St. Gerard became the most famous wonder-worker of the eighteenth century. Of his childhood his mother testified: “His only happiness was in the church, on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. In the house he prayed all day. He was born for heaven.”…After  Attending a mission given by Redemptorist Fathers he asked to be admitted to their Order. He was given the habit and during the novitiate worked so hard and was so self-effacing as a sacristan and gardener that some saint: “He is a fool or a saint.” For the three remaining years after his profession he was kept busy as tailor and infirmarian, begging for the community, and accompanying the Fathers on their missions. Here he proved of great help, for he had the gift of reading souls and brought many sinners to repentance. He also displayed other supernatural gifts: ecstatic flight through the air, bilocation, a mysterious power over animals and nature, prophecy, and infused knowledge…St. Gerard showed great love for the poor and afflicted. He not only worked many miracles of healing for them, but produced food and clothing from sources known only to him. Because he had miraculously helped a woman in grave danger at childbirth, he is invoked by women in labor.

A Saint a Day, pgs. 267-268