St. Gerard Majella, religious, is the patron of expectant mothers. He was born at Muro, Italy, in 1726 and joined the Redemptorists at the age of 23, becoming a professed lay brother in 1752. He served as sacristan, gardener, porter, infirmarian, and tailor. However, because of his great piety, extraordinary wisdom, and his gift of reading consciences, he was permitted to counsel communities of religious women.

He also had the faculties of levitation and bi-location associated with certain mystics. He was afflicted with tuberculosis and died in 1755 at the age of twenty-nine. This great saint is invoked as a patron of expectant mothers as a result of a miracle effected through his prayers for a woman in labour.