Once again this May we celebrate Mother’s Day, a day especially dedicated to remembering our mothers who carried us in the womb and delivered us, often at great risk. She is the one who nourished us, often with milk from her own breasts. She is the one who taught us so many, many important things about life, about being human, about being a decent human being. Perhaps she was the first to teach us to believe in God and to pray. She is the one who made countless sacrifices for us, giving up so many other possibilities in order to do that which only a mother can do. She is the one who nourished us with milk for sustenance and, to some degree, with honey, that we might know the sweetness of life. It is only right and just that we should honor these fine women every day and especially today.

It is also true that our mothers are human beings, with vulnerabilities, weaknesses, faults and limitations. They are not angels. They are women with a history, a story, a life with some good and some bad. They are not perfect women. They are, like all human beings, flawed and wounded in some way. Some of these women were better mothers than others. But we believe that they all did the best they could with what they had. It’s just that sometimes they might not have had everything, for there is no woman who has everything, just as there is no mother who has nothing. So Mother’s Day might also be a day for deeper understanding, acceptance and appreciation, and for forgiveness and reconciliation.

St. Gerard Majella’s mother was called Benedetta, a name which means “blessed.” She married Dominic Majella when she was about 25 years old. We don’t know much about her, other than that she was a country girl from just outside the town of Muro, in southern Italy. The Majella family was poor. St. Gerard’s father, Dominic, was a tailor who scratched out a living as best he could to support his family. There were five children, three girls and two boys. Gerard was the youngest of the four surviving children. His younger brother died in infancy. The Majella family lived in at least two different places. Both were small, cramped houses, little more than a single room that served as kitchen, living room, bedroom and tailor’s shop. Dominic and Benedetta were simple, religious people who tried to do the best they could for their children, while never being far from the brink of poverty.

We don’t know many details about St. Gerard’s relationship with his mother or how much she influenced his personality and character. We can surmise, based on what we know about St. Gerard, that she must have been a good woman and a good mother, a positive influence on young Gerard and his three sisters. When Gerard’s father died, when or at what age we don’t know, Benedetta was forced to take Gerard out of school, cutting short his education. Gerard was probably about 12 when he was apprenticed to the tailor, Martin Pannuto, and later to the bishop, Claudio Albini, in Lacedonia, about 15 miles away, in order to help support his family.

There is not space here to tell the whole story here of how St. Gerard eventually left his mother to the care of his three sisters and ran off to join the Redemptorist missionaries. But so he did. His piety and sanctity were quickly noted. And his fame spread as a miracle and wonder-worker. But how did St. Gerard Majella come to be known as the Mothers’ Saint?

There are several stories concerning Gerard and families expecting babies. One family treasured a story of how Gerard’s handkerchief fell while visiting them. One of the girls of the family ran after him with it, but Gerard only smiled and said, “Keep it. You may need it someday!” Years later, when giving birth to her first child, in difficult labor, she remembered the handkerchief and had it brought to her. Her labor immediately became more peaceful and she gave birth to a healthy baby. From then on all the pregnant women of the neighborhood requested the handkerchief and it was eventually torn into strips to satisfy the need of so many. Today there are St. Gerard handkerchiefs that have been touched to a first class relic of St. Gerard, blessed and bearing an image and a prayer of St. Gerard.

And thus began St. Gerard’s heavenly vocation as the special protector and intercessor for women trying to conceive, living through the months of pregnancy or at the time of delivery, in short, for all mothers of every kind and in every situation. It may seem a little odd that a male religious should be the Mothers’ Saint, but it is interesting that this devotion began and has survived, not so much because it was promoted by the Redemptorists, but because many mothers have promoted it and passed it on to their daughters, from one generation to the next, beginning in Italy and now spreading to the ends of the world.

We, Redemptorists and devoted women and men, continue to promote this devotion to the powerful and loving intercession of St. Gerard Majella for all mothers: those desiring to be mothers, those having trouble conceiving, pregnant women with a difficult pregnancy or delivery, for safe deliveries and for healthy babies. We try especially to promote this popular piety through:
the League of St. Gerard.