Giacomo Gaglione

In 1919, Giacomo's family discovered in the Neapolitan newspaper Il Mattino the existence of a Capuchin priest with miraculous stigmata in San Giovanni Rotondo: the future saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina. Giacomo then undertook an arduous journey of several hours in the hope of obtaining his physical healing. This meeting marked a radical spiritual turning point. Instead of a bodily miracle, Giacomo received the grace of a profound inner conversion and accepted his illness as a divine mission. Having become the spiritual son of Padre Pio, he would later declare: "Seeing Padre Pio and forgetting the reason for my trip to San Giovanni Rotondo were one and the same; Padre Pio performed a surgical operation on me, he removed one head and put another one on me." In January 1921, he received a visit from the famous Neapolitan doctor Giuseppe Moscati (future saint), who confirmed his clinical incurability while encouraging him to live his suffering as a path of sanctification. On August 15, 1921, he donned the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis (Secular Franciscan Order) and made his profession the following year under the name Brother Francis (Frate Francesco). The major work of Giacomo Gaglione is intimately linked to his Marian devotion. In August 1929, after seventeen years of immobility, he made the first of his nine pilgrimages to Lourdes. It was there that he understood that the sick person can fully associate themselves with the Passion of Christ for the salvation of the world. He then founded the "Fratellanza spirituale tra gli infermi reduci da Lourdes" (Spiritual Fraternity of the Sick Returning from Lourdes). After a pilgrimage to Loreto in 1947, he decided to structure this work. On January 20, 1948, the statutes of the Apostolato della Sofferenza (Apostolate of Suffering) were drafted. They were officially approved on March 21, 1948, by the Bishop of Caserta, Msgr. Bartolomeo Mangino, who accepted the presidency while Giacomo became its secretary general. This association aims to help the sick to accept and offer their physical and moral sufferings in union with Christ, for the sanctification of families and the support of the Church. Despite his almost total paralysis, Giacomo used the limited mobility of his fingers to write numerous spiritual booklets, maintain a monumental correspondence with sick people from all over the world, and direct the association's magazine, Ostie sul mondo (Hosts for the World), launched in 1952.

Giacomo Gaglione transformed his bed of pain into a true apostolate. He went so far as to celebrate every year on October 20 (the day he became bedridden) as the "feast of suffering." His reputation for holiness spread widely. He corresponded with high ecclesiastical figures, including successive popes. Pope Pius XI received him in audience and awarded him the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice cross. In November 1944, Pope Pius XII named him a Commander of the Order of Saint Sylvester. In 1951, Pius XII sent him a special apostolic blessing to honor his work. At the end of 1961, his health declined severely. Painful blisters covered his body and weakened him considerably. The day before his death, he asked to be laid on the bare floor of his office, in front of the altar. He passed away on May 28, 1962, in Capodrise, after fifty years of illness lived in mystical joy. His funeral gathered a huge crowd that came from all over Italy. When asked about his holiness, Padre Pio affirmed: "Is he a saint? Giacomino is a great saint!"

In October 1964, the remains of Giacomo Gaglione were transferred from the cemetery of Marcianise to the parish church of Sant'Andrea Apostolo in Capodrise, where they still rest.

The cause for beatification was officially opened on February 1, 1968, by the Bishop of Caserta, Mgr. Vito Roberti, and the diocesan inquiry concluded on May 27, 1972. After the examination of his writings and the supplementary trials conducted in Naples and Palermo, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints validated the procedure on December 17, 1993.

On April 3, 2009, Pope Benedict XVI authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his virtues, thus conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

The spirituality of Giacomo Gaglione rests on the "theology of the cross" lived in joy and with a smile. He knew how to transcend the purely physical dimension of pain to discover in it a path of intimate union with the crucified Christ. For him, illness was not a punishment, but "the greatest gift that God can give to a creature, for through the cross, He makes them similar to His beloved Son."\n\nHis legacy is perpetuated through the Apostolato della Sofferenza, which continues to provide spiritual accompaniment to the sick throughout the world. His house in Capodrise is today managed by the Sorelle di Gesù Eucaristia e dei Poveri (Sisters of Jesus Eucharist and the Poor), who watch over his memory and spread his message of hope.