Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows

Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows - Gentle Breeze From Heaven

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 (Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows) 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, Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows 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. Saint Gabriel of the Sorrows wanted to spend all his time around Jesus, with Jesus, learning about Jesus.

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