St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother
St. Gabriel’s life reveals that a profound love for the Mother of Sorrows is of the very essence of the Passionist charism, for it was Mary who appeared to young Paul Francis Daneo, the Passionist founder, and called him to found the Passionist Congregation.
Born "Francisco (Francis) Possenti" in the city of Assisi, Italy, on March 1, 1838, he was the eleventh child of Sante Possenti and Agnes Frisciotti.
The first year of his life was spent away from his family with a nursing woman who cared for him because his mother was unable. In 1841, Sante moved the family to Spoleto where he was appointed magistrate. In that same year, the youngest Possenti child died at just six months old; Francis’s nine-year old sister, Adele, soon followed. Just days later, his heartbroken mother was called to eternal life. Francis had lost his mother when he was just 4 years old.
Tragedy continued to plague the family during his youth. In 1846, Francis’s brother, Paul, was killed in the Italian war with Austria. Another brother, Lawrence, later took his own life. Such events, however, did not rob Francis of his spirit and cheerfulness. During his formative years, Francis attended the school of the Christian Brothers and then the Jesuit College in Spoleto. He was lively, intelligent and popular at school. At sixteen, he suffered a life-threatening illness. Praying for a cure, Francis promised to become a religious. With recovery, however, Francis quickly forgot his promise. But God’s call would not be denied, and Francis soon turned his heart to the Congregation of the Passionists.
Sante Possenti was less than pleased with his teenage son’s decision. Determined to show Francis the joys of a secular life of theater and society parties, Sante continued to hope Francis would find pleasure in a social life. But the young man was not to be dissuaded. Immediately after completion of his schooling, he left for the Passionist novitiate in Morrovalle. In the novitiate, he cultivated a great love for Christ Crucified. Francis received the Passionist habit on September 21, 1856. That year was the Feast of the Sorrowful Mother. He was given the name: "Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother." A year later, he took his vows. His monastic life preparing for the priesthood made Gabriel a secluded, non-public figure. His writings reflect his close relationship with God and His mother.
The 19th Century (1980s), in Italy, was a difficult and tumultuous time. The new Italian government issued decrees closing Religious Orders in certain provinces of the Papal States. The new Passionist province of Pieta, to which Gabriel belonged, was in the center of this chaos. By 1860, the Passionists had ceased apostolic work due to the growing threats surrounding the community. During this period various Italian provinces were overrun by soldiers who robbed and terrorized the towns with little mercy.
The people of Isola del Gran Sasso, where Gabriel is buried, would always remember him as “their Gabriel.” Struck with tuberculosis at the age of 24, Gabriel died on February 27, 1862, before his ordination to the priesthood. His fidelity to prayer, joyfulness of spirit and habitual mortifications stand out in his otherwise ordinary life. Saint Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows was canonized in 1920, by Pope Benedict XV who declared him a patron of Catholic youth. His patronage is also invoked by the Church for students, seminarians, novices and clerics. Thousands of divine favors are attributed to his intercession with Christ Crucified and the Sorrowful Mother Mary.
Our Lady of Sorrows
The Story of Our Lady of Sorrows
For a while there were two feasts in honor of the Sorrowful Mother: one going back to the 15th century, and the other to the 17th century. Initially, both were celebrated by the Universal Church: one on the Friday before Palm Sunday, and the other in September.
The principal biblical references to Mary’s sorrows are in Luke 2:35 and John 19:26-27. The Lucan passage is Simeon’s prediction about a sword piercing Mary’s soul. The Johannine passage relates Jesus’s words from the cross to Mary and to His beloved disciple. Many early Church writers interpret the sword as Mary’s sorrows, especially as she saw Jesus die on the cross. Thus, the two passages are brought together as prediction and fulfillment.
Saint Ambrose in particular sees Mary as a sorrowful yet powerful figure at the cross. Mary stood fearlessly at the cross while others fled. Mary looked on her Son’s wounds with pity, but saw in them the salvation of the world. As Jesus hung on the cross, Mary did not fear to be killed, but offered herself to her persecutors.
September 15 is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. About this day, Dom Prosper Guéranger, the holy French priest and Benedictine abbot, has commented how Our Lady, whom God predestined to be the Mother of His Son, was united in her person to the life, mysteries and suffering of Jesus, so that she might be a faithful co-operator in the work of Redemption. He notes that God must consider suffering to be a great good since He gave so much suffering to His Son, Whom He loved so much. And since, after His Son, God loved the Holy Virgin more than any other creature, He also wanted to give her suffering as the richest of all presents.
In the solemnity of this feast, we principally remember Mary on Calvary where she suffered the supreme sorrow of all sorrows that filled her life. If the Church limits the number of Our Lady's sorrows to seven, it is because this number has always symbolized the idea of totality and universality. To understand the extent and suffering of Our Lady, one must know the extent of her love for Jesus. Her love as Mother of God only augmented her suffering. In fact, nature and grace came together to produce profound impressions on the heart of Mary. Nothing is stronger and more pressing than the love that nature gives a mother for her son or that grace gives for God.
