STAMFORD, Conn.—On the Friday before Mother's Day, Joseph and Laura Cogoni drove from New York to Sacred Heart Church in Stamford, Conn. Alvino and Alma Guajardo flew in from Texas.

They joined the scores of couples unable to conceive, expectant ones praying for a safe delivery and thankful couples toting babies for the annual Mass in honor of St. Gerard Majella.

The Cogonis brought 14-month-old Gianna, the answer to their prayers. “We call her our little miracle baby,” Laura Cogoni said. “The path of faith led to St. Gerard.”

Yet two years ago the Cogonis were among the many married couples unable to conceive for various reasons or told by doctors that it was medically impossible for them to have children. The Cogonis had first traveled the medical specialist route to a dead end. All the while, St. Gerard had the answer.

“We came to the Mass, and one month to the day later, we were expecting,” Joseph Cogoni said. “It's a true blessing,” he added with a big smile. “And she's a great baby.”

Their story is among the countless miraculous answers to prayers St. Gerard has provided with his heavenly intercession. For nearly 250 years his specialties include helping apparently infertile couples conceive a child and aiding mothers with difficult pregnancies to have smooth sailing for safe, joyful births and healthy babies. By popular acclaim over the decades, this Redemptorist lay brother has been unofficially called the patron of mothers, patron of motherhood and protector of expectant mothers and their unborn children.

“Even though he's an 18th century saint from Italy,” Father Thomas Nicastro Jr. said, “his love and special devotion for mothers, their children and the unborn is timeless. It reaches into the 21st century where some have come to realize that placing their hopes in modern medical procedures is not the true road to take.”

Instead, during this annual Mass he has instituted in the Diocese of Bridgeport and during private counseling sessions, Father Nicastro reminds couples “to lay aside all those medical procedures not in conformity with the teachings of the Church and put their faith and trust in God and his saints, like St. Gerard.” (Many in vitro fertilization procedures have been specifically condemned by the Church as being gravely sinful.)

Once couples do, miraculous answers often get added to the innumerable miracles already reported for Gerard's heavenly intercession. They often involve the St. Gerard handkerchief, a sacramental that's been part of the devotion from the beginning. Handkerchiefs touched to Gerard's relics have blessed innumerable mothers with safe deliveries, joyful births and healthy babies. “It is a symbol and a spiritual trademark, so to speak, of the saint and his predilection for mothers and their children in the womb,” Father Nicastro said.

During the Mass, every couple holds this handkerchief while being blessed with a first-class relic of St. Gerard. They're also given a handkerchief, blessed medal and novena to St. Gerard to take with them.

Last year, the rector of the international shrine joined Father Nicastro. This year, Bishop William Lori, head of the Diocese of Bridgeport, Conn., and principal celebrant of the Mass, blessed the couples as they came up individually.

“St. Gerard is no stranger in my parents' home,” the bishop said in his homily. “Years ago, when my mother was carrying my younger brother, I recall that she used to pray to St. Gerard … that she would be given the grace of bringing her baby safely into the world.”

“If you ask my mother, she would tell you readily that St. Gerard has helped her through the years and that he continues to help her as she prays for her husband and her sons,” Bishop Lori said. “I owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the saint who has drawn all of us together.”

Among couples that traveled from different sections of the country were Alvino and Alma Guajardo, who flew in from Grand Prairie, Texas. They brought along their 13-year-old son, Alvin.

“We came looking for the ultimate blessing,” Alma Guajardo said. “We desire to have another child but it's difficult. We really have faith he [St. Gerard] will bless us.”

The Cogonis' strong faith remains rock-solid, too. They attended this year's Mass, Laura said, because they want Gianna to have a little brother or sister.

Last year their faith and story inspired seven couples to join them for the Mass. “They all recently had children!” Laura reported. One couple—the husband works with Joseph—had visited medical specialists for two unsuccessful years.

St. Gerard proves to be a tireless defender of pro-life causes, said Father Nicastro, who received his lifelong devotion to the saint from his maternal grandmother, Anna Miano. While growing up in Newark, N.J., he was active at the National Shrine of St. Gerard Majella located in St. Lucy's Church. He also directs people to this shrine, where he assists during the huge annual novena leading to St. Gerard's feast on Oct. 16.

“We have tried through media awareness to ignite a spark that has now grown into a fire that's spreading devotion to St. Gerard and causing a renewal of this devotion in the United States and internationally,” Father Nicastro said.

Saint for Today

St. Gerard “is truly a saint for our times—times of turbulence for the Church, times when the family is under assault, times when innocent human life is threatened in so many ways,” Bishop Lori said.

That's why Father Nicastro stressed, “Now more than ever before our society and our world need a heavenly champion to promote Christian family values and the culture of life, especially where mothers and the unborn children are concerned.”

“For pastoral reasons,” he continued, “we need a saint in the United States that married couples can look up to as a powerful intercessor and to intercede for us to help wipe out this terrible scourge of abortion and partial-birth abortion. The unborn need a great protector like him.”

People receiving favors from St. Gerard help spread this devotion, too. “We tell everybody our story,” said Laura Cognoni, adding she prayed to Gerard for an easy labor and she got what she prayed for.

“When Gianna grows up,” she said, “she's going to know the story.”

Joseph Pronechen writes from Trumbull, Connecticut.