This is a reproduction of a library book that was digitized by Google as part of an ongoing effort to preserve the information in books and make it universally accessible. http://books.google.com ThelifeofBlessedGabrielOurLadySorrows HyacinthHage C//7/./£,/sT Ibarvarfc College library FROM V 6 * The Life of Blessed Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows BLESSED GABRIEL, OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS. The Life of Blessed Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows GABRIEL POSSENTI of the Congregation of the Passion, Begun by REV. HYACINTH HAGE, C. P., Rewritten and Enlarged By REV. NICHOLAS WARD, C. P. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CARDINAL GIBBONS. Who is the Angel that with'so much joy, Into the eyes is looking of our Queen, Enamored so that he seems made of fire ? Dante's Paradiso, Canto xxxi., 103. SUPERIORUM PERM1SSU. PHILADELPHIA H. L. KlLNER & Co. PUBLISHERS. C H "j | • / &' /S permtesu Superforumj Stanislaus Grennan, Pravincialis. C. P. fUbtl ©bstat: Jacobus F. Loughlin, S. T. D. Censor Librorum. Imprimatur : «J" Patritius Joannes, Archiep. Philadelphien. Copyright, 1910, by H. L. Kilner & Co. Plan of Work. Secular Life. Childhood. Youth. Vocation. Religious Life. Novitiate. Scholasticate. Work of Perfection. Cardinal Virtues. Temperance, Justice, Fortitude, Prudence. Theological Virtues. Faith, Hope, Charity. Means of Perfection. Evangelical Counsels. Mental Prayer : Devotion to Passion, Devotion to Mary, Communion of Saints. Consummation in Death. Glorification : Introduction of Cause, Voice from Heaven, Judgment of Church. Beatification. (3) Protestation The following pages are the result of a long and loving study of all the biographical material in French and Italian ; but the volume is founded principally upon the sworn depositions contained in the Episcopal and Apostolical Processes. It must be specially noted that every testimony quoted, and every instance of miracle or prodigy related, are faithful extracts from those official documents. Mindful however of the decree of Urban VIII, I hereby disclaim any intention of anticipating the final judgment of the Church concerning this account of the life, virtues or miracles of the Bl. Servant of God, Gabriel of the Virgin of Dolors. This public and official judgment has already been commenced, by the promulgation of the decree of his solemn beatification in St. Peter's, Rome, on May 31, 1908, and it will be completed on the day of his future canonization,, whenever God wills. Nicholas Ward, C. P. St. Michael's Monastery, West Hoboken, N. J. (4) CONTENTS. chap. page Introduction by Cardinal Gibbons 7 I. Birth and Parentage 13 II. Childhood 17 III. Youth, and School Life 36 IV. Religious Vocation 34 V. His Journey to the Novitiate 50 VI. Life in the Novitiate . 58 VII. His Affections Spiritualized 72 VIII. His Clerical Studies 77 IX. The Struggle for Perfection 83 X. Temperance and Mortification 91 XI. Chastity 99 XII. His Humility 106 XIII. His Meekness 116 XIV. His Cheerfulness 120 XV. His Spirit of Religion 126 XVI. His Regularity 135 XVII. His Spiritual Courage 140 XVIII. His Prudence 147 XIX. His Spirit of Faith 160 XX. His Lively Hope 164 XXI. His Ardent Charity 168 XXII. His Love of God 174 XXIII. The Evangelical Counsels 183 XXIV. His Spirit of Prayer 192 XXV. His Devotion to the Passion 200 XXVI. His Devotion to Mary 206 5 6 CONTENTS. CHAP. rAGB. XXVII. Other Special Devotions 220 XXVIII. His Last Illness 236 XXIX. His Holy Death 236 XXX. His Growing Fame 244 XXXI. Our Latest Wonder-Worker 251 XXXII. What Gabriel Has done for Isola 281 XXXIII. His Solemn Beatification 285 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGI Blessed Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows 1 Passionist Monastery Morrovalle .... 58 Blessed Gabriel Kneeling Before our Lady of Sorrows . 206 New Tomb of Blessed Gabriel 250 Blessed Gabriel in Glory 292 Introduction. Mere natural virtue, however excellent and praiseworthy, can never raise man to the sub lime perfection which is the end of his creation. Divine faith and grace joined with man's coopera tion, alone justify the soul unto eternal salvation. " If thou wilt enter into life, keep the command ments " (Matt. xix. 17) ; and the first and the greatest commandment is : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart." (Mark xii., Matt, xxii.) No other plan of salvation has God ever given, either in the old dispensation or in the new. To facilitate the road to this per fection, Christ gave His disciples the evangelical counsels of poverty, continency and obedience, and when accepted as irrevocable obligations, they place the disciple in a new state of life, which is therefore, the state of perfection. " If thou wilt be perfect, said Christ to the young man, go sell what thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow Me." (Matt. xix. 21.) It