Fr. Z's Blog

“I want to break my own will into pieces, I want to do God’s Holy will, not my own. May the most adorable, most loveable, most perfect will of God always be done.”

St. Gabriel

Here we are near the end of the year’s shortest month. Since this is not a leap year (as was last year 2024) we can just cruise on into March without calendrical shenanigans.

What would they be, you ask.

Let’s digress for a while.

Among these shenanigans is when we would celebrate the feast of today’s saint, St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin. This is because in a leap year a day is added to February, but the liturgical dating according to the ancient Kalends (whence the word “calendar”) does not change.

This is most evident with the Feast of St. Matthias, Apostle, which we had the other day, 24 February. 24 February, in the ancient reckoning, is vi a.d. Kal Martii (the 6th day before the Kalends of March). However, in a leap year an additional vi a.d. Kal Martii, called Bisextilis… “second sixth”, is added, thus providing two 6th days before the Kalends of March. The Vigil of Matthias would be on the 24th (his feast had a vigil back when) and the Feast would be on the 25th (both being the 6th day before the Kalends in that ancient manner of counting during a leap year).

This all prepares us to understand why in a leap year St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin’s feast can be on 28 February instead of 27 February (as it is in this non-leaping year). St. Gabriel’s feast remains in each case on iii a.d. Kal. Martii in either case. However, in a leap year, because of Bisextilis… “second sixth”, he slides over from the 27th to the 28th. The important this to remember is that the ancient date according to the Kalends doesn’t change.

NOTA BENE: Tidal friction in the system of your planet and its Moon slows your planet’s rotation down so that a day is lengthened by some 1.4 milliseconds per century. In about 4 million years, we can stop with the Bisextilis correction. To which we should all respond, “Come, Lord Jesus!”

Other points:

• Bisextilis is not a Jesuit holiday, though it sounds like it.
• People born on leap days are called “leaplings”.
• Most of the Apostles Feasts seem to be distributed through the year toward the end of the month. (I think Philip and James the Less are 1 May in the traditional calendar – which is pretty close to the end of a month).
• Ash Wednesday has not yet fallen on a 29 February and it won’t until 2096.

And now something about St. Gabriel.

Today is the feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Gabriel Possenti. 27 February is the day he died and was born into heaven in 1862, his dies natalis.

I visited his shrine beneath the great mountain Gran Sasso in Italy while I was in seminary.

Little Francesco Possenti came from a large family, 13 children, in Spoleto and was baptized in the same baptismal font as St. Francis of Assisi.

During a childhood illness he promised to become a religious if he were healed. This actually happened twice, but like many of us who make promises to God if He would only do something for us, Francesco forgot about it.  However, during a procession in honor of an image of Our Lady of Sorrows, Francesco finally felt strongly the calling to be a religious.  He took off for a Passionist house and novitiate on the eve of his engagement.

When Francesco made his vows he was given the name in religion of Gabriel adding of Our Lady of Sorrows.  Gabriel made a special promise to spread devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows. His writings are imbued with this devotion and a special focus on the Passion of the Lord.  He was known for his perfect observance of the rule of the Passionists.

While still young was contracted tuberculosis.  He remained always in good spirits, never quitting his harsh mortifications however.  Before he could be ordained a priest, he died embracing an image of Our Lady of Sorrows.

Gabriel was canonized by Pope Benedict XV 1920 and declared him patron of Catholic youth. In 1959, Pope John XXIII named him the patron of the Abruzzi region, where he spent the last two years of his earthly life. His is also invoked by seminarians and novices.

St. Gemma Galgani attributed to St. Gabriel the cure which led her also to her vocation as a Passionist.

Let us look at his Collect from the 1962 Missale Romanum.

COLLECT:

Deus, qui beatum Gabrielem dulcissimae Matris tuae dolores assidue recolere docuisti, ac per illam sanctitatis et miraculorum gloria sublimasti: da nobis, eius intercessione et exemplo; ita Genetricis tuae consociari fletibus, ut materna eiusdem protectione salvemur.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:

O God, who taught blessed Gabriel to reflect constantly upon the sorrows of Your most sweet Mother, and through her raised him on high by the glory of holiness and miracles: grant us, by his intercession and example; so to be joined to the tears of Your Mother, that we may be saved by her maternal protection.

Now here is the politically incorrect part of the story.  

From the Possenti Society:

In 1860, soldiers from Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.

Possenti, with his seminary rector’s permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.

Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier’s revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti’s direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.

At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as “the Savior of Isola”.

Thus, some consider him to be the patron of shooters, marksmen, and handgun users.

For good reason. Thus endeth the lesson.

I think all you readers out there should consider concealed carry license courses and, afterwards, lots of training and practice.  Even if you choose, for one reason or another, not to carry – and for some people that is the reasonable, prudent, better choice – you will at least know something about firearms, laws, the training, and will also have received a heavy dose of how to de-escalate confrontations, avoid conflicts, increase your situational awareness, etc.  It is useful on many levels.  Don’t depend on the idiocies of the liberal media for your information about these things.  Get first hand and hands on experience.  Then you can have an opinion with weight.

Ask St. Gabriel to help you in the process.