St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows: Life, Prayer, Feast

St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was Francis Possenti (1838-1862), a cheerful, well-dressed young man of the Papal States who became a Passionist at eighteen and died at Isola del Gran Sasso, in the Abruzzi, less than six years later, before he could be ordained. The Church canonized him in 1920 and holds him up to the young as a patron, and the Roman calendar of 1962 keeps his feast on 27 February (28 February in leap years). Here is his life, what he is patron of, his shrine and miracles, and the full prayers of his Mass in the Missal of 1962.

He is not the Archangel Gabriel of the Annunciation, whose story is told in our page on St Gabriel the Archangel; this Gabriel took the archangel's name in religion.

Who was St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?

Francis Possenti was born at Assisi on 1 March 1838, and was named Francis, the Breviary says, in memory of the Seraphic saint of that city. He was the eleventh of the thirteen children of Sante Possenti, a distinguished lawyer who held a succession of offices under the government of the States of the Church. Several of the children died young, and his mother died in 1842, when Francis was four. That year his father was named assessor at Spoleto, and it was at the Jesuit college of Spoleto that the boy received most of his education.

Butler, usually wary of legend, is glad to say that his childhood was "perfectly normal": no visions at four, no strange penances at eight. Francis had a warm temper not always under control, was particular about his clothes, read novels, loved the theatre and parties, and was a universal favourite for his good looks and his gaiety. His friends called him in fun il damerino, "the ladies' man". There is no reason to think he ever lost his innocence; but from the cloister he looked back on those years with alarm, and wrote to a friend:

"Dear Philip, if you truly love your soul, shun bad companions; shun the theatre... Avoid pleasure-parties and avoid evil books! I assure you that if I had remained in the world, it seems certain to me that I should not have saved my soul."

The call

Twice the call of God came through illness. Dangerously ill as a student, he promised to enter religion if he recovered, and when he recovered he did nothing. A year or two later a severe throat illness brought him again to the point of death; he renewed his promise, had recourse to a relic of the Jesuit martyr Blessed Andrew Bobola, and was cured, miraculously as he believed. He applied to the Society of Jesus and was accepted, but still he delayed. Then his favourite sister died in an outbreak of cholera.

The Breviary adds the decisive moment. The famous icon of the Blessed Virgin of the church of Spoleto was carried in solemn procession outside the church; as the young man looked on it, he "conceived the flame of divine love" and resolved to enter the Congregation of the Passion. With the full approval of his Jesuit confessor, and after overcoming no small difficulties, he entered the Passionist novitiate at Morrovalle in September 1856, and was clothed with the habit on 21 September. He asked to be called Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, the Breviary says, "to keep perpetual memory of her joys and her sorrows".

The Passionist: perfection in small things

The rest of his life, Butler writes, "is simply a record of an extraordinary effort to attain perfection in small things". He kept every rule exactly, loved the poor, chose the humblest work of the house, and did not only what his superiors commanded but what they merely wished. He spent days and nights meditating on the Passion of Our Lord, and went to Holy Communion, the Breviary says, with a seraphic ardour.

Above all he loved the Mother of God, and the Mother of God standing by the Cross. He contemplated her so sorrowfully, the Breviary says, that he wept; the Sorrowful Virgin was "almost the whole plan of his life and the mistress of the holiness he attained", and those who lived with him thought God had raised him up so that devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows should grow by his example. That devotion is the heart of the novena to Our Lady of Sorrows and of the Seven Sorrows Chaplet.

He longed for bodily penances beyond his strength, and his director curbed him. Butler quotes the director's own account: when Gabriel begged again and again to wear a small chain set with sharp points, he was told that what he needed was "a chain on your will"; and when at last he was allowed to wear it, it was on condition he wear it over his habit, in public, while his director made fun of him before the other students. He wore it in silence and did not ask to be spared.

How did St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows die?

After four years in religion, tuberculosis declared itself. He had to be excused, much against his will, from the harder duties of the community, and his holiness now took the form of patience and of submission to the limits set by his superiors. Shortly before his death he obtained the destruction of his private notes on the graces God had given him, so that no one should praise him.

He died in great peace in the early morning of 27 February 1862, at the Passionist house of Isola del Gran Sasso, in the Abruzzi, a few days short of his twenty-fourth birthday, "consumed," the Breviary says, "by the fire of charity rather than by the force of illness", and comforted at the end by the Mother of God. He had not yet been ordained priest.

Miracles, canonization and the shrine of St Gabriel

He was buried in the church of the Passionist house at Isola, and many prodigies and conversions were obtained at his tomb. Pope St Pius X beatified him on 31 May 1908. Benedict XV canonized him on Ascension Day, 13 May 1920, in the second centenary of the Congregation of the Passion, and Pius XI extended his Office and Mass to the whole Church.

St Gemma Galgani, the mystic of Lucca, attributed her cure from a grave illness, before his beatification, to his intercession; her story is told in our page on Saint Gemma Galgani. The shrine of St Gabriel at Isola del Gran Sasso, near Teramo, where his body rests, draws great numbers of pilgrims every year.

