Under obedience Gemma was ordered to write a diary with the purpose to give Father Germano, her director, knowledge of the twenty-one years of her life before they met. While writing it, she had to battle continually with her reluctance to speak of herself. This autobiography/diary was hated by Satan as he foresaw the great good it could do for souls.

Father Germano in his book The Life of St. Gemma Galgani, writes, “Satan was enraged at it and used all sorts of cunning to overthrow it. I have here to relate what seems incredible, but it is a real and historical fact in which there was no room for the play of imagination … Gemma’s manuscript, when finished, was by my orders given in charge to her adopted mother Signora Cecilia Giannini, who kept it hidden in a drawer awaiting the first opportunity of handing it to me. Some days elapsed, and Gemma thought she saw the demon passing through the window of the room to where the drawer was, chuckling, and then disappearing in the air. Accustomed as she was to such apparitions, she thought nothing of it. But he, having returned shortly after to molest her, as often happened, with a repulsive temptation and having failed, left gnashing his teeth and declaring exultingly: “War, war, thy book is in my hands.”

So she (Gemma) wrote to tell me. Then owing to the obedience she was under to disclose to her vigilant benefactress (Cecilia Giannini) everything extraordinary that happened to her, she thought she was obliged to tell her what had occurred. They went, opened the drawer and found that the book was no longer there. I was written to at once, and it is easy to imagine my consternation at having lost such a treasure. What was to be done? I thought a great deal about it, and just then, while at the tomb of Blessed Gabriel of the Dolors, a fresh idea came to my mind. I resolved to exorcise the devil and thus force him to return the manuscript if he had really taken it. With my ritual stole and holy water I went to the tomb of the Blessed Servant of God and there, although nearly four hundred miles from Lucca, I pronounced the exorcisms in regular form. God seconded my ministry, and at that same hour, the writing was restored to the place from which it had been taken several days before. But, in what a state! The pages from top to bottom were all smoked and in parts burned as if each one had been separately exposed over a strong fire, yet they were not so badly burned as to destroy the writing. This document, having thus passed through Hell fire, is in my hands. It is truly a treasure, as I have already said, of most important information which, had it been destroyed, could never have become known.”

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