St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Born: March 1, 1838
Died: February 27, 1862
Canonized: May 13, 1920, by Pope Benedict XV
Feast Day: February 27 (February 28 in leap years)
Patron Saint of: clerics, youth
Passionist student; renowned for sanctity and miracles; born at Assisi, 1
March, 1838; died 27 February, 1862, at Isola di Gran Sasso, Province of Abruzzo,
Italy; son of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti; received baptism on the day
of his birth and was called Francesco, the name by which he was known before
entering religion, educated at the Christian Brothers' School, and at the Jesuit
college at Spoleto. Immediately after the completion of his secular education,
he embraced the religious state; on 21 September, 1856 he was clothed with the
Passionist habit, and received the name of Gabriele dell' Addolorata. He made
his religious profession on 22 September, 1857, and then began his
ecclesiastical studies as a Passionist student. He was gifted with talent of a
higher order and with a wonderful memory; and in his exact observance of rule,
his spirit of prayer, and his fervent devotion to the Passion of our Lord, to
the Holy Eucharist, and to the Dolours of the Blessed Virgin. In the sixth year
of his religious life he died of consumption; his death was that of the just,
holy and edifying, and he was buried in the church attached to the retreat at
Isola di Gran Sasso where his remains are still entombed, and where numerous
prodigies have been wrought, and numerous conversions effected, through his
intercession.
Little was known of Gabriel's extraordinary spiritual gifts during his life. He
was not singular, he conformed himself to the community life; he was only a
fervent and exemplary Passionist novice and student hidden from the world in the
cloister. After death, this young religious in a few years was declared
venerable by the Church, thereby testifying that he had practiced all the
virtues in a heroic degree; and he was beatified and raised to the honors of the
altar, by special privilege of the supreme pontiff before he was fifty years
dead.
His solemn beatification took place on 31 May, 1908, in the Vatican basilica, in
the presence of the cardinals then in Rome, of the Passionist fathers resident
in Rome and of representatives from all the provinces of the congregation. Among
those present were many who had known the beatified during his life, including
one of his brothers, Father Norbert, C.P., his old spiritual director and
confessor and Signor Dominico Tiberi, who had been miraculously cured through
his intercession. Gabriel was canonized by Pope Benedict XV on 13 May 1920.
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows is a patron of the youth, and especially as
the patron of young religious, both novices and professed, in all that concerns
their interior lives.
