Gemma was invited on a retreat at the convent of the Nuns of the Visitation. She had wanted to enter this community and begged this favor from her confessor Monsignor Volpi Archbishop of Lucca. Gemma writes, “The Archbishop said I was too weak still and refused me the permission. I had been wearing an iron support for my spine and someone had reported this fact to the Archbishop. Mother Superior as an act of obedience had requested me to remove the support. I wept at the command because I knew that I could not support myself without it. Running into the Novitiate, I prayed to my dear Infant Jesus, then I took it off and I never wore it again.”

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