Gemma Umberta Maria Galgani was born on 12 March 1878, in the hamlet of Camigliano in the province of Capannori.

[4] Soon after Gemma's birth, the family relocated north from Camigliano to a larger new home in the Tuscan city of Lucca.

Due to the difficulty of raising a child without her mother, young Gemma was placed in a private nursery school run by Elena and Ersilia Vallini.

[5][page needed] Galgani was sent to a Catholic half-boarding school in Lucca run by the Oblates of the Holy Spirit.

She attributed her extraordinary cure to the Sacred Heart of Jesus through the intercession of Saints Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows and Marguerite Marie Alacoque.

[7] Shortly after turning 19, Galgani was orphaned, and thereafter was responsible for raising her younger siblings, which she did with her aunt Carolina.

According to a biography by her spiritual director, Germano Ruoppolo, Galgani began to manifest the stigmata on 8 June 1899, at the age of 21.

She stated that she had spoken with her guardian angel, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and other saints especially Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

She has also been reputed to levitate: she claimed that on one occasion, when her arms were around the crucifix in her dining room and was kissing the side wound of Jesus, she found herself raised from the floor.

Then my Mother kissed my forehead, the vision disappeared and I found myself on my knees; but I still had a keen pain in my hands, feet and heart.

[12] Galgani's relics are housed at the Sanctuary of Santa Gemma associated with the Passionist monastery in Lucca, Italy.