These considerations help us understand the role of suffering in our lives. We see we are not alone in our suffering. In fact, the immensity of the crosses suffered by Our Lady was so great that we might also say she suffered not seven, but all sorrows. She is Our Lady of All Sorrows since no one suffered more. While it is true that all generations will call her blessed, to a lesser but immensely real degree all generations may also call her “sorrowful.” Thus, we need to understand better that when sorrow enters our lives, it is a proof of God’s love. And when we are not visited with sorrow, we do not have all the proofs of God’s love for us. It is in sorrow that our mettle is tested. Moreover, one finds a note of maturity, stability and rationality in those who suffer and who suffer much. And so we should understand that when adversity, difficulties, misunderstandings, bad health and conflicts visit us, we must not see them as things that should never happen. To suffer is normal in this vale of tears.
If she whom God loves so much suffered, how much more should we suffer. Those, who God and Our Lady love, suffer because God will not refuse to give them that which He gave abundantly to the two whom He loved most: Our Lord, Jesus Christ and Our Lady. Thus, we must see temptations, trials, stress and so many other sufferings as something normal in life. We must ask that sufferings pass; but when they persist, we must bless God and Our Lady.
Our Lady's Seven Graces
The Seven Promises from Our Lady to those who daily pray seven Hail Mary’s while meditating on Our Lady’s Tears and Sorrows: (as revealed to Saint Bridget of Sweden, a 14th century mystic who received extraordinary graces of visions of Jesus, Mary and other Saints, as well as holy revelations of Heaven)
- I will grant peace to their families.
- They will be enlightened about the divine mysteries.
- I will console them in their pains and I will accompany them in their work.
- I will give them as much as they ask for as long as it does not oppose the adorable will of my divine Son or the sanctification of their souls.
- I will defend them in their spiritual battles with the infernal enemy and I will protect them at every instant of their lives.
- I will visibly help them at the moment of their death, they will see the face of their Mother.
- I have obtained from my divine Son, that those who propagate this devotion to my tears and dolors, will be taken directly from this earthly life to eternal happiness since all their sins will be forgiven and my Son and I will be their eternal consolation and joy.
Adapted from:
Website 1,
Website 2
St. Martin de Porres
“Father unknown” is the cold legal phrase sometimes used on baptismal records. “Half-breed” or “war souvenir” is the cruel name inflicted by those of “pure” blood. Like many others, Martin might have grown to be a bitter man, but he did not. It was said that, even as a child, he gave his heart and his goods to the poor and despised.
He was the son of a freed woman of Panama, probably black but also possibly of indigenous stock, and a Spanish grandee of Lima, Peru. His parents never married each other. Martin inherited the features and dark complexion of his mother. That irked his father, who finally acknowledged his son after eight years. After the birth of a sister, the father abandoned the family. Martin was reared in poverty and locked into a low level of Lima’s society.
When he was 12, his mother apprenticed him to a barber-surgeon. Martin learned how to cut hair, and also how to draw blood which was a standard medical treatment for wounds prior to administering medicines. After a few years in this medical apostolate, Martin applied to the Dominicans to be a “lay helper,” not feeling himself worthy to be a Religious Brother. After nine years, the example of his prayer, penance, charity and humility, led the community to request him to make full religious profession.
Many of his nights were spent in prayer and penitential practices; his days were filled with nursing the sick and caring for the poor. It was particularly impressive that he treated all people regardless of their color, race, or status. He was instrumental in founding an orphanage, took care of slaves brought from Africa, and managed the daily alms of the priory with practicality and generosity. He became the procurator for both the priory and the city. When his priory was in debt, he said: “I am only a poor mulatto. Sell me. I am the property of the order. Sell me.”
Side by side with his daily work in the kitchen, laundry, and infirmary, Martin’s life reflected God’s extraordinary gifts: ecstasies that lifted him into the air, light filling the room where he prayed, bi-location, miraculous knowledge, instantaneous cures, and a remarkable rapport with animals. His charity extended to beasts of the field and even to the vermin of the kitchen. He would excuse the raids of mice and rats on the grounds that they were underfed; he kept stray cats and dogs at his sister’s house.
Martin became a formidable fundraiser, obtaining thousands of dollars for dowries for poor girls so that they could marry or enter a convent. Many of his fellow religious took Martin as their spiritual director, but he continued to call himself a “poor slave.” He was a good friend of another Dominican, Saint Rose of Lima, Peru.
Saint Martin de Porres is the Patron Saint of:
African Americans, Barbers, Hairdressers, Race Relations, Radio, and Social Justice.
Reflection
Racism is a sin almost nobody confesses. Like pollution, it is a “sin of the world” that is everybody’s responsibility but apparently, nobody’s fault. One could hardly imagine a more fitting patron of Christian forgiveness–on the part of those discriminated against—and Christian justice—on the part of reformed racists—than Martin de Porres.
Adapted from:
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