Saint Gabriel of the Most Sorrowful Virgin (Francis Possenti) was born on 1 March 1838 in Assisi, Italy, to Sante and Agnes Possenti. He was one of thirteen children, several of whom died in infancy. His mother died in 1842 when he was only four years old. Francis was educated at a Jesuit college in Spoleto.
While still a student he became dangerously ill and promised to enter a religious order if he recovered. He did not keep his vow and after a few years he became seriously sick again. He renewed his promise and was again cured. Believing this to be a miracle which he attributed to the intercession of the Polish Jesuit priest Blessed Andrzej Boboba (1591–1657), he applied to the Society of Jesus and was accepted. However, he delayed entering the Jesuits. Then his sister Maria Louisa was stricken with cholera and died. After seeking the advice of a priest, Francis decided to join the Congregation of the Passion of Jesus Christ (the Passionists). In 1856 he entered the noviceship at Morrovalle in the Marche and was given the religious name of Brother Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows:
“The rest of Gabriel's career is simply a record of an extraordinary effort to attain perfection in small things. His brightness, his spirit of prayer, his charity to the poor, his consideration for others, his exact observance of every rule, his desire (constantly checked by wise superiors) to adopt forms of bodily mortification which were beyond his strength, his absolute submission in all matters in which he could practise obedience evidently made an ineffaceable impression upon all who lived with him. Their testimony in the process of his beatification is most convincing. It was a life of continual self-surrender, but the most charming feature of the whole was the cheerfulness with which the offering was made”.
(Butler's Lives of the Saints, Vol 1, page 430)
After four years in the Passionists, Gabriel became ill with tuberculosis. He died on 27 February 1862 at the age of 23 at Isola di Gran Sasso near Teramo in the Abruzzi. He was beatified by Pope St. Pius X in 1908 and canonised by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. St. Gabriel is a patron saint of Catholic youth, of students, and of those studying for the priesthood.
In leap years, his feast day is observed on 28 February.
Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Rome, the birthday of the holy martyrs Macarius, Rufinus, Justus and Theophilus.
At Alexandria, the passion of the Saints Caerealis, Pupulus, Caius and Serapion. In the same city, in the reign of the emperor Valerian, the commemoration of the holy priests, deacons and other Christians in great number who encountered death most willingly by nursing the victims of a most deadly pestilence then raging. They have been generally revered as martyrs by the pious faithful.
In the territory of Lyons, on Mount Jura, the demise of St. Romanus, abbot, who was the first to lead the heremitical life there. His reputation for virtues and miracles brought under his guidance numerous monks.
At Pavia, the translation, from the island of Sardinia, of the body of St. Augustine, bishop, by Luitprand, king of the Lombards.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
