ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN FEBRUARY
Saints celebrated on the 27th of February
SAINT GABRIEL POSSENTI, RELIGIOUS
Francis Possenti (1838-1862) was a popular, fun-loving eighteen-year-old two weeks from his graduation in Spoleto, Italy, when on August 22, 1856, he attended a procession in honour of the city’s most prized image of the Madonna. As the icon of Mary passed Francis, his eyes met hers, and he heard in his heart a voice telling him, “Francis, why do you tarry in the world? Arise, make haste, and become a religious.”
Immediately, Francis resolved to enter the Passionist Order. At his profession, he took the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.
HIS DEVOTION TO OUR LADY
As a Passionist, he was distinguished by his extraordinary devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Her sorrows at the foot of the Cross filled his thoughts. Brother Gabriel took a private vow to promulgate devotion to Mary. In a corner of the monastery garden, on a plot he called “Our Lady’s Bower”, he grew flowers exclusively for the adornment of her shrine. He believed that images of the Blessed Virgin should be beautiful and attractive, observing, “A beautiful image is a treasure, because it fosters devotion.”
After contracting tuberculosis, he died at the age of twenty-four. Gabriel is venerated as a patron of young people.
“Help me, O my God, to correct myself.”
(St Gabriel Possenti)
PRAYER IN HONOUR OF ST GABRIEL OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS
Eternal Father, I wish to honour St Gabriel Possenti of Our Lady of Sorrows, and give You thanks for his consuming love for Christ through Our Lady of Sorrows and for all the other graces You have bestowed upon him.
I ask You to please increase grace in my soul through the merits of St Gabriel, and I commit the end of my life to him by this special prayer, so that by virtue of Your goodness and promise, St Gabriel might be my advocate and provide whatever is needed at that hour.
Amen.
➡️ The anniversary of Saint Gabriel Possenti's call to religious life
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