 St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Name: St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Date: 27 February
Saint Gabriel was born at Assisi in 1838. He was guided by Our Lady into the Passionist Orderfounded by Saint Paul of the Cross, and became a veritable Apostle of Her Sorrows. He was avery great and truly contemplative soul, whose only preoccupation was to unite himself to God atall times. He allowed no distractions to enter his spirit, and even though Italy, his country, was ina state of ferment when he entered religion, he wanted to know nothing of it. The way to attain union with our Saviour and our God was, for Saint Gabriel, as for Saint Louisde Montfort, his Heavenly Mother. He wrote home to his father, from the first month of hisnoviciate, “Believe your son, whose heart is speaking by his lips; no, I would not exchange onesingle quarter of an hour spent near the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, our consolatrix, ourprotectress and our hope, for a year or several years spent in the diversions and spectacles of theearth.” Among his resolutions was that of visiting Jesus in the Most Blessed Sacrament each day,and praying for the gift of a tender and efficacious devotion to His Most Holy Mother. He wrotea beautiful Credo, worthy to be printed in letters of gold, expressing all that he believed of theMother of God. At twenty-four years of age Saint Gabriel died of tuberculosis, having already attained heroicsanctity by a life of self-denial and great devotion to our Lord’s Passion and the Compassion ofHis Mother. Although his life was without any miraculous event, after his death in 1862 many miraclesoccurred at his tomb in Isola di Gran Sasso, Italy. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XV in1920, and his feast was extended to the entire church by Pope Pius XI in 1932. He is the patronof youth, and especially of young religious. |
