San Gerardo Maiella saves another mother and a child

A family tells the story of the healing of a child for the feast of the "holy mother".

The Richardson family attributes the healing of little Brooks Gloede to the intercession of San Gerardo Majella and his relic. Brooks is now a healthy baby.

On November 12, 2018, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Diana Richardson received an ultrasound image from the wife of her son Chad, Lindsay, who asked: “Prayers for the baby. We have to come back for another ultrasound in four weeks. The baby has cysts in the brain, which may mean trisomy 18, and the feet have been turned over, which would mean casts on the legs immediately after delivery, along with a problem with the umbilical cord: it's not inserted into the placenta. It's just hanging on a rope. I'm a little overwhelmed, so love and prayers for us and baby 'G' please. "

“This news couldn't have been more heartbreaking,” Richardson reminded the Register. He realized that trisomy 18 is a chromosomal abnormality that affects organs, and only about 10% of babies born with it live until their first birthday.

He immediately reached out to "a dear priest friend of mine, Father Carlos Martins, and asked which saint we could pray through intercession," he recalled. He advised San Gerardo Majella, patron saint of future mothers, whose feast is on October 16.

“While Diana was communicating her nephew's medical afflictions to me over the phone, a vivid image of San Gerardo Majella filled my mind. He was clear, bold and tenacious ”, Father Martins, of the Companions of the Cross and director of the Church's Treasures, reminded the Registry. “I heard he was saying, 'I'll take care of this. Send me to that child. I said, "Diana, I know someone who will help your grandson."

Richardson found a prayer for St. Gerard, modified it to include Lindsay's name as part of the intention, and then printed several copies for distribution: "We needed an army to pray for this child."

She went to the chapel of adoration of her parish to pray before the Blessed Sacrament and beg the Lord for a miracle. As she was leaving, a friend of the church staff walked in and Richardson gave her the prayer card. The friend smiled and said to Richardson, “I actually have his name. I pray every day. The friend explained how her mother prayed to him every day when she was pregnant and when the baby arrived she called her Geralyn.

“For a second I sat there a bit stunned that she knew this saint and that she was named after this saint,” Richardson explained of Geralyn's story. "I understood immediately that God had just validated unequivocally that St. Gerard was the saint from whom I should have asked for intercession".

Family name (Italian)
Although San Gerardo Majella is an important saint for intercession in cases of pregnancy and childbirth, mothers and children and married couples who want to conceive, he is not as well known in America as he is in his native Italy, as his feast is the lo same day as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, and does not appear in the liturgical calendar of the United States. But he and his holiday are well celebrated in the churches named after him, including the National Shrine of St. Gerard in Newark, New Jersey.

Those who seek his intercession understand why his 1755th century contemporaries called him "Wonder-Worker". The miraculous work of this lay Redemptorist brother, who died in 29 in Materdomini, Italy, at the age of XNUMX, was so famous that the founder of the order, St. Alphonsus Ligouri, began the cause for his canonization.

For more than two centuries, pregnant women, those who want to be mothers and those who pray for them have turned to St. Gerard for intercession and help. Countless answered prayers are linked to his intercession. In the late 1800s, immigrants from the villages and towns near Naples, where the saint lived and worked, carried their devotion to America, even to the Newark shrine.

San Gerardo became loved by the Richardson family.

Father Martins lent a relic of St. Gerard to the Richardsons. He had received it from the Redemptorist order.

"He is one of their saints, and their postulator general - Benedicto D'Orazio - issued the relic in 1924. It eventually became part of the Vatican exhibition that I now direct," said Father Martins.

“I could feel his presence immediately,” Richardson explained. After taking the relic to his parish chapel of worship to seriously invoke her help, he took the relic to Lindsay and told her not to lose sight of the St. angel she was carrying. "

Richardson continued to distribute St. Gerard's intercession prayer cards to family, friends, parishioners, priests, and a close friend in a convent. She prayed, telling God that her son and daughter-in-law “were good and loving Christian parents who wished to bring another precious soul into this world. They will love him Lord, as you would like him to be loved, and they will teach him to love you “.

Early Christmas gift
Before the Blessed Sacrament, Richardson recalled a sudden and inexplicable inspiration that the family would have great joy at Christmas and his heart suddenly filled with hope. As he explained, “The relic was with Lindsay at the time. Perhaps the healing took place in her womb at that very moment. God's mercy was poured out on that new and precious life and on his family “.

Hundreds of people were praying for the baby as Lindsay's next ultrasound approached December 11.

Lindsay described her feelings to the registry during her doctor's appointment: “My husband and I have had so much peace since we first heard the news. We felt so calm because of the prayers we had received and the amount of people we knew were praying for us. We knew, whatever the outcome, that this child would be loved ”.

The surprising results: all signs of trisomy 18 were gone. And the umbilical cord was now perfectly formed and inserted into the placenta.

“I could tell the ultrasound looked different,” Lindsay said. “It didn't look like what I had seen before. The feet looked perfect. He had no spots on his brain. Then I cried, even if the technician couldn't tell me at that moment, but I knew it was perfect in our eyes “.

Lindsay had asked her doctor: "Is it a miracle?" He just smiled, he recalled. So he asked again. All he would undertake to do was, as she referred to the Registry, "There is no medical explanation." He acknowledged that he couldn't explain what had happened. He repeated: "If we could have asked for the best possible result today, I think we have received it."

Lindsay told the Register: “When the doctor said, 'I have the best news possible,' I cried tears of joy, relief and a tremendous amount of gratitude for those who have prayed and continue to pray for our sweet boy.

“Praise our merciful God,” Richardson said. "We rejoiced."

When Father Martins was informed of the results, he recalls that “he was not at all surprised that a healing had occurred. San Gerardo's desire to be involved was absolutely clear and convincing “.

Happiest birthday
On April 1, 2019, when Brooks William Gloede was born, the family saw "the miracle with our own eyes," Richardson said. Today, Brooks is a healthy baby with two older brothers and one older sister.

"St. Gerard is truly a saint in our family, ”Lindsay pointed out. “We pray to him every day. I often say to Brooks: "You will move mountains, my boy, because you have Saint Gerard and Jesus next to you"