GLORIFICATION

The name of Sister Theresa Margaret has now spread in Italy, crossed the Alps and gone beyond the seas. It rings with the blessings of people of many nations; from everywhere come requests for relics.

His Holiness Pope Clement XIV wished for a history of the young servant of God, hence Father Ildefonse wrote one and presented it to him.

Among other things, the author attests the authenticity of about sixty miraculous answers to prayers through her intercession, within three years time after her death.

Miracles continuously took place near that modest hidden tomb. Two of the Nuns were instantaneously cured of incurable diseases, and they said they had seen her in the company of St. Theresa and Blessed Mary of the Incarnation.

The political upheavals of those times and the unhappy vicissitudes of the convent retarded the cause of beatification which had begun so well.

The cause of beatification was resumed in these latter days; two recent miracles were presented to the Holy See, of which I give a faithful report because on these is founded the judgment of the Church giving the halo of Blessed to Sister Theresa Margaret.

On the morning of June 1, 1900, in the house of Calasanzione near Ardenza in the province of Livorno, during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, one of the Sisters, Mary Ducci by name, felt herself fainting and noticing a sweetish taste in her mouth, applied her handkerchief and found it stained with blood. She was taken to the convent, put to bed and was ordered ice and some medicine and was only to take cold food. She had two or three more hemorrhages during the day and another at night. Taken to the Mother House in Florence, she revived some-what, but by her imprudence in undertaking heavy work in the chapel, she brought on a return of the illness. The doctors were called in consultation. Their diagnosis was subsequently confirmed by the famous physician Grocco at the Florence Clinic and proved to be galloping consumption. The Superior suggested change of air for the Sister, but Professor Grocco replied that the malady at that stage was quite incurable. She might send the girl where she wished, but it was merely a question of days. She was taken to Antignano near Livorno and there fell into a deplorable state. The cough was incessant, the breathlessness exhausting, she had a high fever continuously accompanied by profuse sweat; each minute seemed to be her last.

One night, following the last day of a novena to Venerable Theresa Margaret, Sister Mary Ducci felt as if a great weight was pressing on her chest, and thinking it was her last breath, gasped out: "I am dying," but she heard a voice whisper in her ear: "Silly! you are not dying, you are cured!" And she was cured.

A radioscopic examination revealed no trace of the disease nor even the scar, and yet a little while ago it had clearly shown pulmonary cavities.

The second miracle happened in Siena in 1923 to Henrietta Giorgi, born in April 1903. From the age of three she had had lupus in the face. Secondly, she had a tubercular abscess in the region of the sternum. This was followed by other abscesses in the region of the sacrum. A while later further abscesses developed in the intercostal region. The patient could no longer walk and was under Doctor Spediacci's care. When she was twenty, and while the abscesses were still open, she fell in the Cathedral, hitting the right side of the pelvis and sacrum, thus injuring the coccyx. Assisted by her aunt, she managed to get home. The experts who came to examine her found some abnormal cavities in the dorsal region. Two X-rays were taken by Professor Pozzi, in October 1927, who left the following certificate: "The radiograph reveals the existence of sclerosis of the dorsal lumbar region; that is, Pott's disease, in the two dorsal vertebrae and the three primal lumbars." This radiograph confirmed the formal diagnosis of Doctor Stampa, so all further discussion was superfluous.

After trying every known remedy for three months, Miss Giorgi and her family made a novena to the Ven. Sister Theresa Margaret, at the end of which the patient was cured. This, the doctors testified, could not be attributed to any natural causes. A radiograph, taken three and a half years after the cure, confirms the fact of the miracle, since no trace of disease could be found.

On June 9, 1929, the Ven. Theresa Margaret was inscribed among the "Blessed".

No sooner had the decree of Beatification been published than graces and miracles through her intercession succeeded each other rapidly. On December 10, 1930, the Sovereign Pontiff Pope Pius XI, signed with His own hand the "Commission" for the resuming of the cause for canonization. Apostolic processes were immediately begun to verify two other miracles, one in Turin, the other in Florence, obtained through the intercession of Blessed Theresa Margaret.

The first case was that of a four year old boy called Renzo Garbagni. In May 1930 he complained of severe abdominal pains. Professor Joseph Caccia of the University of Florence pronounced it acute appendicitis. The boy's condition went from bad to worse, and on May 29th he further developed perforation of the abdominal wall; on the evening of the 31st came the crisis. The suffering of the boy was intense. The local symptoms maintained their gravity and were increased by further complications. Professor Caccia noted a tumor the size of a hen's egg in the region of the appendix.

Seeing the grave nature of the malady and imminent danger of her child's life, the boy's mother pinned a relic of Blessed Theresa Margaret on his nightshirt an implored her to help them with her intercession. About 8 p. m. on May 31, Professor Caccia saw the patient and pronounced his condition stationary and grave. The boy's father called in another doctor in consultation to see if they could operate. Meanwhile, towards 10 o'clock, the invalid fell into a gentle sleep. His mother touched him fearing that he might be dead. She called her husband who reassured her with the news that in his opinion the child was cured! It was a fact! On awakening in the morning, the boy was free from all pain and showed none of the distressing symptoms that had been pronounced quite incurable the night before by more than one eminent physician.

The second miracle was that of Mrs. Fulvia Razzi, a lady of 70 years of age who had been knocked down by a bicycle on November 8, 1922 and had fractured her left femur. This was certified at the Clinic and was a well-known fact, because for seven years she painfully dragged her leg along with the aid of a crutch on one side and was helped by a friendly hand on the other. She suffered a great deal of pain locally and had edema of the neck of the femur. It was impossible for her to kneel and she had to be helped in dressing and undressing and getting into bed.

No one ever dreamed of her being cured and it seemed foolish to her to even expect such a thing.

On November 13, 1929, walking with her crutch and helped by her husband, Signor Razzi, she wended her slow, painful way to the Church of St. Paulinus, where the solemn-feast of the new Blessed was being celebrated. A soldier of the National Militia, taking pity on her maimed condition, lifted her up and put her down by the sarcophagus containing the incorrupt body of the Saint. Released from his friendly grasp she fell on her knees --- a thing she had been unable to do for seven years. After a brief prayer she felt an inspiration to try to rise and walk. She did so with no apparent effort, and to the stupefaction of the crowd, she walked right through their ranks with no aid or support of any kind.

Examined a few days later by medical experts, they found the edema had completely disappeared. She responded easily to all the movements they made her go through, and after a final radio-graph in full proof of the healing they had to certify that it could not have come about by human means.

These two miracles were put forward for the canonization of Blessed Theresa Margaret of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Sovereign Pontiff Pius XI, to whom was given the joy of canonizing her whom he had also beatified, did so on March 19, 1934. With all the splendor of the solemn rites of the Church this lily of Carmel in Florence was placed once and for all on the roll of the Saints.

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