[Volokh] David Kopel: Happy St. Gabriel Possenti Day!

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Posted by David Kopel:
Happy St. Gabriel Possenti Day!
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_02_25-2007_03_03.shtml#1172557175


   February 27 is the Saint Day for Gabriel Possenti, one of my favorite
   saints. According to The One Year Book of Saints, as a young man in
   19th-century Italy, Francesco Possenti was known as the best dresser
   in town, as a "superb horseman," and as "an excellent marksman." He
   was proficient with rifles and shotguns. The young man was also a
   consummate partygoer, who was once engaged to two women at the same
   time. Twice during school he fell desperately ill, promised to give
   his life to God if he recovered, and then forgot his promise. On
   August day at church, Possenti saw a banner of Mary. Her eyes looked
   directly at him, and he heard the words "Keep your promise."
   Possenti immediately joined an order of monks, taking the name Brother
   Gabriel of the Sorrowful Virgin. Then in 1860:

     On a summer day...a slim figure in a black cassock [Possenti] stood
     facing a gang of mercenaries in a small town in Piedmont, Italy. He
     had just disarmed one of the soldiers who was attacking a young
     girl, had faced the rest of the band fearlessly, then drove them
     all out of the village at the point of a gun....
     [W]hen Garibaldiâs mercenaries swept down through Italy ravaging
     villages, Brother Gabriel showed the kind of man he was by
     confronting them, astonishing them with his marksmanship, and
     saving the small village where his monastery was located.

   The soldiers were from the nationalist army of Giuseppe Garibaldi, who
   was defeating the Papal States and bringing Italy under his unified
   control. As is not uncommon in warfare, some of Garibaldi's soldiers,
   once the fighting was over, went off on their own, on free-lance
   missions to pillage and terrorize defenseless nearby communities.
   About twenty former soldiers and non-commissioned officers showed up
   in the tiny town of Isola del Gran Sasso.
   Possenti was studying for the priesthood in the nearby monastery run
   by the Passionist Order. (The order is devoted to the "passion" or
   suffering of Jesus.) When Possenti heard the disturbance in town, he
   asked the rector for permission to go see if he could help, and
   permission was granted.
   Possenti arrived just in time to see two sergeants on the verge of
   raping two young women. Possenti snatched one sergeants gun out of his
   holster, and then quickly grabbed the other sergeantâs handgun.
   Presumably, the sergeants were drunk and carousing, expecting no
   resistance, and not particularly focused on weapons retention. Next:

     The two of them, dumbfounded, let the woman go.
     When the other soldiers in the band of about 20 heard the
     commotion, they rushed toward Possenti, thinking they easily could
     make short shrift of this slightly built, cassocked theology
     student. One of them apparently made some sneering remark about him
     attired in his cassock.
     At that moment, a lizard ran across the road. The marksman Possenti
     took aim, fired, and killed it with one shot. It was then that he
     turned his weapons toward the advancing gang, surprised and shocked
     by this amazing demonstration of handgun marksmanship.
     Possenti ordered the terrorists to put down their arms, which they
     did. He ordered them to put out fires that they had started, which
     they did.
     He ordered them to return the property that they had taken from the
     villagers, which they did.
     He then ordered the whole lot of them out of town at gunpoint. They
     left, never to return.
     The Isolans then accompanied Possenti back to his monastery in
     triumphant procession, naming him the Savior of Isola."

