Widow (d. ca. 550)
Her life
+ Galla was the daughter of the Roman consul Symmachus the Younger and the sister-in-law of the philosopher Saint Severinus Boethius.
+ She married shortly after her father’s murder, but her husband died only a year after their marriage.
+ Galla lived as part of a community of pious women near St. Peter’s Basilica, using her wealth to care for the poor and sick. Miraculous cures were attributed to her intercession.
+ Saint Galla died from breast cancer around the year 550.
+ Saint Gregory the Great praised her virtues in his Dialogues and it is believed that she was the inspiration for Saint Fulgentius’ of Ruspe’s treatise Concerning Widows.
Quote
“She reaches out her hands to the needy and extends her arms to the poor.”—Proverbs 31:20
Prayer
O God, who gladden us each year with the feast day of blessed Galla, grant, we pray, that we, who are called to honor her, may also follow her example of holy living. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For a Holy Woman)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
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