was from among those who had left all things to follow Him, that He chose His apostles. Here unto likewise, He invited Christians in every age, when he said : " Every one that hath left house (7) 8 INTRODUCTION. or brethren or sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children or lands for My name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and shall possess life everlasting." (Matt. xix. 29.) In these passages of the gospel, Christian tradition has ever seen the institution of the state of perfection, which the Church of God has prudently adapted to the circumstances of place and time, embodying it in various rules and constitutions, just as she has acted with relation to the sacraments, surround ing them with appropriate rites and ceremonies. Thus were the different forms of the religious life introduced: eremitic and monastic, clerical and lay ; wherein a steadily increasing number of Christians, male and female, dedicated them selves to the exercises of the contemplative or active life. Apart from this variety of forms, one thing ever remained common to all, as the very essence of the state of perfection, namely an irrevocable profession of the three evangelical counsels, whereby the state of perfection became synonymous with the religious state, and those who professed it became religious properly so- called. From the earliest times, too, the Church ac cepted this profession in God's name, regarded the whole religious life as a state of consecra tion, and those that belonged to it as sacred : in somuch that the same canon law that protected the Church's ministers from violence also safe INTRODUCTION. 9 guarded the religious, and rendered him that profaned the person of a religious or a cleric, equally guilty of sacrilege. So complete is the sacrifice implied by the re ligious profession, that the early fathers have compared it to a holocaust, the victim of which dies to the world to live only for God. The world assumes that such self-annihilation is of no public utility : but " if the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it bringeth forth much fruit," and every unprejudiced observer may infer the rich harvest of beneficent works accruing to the general public from religious in the past, from what is now accomplished by the numerous religious institutions that dot the fair territory of these United States. In the life of the youthful Passionist now pre sented for the first time to American readers, the excellence of the religious state is plainly set forth in a more than ordinary degree. A child of our own times, whose days barety cover twenty-four years of the middle of this expiring century, the sanctity of the Bl. Gabriel Pos- senti has been made illustrious by the wonders wrought at his grave since 1892. His early life presents this unique feature, that it contained no presage of his future holiness until he crossed the threshold of his cloister-home. The five short years in which the work of his spiritual perfection was accomplished, were spent in the 10 rNTKODTTCTIOIT. obscurity of the retreat, devoted to the perform ance of common duties, as if God wished to em phasize once more in the eyes of the world, the sanctifying efficacy of the religious state. Moved by these considerations, no sooner was the extraordinary virtue of this Servant of God brought to my notice, than I conceived for the youthful hero a love and admiration which were but the outcome of my profound esteem for the religious state. I recall with pleasure that in 1895, together with our illustrious breth ren in the Sacred College, Cardinal Parocchi of Rome, and Cardinal Vaughan of London, I was one of the three bishops who first petitioned the Holy See for Gabriel's beatification. I then rep resented to the Sovereign Pontiff " what honor would thereby accrue to the Church, what salu tary profit to Christian people, and especially what assistance to youth, so sorely straightened in these days by the spirit of wickedness." (Epis- tola Postulat, Aug. 4th, 1895.) Similiar petitions have since been forwarded to the Holy Father by twenty-nine cardinals, and as many arch bishops and bishops ; and now that the petition has been granted, we gladly introduce to the public this " Life of the Venerable Gabriel, of the Passionist Congregation." Besides, this little volume is a new departure in hagiography, and one to be commended. A glance at the fundamental plan which underlies INTRODUCTION. 11 the work will reveal the object of the author. After the historical portion that leads up to Gabriel's correspondence to his religious voca tion, we follow step by step, the development of his interior perfection. Helped by divine grace, and guided by a wise and prudent director, the young religious applies himself first to overcome the passions of rebellious nature, passing thence to the acquisition of the moral virtues that form the character of the man.