What is a Saint?
In the Catholic Church, the saints are ordinary people like you and me who made it to heaven. They’ve done nothing that you and I cannot do, if we persevere in following Jesus Christ and living our lives according to His teaching.
Catholic devotion to the saints is nothing more than respect and admiration for the memory of the deceased heroes of the Church. We honor them as men and women of heroic virtue who can serve as our role models. They were no more perfect than are we; but, at the end of their lives – and hopefully, ours – they received from Our Lord his words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
We also ask the saints to intercede for us. Have you ever asked anyone to pray for you when you were having a hard time? That is how Catholics “pray to” the saints – we pray with saints, not to them. As the Letter of James says, “The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.”
Well-known saints like those below often are remembered in a special way on particular days during the year.
January – February – March – April – May – June
July – August – September – October – November – December
This Weeks Saints
February 23
Bl. Josef Mayr-Nusser
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February 24
Bl. Tommaso Maria Fusco
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February 25
St Walburga
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February 26
Bl. Robert Drury
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February 27
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
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February 28
Pope St. Hilary
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March 1
St. David of Wales
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February 27
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Francesco Possenti was born on 1 March 1838, in Assisi, Italy, the eleventh of thirteen children. While he was only 4 years old, his family suffered the loss of their infant daughter Rosa, 7-year old Adele; and their mother, Agnes. Although he was known for his piety, he was something of a ladies man, and was fond of music and dancing, of theater and hunting.
In 1851, he was afflicted with a serious illnesses, and promised to enter religious life if cured. He was cured, but ignored his promise. After a second illness two years later, he made the same promise, and this time actually carried it out. During a procession honoring the Virgin Mary, he heard a voice asking why he remained in his secular life. He entered a Passionist Congregation monastery in 1856, and reflecting his deep devotion, he was given the religious name of Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Gabriel was an excellent student, and was unfailingly cheerful and considerate of others. His superiors expected great things of him as he studied for the priesthood but around 1859 he began to exhibit symptoms of tuberculosis. He embraced his final lingering illness with joy, because it gave him the opportunity to prepare for his death. He died from tuberculosis in 1862 at age 24, in the company of his fellow Passionists, holding an image of Our Lady of Sorrows and smiling peacefully.
His life in the monastery was not exceptional; like St. Therese of Lisieux he sought holiness in prayerful and faithful attendance to the details of every day monastic life. He gained his end, not by vainly longing to do great things that might never be given him to do, not by waiting for opportunities that might never occur, but by doing with all his might whatsoever his hand found to do.
“Mary does not look to see what kind of person you have been. She simply comes to a heart that wants to love her. She comes quickly and opens her merciful heart to you, embraces you and consoles and serves you.”
St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows