St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows - Patron Saint of Handgunners

Today is the feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (Gabriele dell' Addolorata). Born Francesco Possenti on 1 March 1838 at Isola di Gran Sasso, Assisi, Italia. He died 2 days short of his 24th birthday on 27 February 1862 at Abruzzi, Italia of tuberculosis. St Gabriel was baptised on the day of his birth in the same font in which St. Francis of Assisi had been baptised. His family later moved to Spoleto. Growing up he was known for his great charity & piety. But he was also known for his great vanity as well. Devoted to worldly pleasures he was called il damerino ('the ladies' man') by his friends.

In 1851 he became desperately ill & promised to enter religious life if he recovered. He recovered but failed to keep his promise. He made the same promise after escaping a stray bullet during a hunting expedition with friends but again failed to follow up. Finally in 1853 he again fell ill, this time he was afflicted with a throat abscess. He was healed & he attributed his healing to the recently beatified Andrew Bobola, SJ. This time he set into motion his promise to enter the religious life. He applied to join the Jesuits, but never entered.

Instead, after finishing school in 1856 he joined Passionist Order at Morovalle near Macerata. In his short time there he proved himself to be an excellent observor of the Passionist rule. he also had a fervent devotion to the Passion of our Lord, to the Holy Eucharist, as well as to the Dolours (Sorrows) of the Blessed Virgin. All this time he was suufering from tuberculosis. He died on this day in 1862 while on retreat. According to those who were there at his death, at the moment of death he sat up in bed & his face became radiant as he reached out to an otherwise unseen figure that was entering the room. It was the opinion of Father Norbert of Holy Mary, his director, that Saint Gabriel had seen the Virgin Mary at the very moment of his death.

After his death many miracles were wrought by his intercession. 1 of those attributed to him is the healing of St. Gemma Galgani of spinal tuberculosis. Gabriel was declared venerable on
14 May 1905 by Pope Pius X. He was beatified on 31 May 1908 by Pope Pius X. He was canonized on 13 May 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. At his canonization he was declared the patron of of Catholic youth, of students, & of those studying for the priesthood. In 1959, Pope John XXIII named him the patron of the Abruzzi region.

Now as for his being promoted to be made patron of handgunners. The story goes as follows:

In 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.
Possenti, with his seminary rector's permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.
Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier's revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti's direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.
At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as "the Savior of Isola". (St. Gabriel Posenti Society History page @ website.)

While some doubt this story, claiming that he was too far along in his suffering from TB, the story does have plausability for me. 1st of all, he did live until 1862 & it seems like he was able to function since he was studying for the priesthood at this time. Also, who is to say God didn't give him the strength to do this even if he was as ill as they claim. & he did have proficiency with guns since he did hunt while a youth. & I fully support the efforts to have St. gabriel declared the padrone of handgunners. (IMHO, I am willing to bet that most of the same people who are oppose this story's veracity are also pacifists who try & paint the early Christian opposition to military service as pacifism rather than what it really was, their opposition to offering incense to false gods that was required as a part of military service.)

The Shot. Copyright by John Michael Snyder. This line drawing of St. Gabriel Possenti's heroic rescue of villagers in Isola del Gran Sasso from a gang of armed terrorists was executed for Mr. Snyder, Founder/Chairman of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc., by artist Charles Hazard.
(There is no intention to violate copyright & is used under fair use of US copyright law 17 U.S.C. § 107.)