This is the story of the birth of our daughter Gemma, who was born on Sunday 12th December 2010, through the intercession of Our Lady of Guadalupe while her relic image was touring this country.
Before my wife Olivia became pregnant, an event was held at Ealing Abbey on the evening of 15th March 2010. A special replica of the miraculous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was brought from Mexico, as an authorized relic image with the official seal of Cardinal Carrera, Archbishop of Mexico City. This image was consecrated against the miraculous image on the original cloak (tilma) of St. Juan Diego to whom Our Lady appeared. We were told that praying in front of this image would obtain great graces as if one had made a pilgrimage to the original image in Guadalupe, Mexico. We felt truly privileged to have this special opportunity to obtain such special graces by simply coming to Ealing Abbey.
It was a beautiful evening at Ealing Abbey hall, with food and a brilliant talk by a special speaker, who accompanied the image. Most importantly, we had time to venerate this special image. So we prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe, Patroness of the unborn (who is pregnant in the image, this is known by the black sash she is wearing), to give us a second baby.
Amazingly our prayers were answered, and a few days later Olivia conceived (compared to previous months where she did not). Olivia’s due date was set for Christmas day, 25th December.
The 4th December was a significant day for us. When Olivia woke up in the morning she said to me, “Wouldn’t it be absolutely amazing if I give birth on 12th December, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!” We then started discussing what we would name the baby if that did happen. We were always going to have the first name of the baby girl as Gemma (after Saint Gemma Galgani), as this was a name that came to our minds during prayer a long time ago (this is another story of God’s providence working in our lives which we do not have the space to go into here!). The second name was always going to be a variation of Mary for a girl, in honour of Our Lady (or Joseph if it was a boy). We also have the habit of giving a third name to our children. This name is normally decided on the day of the birth, as it depends on which saint’s feast day it is.
On that same morning about an hour later, we were very surprised to receive a phone call from my sister who immediately asked, “How is Olivia? Did she give birth? Or has her labour started?” I answered, “No, it is too early for that, why?”, and she explained that it was because she had a dream that Olivia gave birth to a baby girl, and we called her Ioanna! This was a name that none of us had heard of before, yet my sister remembered it well from the dream.
We knew from the Bible that God may choose to communicate to us through dreams, like He did with St Joseph telling him to take Mary as his wife, and again to escape to Egypt. That is why we took the dream seriously, and decided to look deeper into it. It didn’t take much searching to discover that there is a Saint called Ioanna (the Latin name for St Jeanne Frances de Chantal) whose feast day is also on the 12th December! The feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe!
Given these two events, we were convinced that this may be a message from God that the baby might be born on 12th December despite it being 2 weeks before the due date! We immediately started praying two novenas, one to Our Lady of Guadalupe and one to St Ioanna for the birth. Incidentally, the 9 day novenas would also finish on the 12th December!
We were all very excited and told both our families about all this, that the baby might be born on Sunday 12th December. If this was to actually happen, it would be the biggest “little miracle” in our marriage to date! It would be an accurate prophecy foretelling the date of birth and the third name Ioanna! And the baby would be born on that one day of the year which is the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe who answered our prayers 9 months ago at Ealing Abbey to have a second baby! I also promised Jesus that if this was to happen, I would give witness to these wonderful things that God has brought about into our marriage, and hence I am writing the story here.
A few days before 12th December, I discovered that the same image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which was at Ealing Abbey, will be at Westminster Cathedral on Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th December. It has been touring England and Wales for 9 months and it is now due to leave the country on the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is its final day. Olivia and I decided to go and pray there before the birth, which we did on the evening of Saturday 11th December.
Finally, 12th December arrived. In the morning, it seemed like our baby didn’t want to come out. It was already about midday and Olivia had no signs of labour. Time was running very tight for this prophecy to be fulfilled as labour itself can easily last more than 12 hours. But Olivia of course was still 2 weeks before her due date, so it was only natural that she would not go into labour on this day.
Although it would have been more convenient for us to go to the Sunday evening Mass given we were invited for lunch on this day, we decided to have faith that the birth might still happen, and opted for the midday Mass and then go to lunch. Perhaps this final act of faith pleased God, because during the Mass, Olivia started going into labour! We managed to stay till the end of Mass and left back home immediately.
By then, in this very short space of time, the contractions became intense and regular, every 2-3 minutes. We called the hospital, and they told us to come immediately. So we made our way there arriving at around 2.30pm. Olivia gave birth at 5.07pm. It was a very quick and straightforward natural birth! Olivia managed to bear the pains of labour without having to resort to pain relief methods, which must be thanks to the many Graces she received. She only had labour massages and my loud prayers, and when the pain became very intense, she went into the water for some comfort, and 10 minutes later she gave birth! Thanks be to God, to Our Lady of Guadalupe, to St Ioanna and to St Gemma Galgani.
What amazes us is how the special image of Our Lady of Guadalupe visited the country for 9 months, and we visited it twice: near the beginning just before Olivia conceived, and at the end just before Olivia gave birth. 
The whole pregnancy happened while this picture of Our Lady, Patroness of the unborn, was touring the country, and that Olivia gave birth on the actual feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the 12th December. And what is more, my sister who didn’t know anything about all this, dreamt about our baby being born and called Ioanna, whose feast day is also on the 12th December. And to know all of this in advance, ahead of the birth, is simply phenomenal!
Finally, we believe that this prophetic dream was given to my sister because we were already considering her as the godmother in baptism. So we took her dream as a further sign from God that He is pleased with this choice.
