Saint Gabriel Possenti - Gabriel of the Sorrows

You can see how in need the people of God were for the Father to come to them in some form and affirm that He was still with them, working powerfully in their behalf. To this end, He gave the gift of a son to Sante Possenti and Agnese Frisciotti. Sante was the governor of Assisi at the time (1838), and therefore involved in all the political intrigues which were prevailing in the Church and the State. The child was named Francesco, in honor of the other Francis who made that town famous, St. Francis of Assisi. The home was filled with the joy of God until 1842, when Francesco was four years old. His dear mother was taken from him in death. Francesco was devastated. He didn’t understand death at the time - why his mother had to die and couldn’t be with him any more. His older sister, Maria Louise, vowed to care for Francesco, who was the eleventh of a family of thirteen, and therefore still very young. She helped her father rear her siblings for as long as she could. Cholera robbed Francesco of his second mother, when he was barely seventeen years old.

Although he was growing into a young man, the death of his sister broke his heart. If it was possible, he was more deeply moved by this loss than by the loss of his mother. It was very possible that the reason for this was because he was so young when his mother died; even though he had been very close to her, he did not live as much of his life with her as he had with this sister. Maria Louise’s death was very traumatic for the young boy. By this time, 1855, they had moved to Spoleto, which is about forty miles from Assisi, actually a much bigger town than Assisi. The father’s new position as registrar of the town, was very prestigious, but very time consuming. He found himself heavily involved in the politics of the municipality, and therefore did not have much time for Francesco. So the loss of the sister had a greater impact on him. She had always been there for him. She was his best friend, his confidante. He could share all his dreams, his love of Our Lord Jesus and Our dear Mother Mary, the Angels and the Saints. He could go to the local church, and spend time there with the Lord. Marie Louise would always cover for him if he came home late, or did not get his chores done on time.

Her death did not depress him, however, which would have been natural, especially for a young man of his age, and since they had been so close. No, what he got from her death was a deep awareness of the frailty of life, how our lives on earth were merely a pilgrimage to Heaven, man’s true journey on earth. Life was too short to waste on frivolous things. It just didn’t make sense to Francesco. He immersed himself in the beauty of the Church, and matters of the Kingdom. He wanted to spend all his time around Jesus, with Jesus, learning about Jesus.

And this, my brothers and sisters, is where Jesus provides us with the great contradiction. Here, the paradox comes in. And it is just this. At a time when the Church had lost its popularity, when the majesty and reverence was being taken away, when everything exalted about our Faith was being ripped from their hearts, a young man, who had been greatly influenced by the politics of the time, finds himself irresistibly drawn to that Church and his only desire - to submerge himself completely into Jesus.

One of the greatest gifts of St. Gabriel Possenti was his values, his priorities. While others were distancing themselves from Mother Church, and selling their souls for position in government, in nobility, a young man from the inside, from the very core of political life that others were vying for, rejected that life and those values, and embraced Church and all that it held for him. He was a contradiction in terms. He wanted to be completely immersed in Jesus; and yet he loved the world and everything in it.

St. Gabriel Possenti grew up as a regular boy. He was a prankster; he enjoyed parties; loved to dance, was extremely good-looking and possibly a little vain. He was the life of the party, very popular. He was called the "Dancer." He loved the girls and had no desire to give up any of it. As a matter of fact, his father had tried to match him up with a local girl, Maria Pannechetti. But although they were close friends, they had never considered marrying each other.

But with all of his fun-loving ways, there was something missing. There was a gnawing at his heart which he could not explain, and could not satisfy. He adored Church and all things that had to do with the Catholic Faith. But that was just who he was. That didn’t mean he wanted to give up his life to Jesus and Mary in a Religious community. He constantly vacillated, "should I, shouldn’t I?" Although everyone could see his virtues, they couldn’t take him seriously. He was what we call a Beau Brummel. He had to have the latest fashions. His grooming was of the utmost importance to him. He had to be just so. The social life of Spoleto beckoned him and he gladly embraced it.