St. Gerard Majella Annual Novena  The Solemn Novena to St. Gerard Majella is held over 9 days in St. Joseph's Redemptorist Church, Dundalk, Ireland. It runs from 8 to 16 October. Gerard was born as Gerardo Majella on 6 April 1726 in Muro Lucano, Italy. He was the son of a tailor who died when Gerard was 12, leaving the family in poverty. Gerard tried to join the Capuchin order, but his health prevented it. He was accepted as a Redemptorist lay brother serving his congregation as sacristan, gardener, ostiarius, infirmarian, and tailor. He was a man of great depth, insight, prayer and kindness. Unfortunately his health was never good. He died on 16 October 1755, at 29 years of age. Gerard was beatified on 29 January 1893 by Pope Leo XIII, and was canonised on 11 December 1904 by Pope Pius X. The feast day of Saint Gerard Majella is 16 October. He is a saint whose intercession is requested for children (and unborn children in particular); childbirth; mothers (and expectant mothers in particular); motherhood; falsely accused people; good confessions; lay brothers; and Muro Lucano, Italy. He was featured on an Italian 45-euro postage stamp in May 2005. Joseph's Parish Church,a Redemptorist House in Dundalk, welcomes thousands of people from all over Ireland to the Annual Festival of Faith in Honour of St. Gerard Majella. It's the biggest festival of faith in Ireland with an average of 10,000 attending on a daily basis. After Bro. Gerard's Beatification in 1893, a triduum in his honour was preached in St. Joseph's by Fr. Hall, widely regarded as one of the greatest preachers of his day. The people of Dundalk took St. Gerard into their hearts after this sermon and continued to pay devotion to him on a regular basis. During the 1930s, Fr. John Murray, started the Annual Nine Day Novena to St. Gerard Majella, beginning on 8 October and finishing on his feast day, 16 October. Hugo Kerr erected a shrine to St. Gerard in the church in 1939. Today the Novena continues to grow with over 10,000 people attending the Novena on a daily basis. One memorable event of the Novena from years past was the trumpet players that performed at each of the sessions on the last day of the Novena.