Saint Who?
Saints Who Promoted Eucharistic Devotion
Saint Gerard Majella
Priest and religious († 1755) Feast: October 16
“Wherever he went, in town or countryside, he told men of their Forgotten Friend” (John Carr, c.ss.r.). Gerard Majella was born in 1726 near Naples. Once the devout little boy learned about the Real Presence, he wished to be near Jesus in the Eucharist as frequently and as long as possible. After several rejections by religious orders on account of his poor health, he joined the Redemptorists as a lay brother in 1749.
Gerard rejoiced to be living in the same house as Jesus in the Eucharist. He was, it is said, as aware of Jesus’s presence in the chapel as of his superior’s in his office. He found it difficult to tear himself away, and was once overheard lovingly pleading before the tabernacle, “Let me go…. I have that work that I must do.”
Grieved that Jesus was too little loved in so many places, Gerard promoted Eucharistic devotion wherever he went. He turned his visits into acts of reparation, praying: “I adore you with all my heart, and by this visit I intend to adore you in all places on earth where you are present in the Sacrament…with the intention also of receiving you spiritually by that act as many times as there are places in which you do dwell.” He died of tuberculosis at twenty-nine, and was canonized in 1904.
Lord Jesus Christ, may you be adored in every tabernacle and received with love by every heart.
