Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows Audio CD

Title: Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows
Authors: Bob and Penny Lord
Publisher: Journeys of Faith
Format: Audio CD Disc

St. Gabriel Possenti -  Co- Patron of Italian Catholic Youth

Saint Gabriel Possenti was twenty-four years old when he died. We are always asked the question, “Why does God take someone in the prime of their life and snuff out that life?” We don’t really know the answer, but we can muse; we can speculate; we can try to understand what God’s plan for a particular person at a particular time might be. Or we might try to determine how the life of that person can change the world of his time or ours.

Francesco Possenti was such a person! He was given to us to do great things for the Lord; not only in life but in death. He made such an impact on the people of his time that he became known as a Saint of the Youth. He was born in Assisi on March 1, 1838. What was going on in Assisi and Italy in 1838 which would cause the Lord to bring a special child into the world, who would glorify His Name in twenty-four short years, much like our Little Flower, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux? Why did the Lord choose Assisi as his birthplace, that famous city graced by the presence of God’s other special son, St. Francis?

Europe had become extremely anti-clerical during that time. Remember, it was in 1830 that Our Lady appeared to Saint Catherine Labourè in Paris and told her about the suffering the Church would have to endure. In 1846, our Lady appeared to two children in La Salette, France, and wept the entire time, grieving because the people were behaving so contemptuously towards her Son. But She assigned the task of righting wrongs to two little children. When she was preparing to leave the children, she said to them, “But you will make my words known to all the people.” The Church, the world is in trouble, Our Lady reaches out to another young person to help Her mend the wounds inflicted on Her Son’s Church and the children who belong to her. Saint Gabriel Possenti, whose religious name was Brother Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin, was one of those whom She chose.

One of our powerful Saints for the youth.

Born in Assisi, he moved to Spoleto before a great Cholera epidemic broke out. 

We share with you about Morrovalle, near the Adriatic Sea, where he spent most of his life as a brother, and then to Isola di Gran Sasso, high on a mountain, where he died.

We discuss special periods of his life and miracles from his Shrine in Teramo.

Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows Video from Bob and Penny Lord on Vimeo.