Қасиетті Жерар Маджелла: Аналар мен туудың қамқоршысы

Italian Roman Catholic saint

Gerard Majella (; 6 April 1726 – 16 October 1755) was an Italian lay brother of the Congregation of the Redeemer, better known as the Redemptorists, who is honored as a saint by the Catholic Church. His intercession is sought for children, unborn children, women in childbirth, mothers, expectant mothers, motherhood, the falsely accused, good confessions, lay brothers and Muro Lucano, Italy.

Majella was born in Muro Lucano on 6 April 1726, the youngest of five children. He was frail, and his parents had him baptized the day he was born. He tried to join the Capuchin Order twice, but his health prevented it. In 1749, he joined the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, known as Redemptorists. The order was founded in 1732 by Alphonsus Liguori (1696 1787) at Scala, near Naples. The essentially missionary order is dedicated to "preaching the word of God to the poor." Its apostolate is principally in giving of missions and retreats. During his life, he was very close to the peasants and other outsiders who lived in the Neapolitan countryside. In his work with the Redemptorist community, he was variously a gardener, sacristan, tailor, porter, cook, carpenter, and clerk of works on the new buildings at Caposele. His last will was a small note on the door of his cell: "Here the will of God is done, as God wills, and as long as God wills." He died at 29 of tuberculosis on 16 October 1755 in Materdomini, Italy.

One miracle in particular explains how Majella became known as the special patron of mothers. A few months before his death, he visited the Pirofalo family and accidentally dropped his handkerchief. One of the Pirofalo girls spotted the handkerchief moments after he had left the house, and she ran after Gerard to return it, but he told her to keep it in case she might need it someday. Years later when the girl, now a married woman, was on the verge of dying in childbirth, she remembered the words of the saintly lay brother. She asked for the handkerchief to be brought to her. Almost immediately, the pain disappeared and she gave birth to a healthy child. That was no small feat in an era when only one out of three pregnancies resulted in a live birth, and word of the miracle spread quickly. Because of the miracles that God worked through Gerard's prayers with mothers, the mothers of Italy took Gerard to their hearts and made him their patron. At the process of his beatification, one witness testified that he was known as "il santo dei felice parti," the saint of happy childbirths. His devotion has become very popular in North America, both in the United States and Canada. The St. Gerard Majella Annual Novena takes place every year at St. Josephs Church in Dundalk, Ireland. This annual nine day novena is the biggest festival of faith in Ireland. St. Joseph's sponsors the St. Gerard's Family League, an association of Christians united in prayer for their own and other families, to preserve Christian values in their home and family lives. The Sanctuary of San Gerardo Maiella is a basilica in Materdomini, Italy dedicated to him.

The Senior Coroner for Liverpool and Wirral sits at the Gerard Majella Courthouse in Liverpool. In Scotland, there is a church and primary school dedicated to St Gerard Majella in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, opened in 1971 & 1973 respectively. The maternity hospital, now a housing estate, was located close by; hence, the choice of name of church and school. Two towns in Quebec, Canada, are named in his honour: one in the Montérégie region and another in the Lanaudière region. Another town, St Jean Sur Richelieu, has one of its parishes named after him. In Ghent (Belgium) a model school was named after Saint Gerard. This school was exhibited on the International Exposition (1913) in Ghent as a model for Belgium's future school buildings. In 1914 it was rebuilt after the exhibition with the same stones. Nowadays the Saint Gerard School is used by a charity organisation "Geraarke" (local name) which supports poor people with clothes and food packages. In Nigeria, there is a shrine dedicated to St Gerard Majella at a place called Oba, in Anambra State. It was given to the Redemptorists of the Vice Province of Nigeria by the Archbishop of Onitsha, Most Rev. Valerian Okeke. The Redemptorists also built a school for the poor and most abandoned in the shrine site dedicated to St Gerard Majella. He was featured on an Italian 45 eurocent postage stamp in May 2005.