St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows
Patron Saint of Catholic Youth, Students, and those Studying for the Priesthood
St. Gabriel Possenti was born in 1838 in Italy and spent much of his teenage years pursuing girls and social recognition. After great tragedy struck his family at the end of his teenage years, he decided to enter the Passionists because of his new devotion to Christ in the Passion. He took the name Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows because his own grief led to a growing devotion to the sorrows of Mary. When he was still a Passionist student and only twenty-three years old, he died of tuberculosis. Pope Benedict XV declared him a patron of youth and of those studying to be priests.