What is St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows the patron saint of?

St Gabriel is the patron of youth: the 1909 Catholic Encyclopedia already recorded "the express wish of Leo XIII and Pius X that he should be regarded as the chief patron of the youth of today". A young man who died as a student for the priesthood, he is also commonly invoked by students, which is why he figures among the patron saints of students. In 1959 Pope John XXIII named him patron of the Abruzzi, the region where he died.

The Mass of his feast says the same thing: its Epistle is St John's "I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one" (1 John ii. 14), and its Gospel is Our Lord's welcome to the little children and His call to the rich young man (St Mark x. 13-21).

Prayer to St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows (Missal of 1962)

His Mass, Oculus Dei, is entirely proper to him. Here are its three prayers, in Latin and English.

Collect, 27 February

Deus, qui beatum Gabrielem dulcissimae Matris tuae dolores assidue recolere docuisti, ac per illam sanctitatis et miraculorum gloria sublimasti: da nobis, ejus intercessione et exemplo; ita Genetricis tuae consociari fletibus, ut materna ejusdem protectione salvemur: Qui vivis et regnas cum Deo Patre in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.

O God, who didst teach blessed Gabriel to dwell constantly on the sorrows of Thy most sweet Mother, and through her didst raise him to the glory of holiness and of miracles: grant us, by his intercession and example, so to share in the weeping 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.

Secret

Salutarem hostiam in memoriam sancti Gabrielis tibi, Domine, offerentes, fac nos sacrificium mortis tuae rite recolere: ac, meritis perdolentis Virginis, ejusdem sacrificii fructum copiose percipere: Qui vivis et regnas.

As we offer Thee, O Lord, the saving Victim in memory of Saint Gabriel, grant that we may worthily recall the sacrifice of Thy death, and, by the merits of the sorrowing Virgin, receive abundantly the fruit of that same sacrifice. Who livest and reignest.

Postcommunion

Quas tibi, Domine, in festivitate sancti Gabrielis Confessoris tui, pro collatis donis gratias agimus: suscipe propitius per manus gloriosae semper Virginis Mariae; ex qua carnem illam assumpsisti, cujus in hoc salutari convivio meruimus gustare dulcedinem: Qui vivis et regnas.

The thanks that we give Thee, O Lord, on the feast of Saint Gabriel Thy Confessor, for the gifts bestowed on us, receive graciously through the hands of Mary, ever glorious Virgin, from whom Thou didst take that Flesh whose sweetness we have been made worthy to taste in this saving banquet. Who livest and reignest.

The Collect is the simplest prayer to St Gabriel for any day: to share, as he did, in the tears of Our Lady, and to be saved by her protection. It goes well with the Litany of Our Lady of Sorrows. For nine days of prayer before his feast, see the novena to St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.

When is the feast day of St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?

In the Roman calendar of 1962, the feast of St Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, Confessor, falls on 27 February, the day of his death, and on 28 February in leap years; it is a feast of the third class, in white vestments. When it falls in Lent, as it often does, the Lenten weekday takes precedence and St Gabriel is commemorated. Since the reform of 1969 he no longer appears in the general calendar of the Church; the Roman Martyrology still commemorates him on 27 February. You will find it in our traditional Catholic calendar of 1962, and St Gabriel takes his place in our guide to the Catholic saints, listed by feast day.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?

Francis Possenti (1838-1862), born at Assisi and educated at Spoleto, who entered the Passionists in 1856 under the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows and died a student, not yet a priest, at Isola del Gran Sasso. He was canonized in 1920.

Why is he called "of Our Lady of Sorrows"?

Because he chose that name in religion, to keep always in mind the joys and sorrows of the Blessed Virgin, the centre of his spiritual life.

Was St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows a priest?

No. He was a Passionist religious studying for the priesthood when tuberculosis ended his studies; he died at twenty-three.

What miracles are attributed to St Gabriel?

Many prodigies and conversions were obtained at his tomb at Isola; the Breviary says God made him illustrious by miracles before Pius X beatified him in 1908, and he was canonized in 1920. St Gemma Galgani attributed her own cure from a grave illness to his intercession.

Where is the shrine of St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows?

At Isola del Gran Sasso, near Teramo, in the Abruzzi, where he died and where his body rests.

Is St Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows the same as the Archangel Gabriel?

No. The archangel announced the Incarnation to Our Lady; St Gabriel Possenti is a nineteenth-century Passionist who took the archangel's name.

The Iter Fidei app carries the Roman Missal of 1962 with the Mass of St Gabriel, the Breviary, his novena and the traditional calendar, in Latin and English. Join early access here.

Sources. Alban Butler, Lives of the Saints, 27 February (St Gabriel Possenti). Roman Breviary (edition before 1960), 27 February, lessons of the second nocturn (in the Breviary of 1962 this third-class feast has a single, contracted lesson). Roman Missal (1962), Proper of Saints, 27 February. The Catholic Encyclopedia (1909), "Bl. Gabriel Possenti". Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims version, 1 St John ii. 14-17; St Mark x. 13-21.