Dr. Joseph M. Gambescia, a pious, devout student for seeking God's grace, wrote Reflections... during his pilgrimage to the canonization of John Neumann. He was one of two physicians (Dr. William Zintl) appointed by the Vatican in November 1962 to examine the body of Blessed John Neumann, buried in St. Peter the Apostle Church in Philadelphia. He re-examined the body in 1964 at the request of the director of the Shrine of Blessed John Neumann. Subsequently, he reviewed medical records of several people for the director of the national shrine, to help validate any medical miracles. Dr. Gambescia took a pilgrimage to Rome in 1977 during the canonization of John N. Neumann (he was the third American saint at that time and the first male saint). He gives a unique layman's perspective as one who had touched a saint, worked tirelessly to heal the sick, and thought about the enduring questions in life: Who am I? What is my purpose in life? What is my relationship to other people in this world? What is my relationship to God? How do I best live the Magis?
About the Author: Joseph M. Gambescia was born of Italian immigrant parents on 10 June 1919 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as Giuseppe Mario Domenico Gambescia. He was a family man (father of 16 children), physician, professor of medicine at a major urban university medical college, director of medical education at an urban teaching hospital, and a pious Roman Catholic who became a lay Deacon at age 67. Dr. Gambescia participated in two esoteric religious and scientific mysteries during his life. In 1955, he began a lifetime of work studying the Should of Turin reputed by many to have high circumstantial evidence as the burial cloth of Jesus Christ. He gave medical counsel to the many scientists, from a range of fields, to the likely suffering and death of the man of the Shroud. In the early 1960s, he was asked, along with another physician Dr. William Zintl, by the Vatican to examine the body of Blessed John Neumann-an important step toward the naming of a modern day saint. Joseph M. Gambescia was a humble man who had strong devotion to family, God, and country which earned him some 30 medical, civic, fraternal, and religious awards. He died in 1991 praying "O Sacred Heart of Jesus, I implore that I may always love Thee daily more and more."