midnight .... She suffered with such meekness, assenting to the acts of resignation and love that were suggested to her . . . She requested in a weak voice that could scarcely be heard: 'Holy Communion, if I may, if I may'. It was brought to her again as Viaticum . . . . All night we remained, the lnfirmarian, two other sisters and myself. In spite of his advanced age, the chaplain insisted on remaining until she drew her last breath." At 5. 30 p.m. on Good Shepherd Sunday, Sr. Gabriella breathed her last and went to the Good Shepherd, to join her prayer to his that there be one flock and one shepherd.
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In Italy generally religious houses do not have their own cemeteries; and the permission to have their own burial ground was granted to the nuns of Grottaferrata only a short while before Gabriella died. When she heard the news she was delighted . She was buried beneath the altar in the Abbey church.
In the year 1957 the community of Grottaferrata moved to a new monastery at Vitorchiano, near Viterbo. As they did not have a cemetery in Vitorchiano, they placed the remains of Sr. Gabriella in the burial ground of the Sisters of St. Francis, who lived nearby. Her cause had just been introduced at Rome and this provided a good opportunity to identify the remains which were found to be intact.
In 1975, Sr. Gabriella's coffin was transferred to Vitorchiano and, as by this time her cult had grown and her fame speed, there was a large gathering present. The mass for Christian Unity was concelebrated by 50 priests. A month or so later it was decided to replace the coffin which had begun to deteriorate.
The body was found to be decomposed except for the hands which were still intact and hold ing a rosary. Perhaps this says something to us about the importance of prayer to Mary the Mother of the Church, for unity. This unity is the work of God and will be brought about only by prayer on our part. The process in Rome went ahead and eventually Sr. Gabriella was declared 'Servant of God' and her virtues declared heroic. The miracle which was accepted for her Beatification is as simple and as striking as was her life. A Benedictine nun, Sr. Pia Manno, aged 34, was suffering from an incurable and progressive disease of the optic nerve. Despite all treatments, nothing could be done and her sight gradually deteriorated. The doctors could give no prognosis except that eventually she would be totally blind. In the year 1960, Sr. Gabriella appeared to her in a dream on the night of March 19th. She told Sr. Pia to go to choir for divine office on March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, and to read the lesson. When Sr. Pia said that she could not see, and hence was unable to read, Gabriella repeated that she was to go to choir on March 25th. and read the lesson. Accordingly Sr. Pia did so, despite the fact that the pain in her eyes had increased over the intervening days. Still blind she went to the choir, and at exactly 5. 25 a.m. on the morning of March 25th, she picked up the breviary and opening it at the lesson for the day, found that she could see and read. This change in her condition has since continued and she has suffered no relapse. After the most careful examination, the doctors have pronounced themselves satisfied that the cure, which they characterise as "total, instantaneous; and lasting" has no natural explanation, and so it has been accepted as a miracle.
The holiness of Sr. Gabriella would seem to consist mainly in her simplicity and in her seeking to do the Will of God. She was never less than whole-hearted in her response to her vocation and she sought God's will constantly, in the convent in prayer, in offering herself and finally in her illness. Her life speaks to us of prayer for Unity and her death of the immense desire this girl had that the will of Jesus Christ, expressed at his last discourse to his disciples, "That they all be one" be fulfilled and carried out in our world. Her search for God's will in the ordinary things of life and her spirit of prayer are what will in the end bring that Unity to the churches.
Her devotion to the cause of Unity was touchingly noted by the Pope when he designated the Basilica of St. Paul's as the location for the Beatification and the date as January 25th, the feast of St. Paul's Conversion and the concluding day of Church Unity Octave.
The author of this short account wishes to thank Miss M. Grego, of Garvald for her help in translating the passages from Bl. Gabriella's letters as they appear in the official Life in Italian.
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