Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Confessor
S. Gabrielis a Virgine Perdolente Confessoris
Saint Gabriel Possenti was a young Passionist cleric of the nineteenth century who, in a hidden life of six short years in religion, attained great holiness through tender devotion to the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On the twenty-seventh of February the Church honours Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, a Confessor of recent times whose brief life shines with the beauty of fervent youth given wholly to God. Born Francesco Possenti at Assisi in 1838, he was the son of a respected official and grew up a lively, gifted, and popular young man, fond of company, study, and the pleasures of his station. Yet through the ordinary events of his youth — sickness, and the grief of losing those dear to him — God drew his heart steadily toward Himself.
Moved at last by a clear call during a procession in honour of our Lady, he resolved to leave the world, and in 1856 he entered the Congregation of the Passion, taking the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. From that day he gave himself with whole-hearted generosity to the hidden life of a religious, embracing its rule, its silence, and its penances with a cheerfulness that edified all who knew him.
A Hidden Life of Love
Saint Gabriel worked no public wonders and held no high office; his sanctity lay in the perfect fidelity with which he performed the small duties of each day for love of God. His brethren remembered above all his recollection in prayer, his obedience, and his tender devotion to the Sorrowful Mother, whose seven sorrows he loved to contemplate and in whose honour he found his religious name. He longed to spend himself in the service of Christ and Mary, but his earthly course was to be short.
Stricken with consumption, he bore his last illness with serenity and joy, and died at the Passionist retreat of Isola del Gran Sasso in the Abruzzi on 27 February 1862, not yet twenty-four years of age. After his death his intercession was found powerful, and many graces and cures were attributed to him; he was canonised in 1920. Saint Gabriel is loved especially as a patron of the young, a sure sign that holiness is the calling of every age and is reached not by great deeds but by great love.
The Collect
O God, who didst adorn blessed Gabriel, while ever pondering the sorrows of Thy most sweet Mother, with the glory of virtues and of miracles: grant unto us, by his intercession and example, so to share in the sorrows of Thy Mother, that we may be saved by her motherly protection. Who livest and reignest with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Deus, qui beatum Gabrielem dulcissimae Matris tuae dolores assidue recolentem virtutum et miraculorum gloria decorasti: da nobis, eius intercessione et exemplo; ita Genetricis tuae consociari fletibus, ut materna eiusdem protectione salvemur. Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
Patronage
Saint Gabriel is a patron of youth, of students, and of clerics, and is especially venerated in the region of the Abruzzi in Italy, where his shrine draws many pilgrims.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern General Roman Calendar this feast is no longer observed universally; Saint Gabriel is commemorated as an optional memorial in certain places and within the Passionist order.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?
His feast is kept on 27 February in the 1962 calendar, as a Third Class feast, in white.
Who was Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?
He was a young Passionist cleric, born Francesco Possenti at Assisi in 1838, who left a comfortable worldly life to enter religion and died of consumption at the age of twenty-three, renowned for his holiness and his devotion to the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Why is he a patron of young people?
Because he attained great sanctity in a very short life, not through extraordinary works but through faithful love in ordinary duties. His example shows that holiness is within reach of the young, and he has long been invoked as their patron.
See where this feast falls in the Church’s year on the liturgical calendar, or find a Traditional Latin Mass near you.
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