   This was not the only time that Possenti drew a weapon. On one
   occasion, the young seminarian was taking a walk when a young man came
   along, and began chatting and walking with Possenti. The conversation
   was friendly, until they came near a deserted shack, and the stranger
   tried to lure Possenti inside for a homosexual encounter-âa triple sin
   in Possenti's eyes, since the sex would be non-marital, homosexual,
   and a flagrant violation of the seminarianâs vow of celibacy.
   Apparently afraid that the stranger might attempt to rape him,
   Possenti drew his hunting knife, which he always carried when walking
   in the woods, and yelled, "You fiend! If you try to touch me, I'll
   stick you through." The stranger fled.
   Possenti died on February 27, 1862, at the age of 24.
   Possenti was declared a saint in 1908. Today, there is an
   international Catholic lay movement called the [1]Saint Gabriel
   Possenti Society. The Possenti Society, which has been approved by
   Catholic authorities, seeks to have Possenti declared the patron saint
   of handgunners. Although the Society has a Catholic orientation, it
   includes non-Catholic members.
   Should the Vatican eventually grant the petition, St. Gabriel Possenti
   would join a long line of Catholic saints who are associated with
   arms, freedom, the military, or crime-fighting.
   These are saints for ammunition magazines (Barbara), ammunition
   workers (Elmo), anti-Communism (Joseph), archers (Sebastian), armies
   (Maurice), armories (Lawrence), armorers (Barbara, Dunstan, George,
   Lawrence, and Sebastian), arms dealers (Adrian of Nicomedia),
   arrowsmiths (Sebastian), artillery gunners (Barbara), battle (Michael
   the archangel), against battle (Florian), against burglaries (Leonard
   of Noblac), cavalry (Martin of Tours), Crusaders (Charles the Good,
   King Louis IX of France), fortifications (Barbara), freedom (Holy
   Infant Jesus of Prague), hunters (Hubert), hunting (Eustachius, Hubert
   of Liege), infantry (Martin of Tours), knights (Gengulphus, George,
   James the Greater, Julian the Hospitaller, Michael the Archangel),
   military chaplains (John of Capistrano), paratroopers (Michael the
   Archangel), quartermasters (Martin of Tours), security forces (Michael
   the Archangel), swordsmiths (Maurice), United States Army Special
   Forces (Philip Neri), and the Womenâs Army Corps a/k/a WACs
   (Genevieve, Joan of Arc). There are also a large number of saints for
   the armies or navies of particular nations.
   References: Clifford Stevens, The One Year Book of Saints (Huntington,
   Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor Publishing Div., 1989)(source of the 1st
   block quote).
   John Michael Snyder, Gun Saint (Arlington, Vir.: Tellum Pr.,
   2003)(source of the 2d block quote). Snyder is the founder of the
   Possenti Society, and a long-time lobbyist for the [2]Citizens
   Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
   The list of saints is from [3]Patron Saints Index (part of Catholic
   Community Forum), and Snyder, pp. 16-18.
   Passionist Order [4]website, including a biography of Possenti which
   focuses on his intense spiritual development and devotion to Mary.
   (BTW, another Passionist Saint is Maria Goretti, about whom I've
   written [5]previously. Hungarian version of Goretti article is
   [6]here.)
   Miscellany: On hearing this story, I have always felt sorry for the
   lizard, which was, after all, completely innocent. Presumably though,
   it was better for one innocent lizard to die so that many innocent
   people not be raped, robbed, and assaulted. Symbolically, the lizard
   might be seen as a miniature dragon, meaning that Possenti was
   symbolically slaying evil. (Snyder, p. 96).
   Most Rev. Custodio Alvim Pereira, Archbishop Emeritus of Lorenzo
   Marques, Mozambique, Vice President of the Chapter of St. Peter's
   Basilica, Vatican City, has accepted two St. Gabriel Possenti Society
   Medallions, which were blessed at the Society's official luncheon in
   Rome. Pope John Paul II accepted a St. Gabriel Possenti Society gold
   medallion with an official Vatican letter of acceptance and thanks,
   signed March 12, 2001 by Monsignor Pedro Lopez Quintana, Assessor of
   the Vatican Secretariat of State.
   I am a member of the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, from which I have
   received a silver engraved Medallion of Honor.

References

   1. http://www.possentisociety.com/
   2. http://www.ccrkba.org/
   3. http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/patron00.htm
   4. http://www.passiochristi.org/Pxi2/index_e.htm
   5. http://davekopel.com/Religion/Maria-Goretti.htm
   6. http://davekopel.com/Languages/Maria-Goeriti-Magyar.htm