On February 27, Catholic and other religionists commemorate the Feast Day of St. Gabriel Possenti, an Italian seminarian who died 145 years ago on this date in Isola del Gran Sasso.Source.
Today, Isola is about a two or three hour automobile drive east of Rome.
In 1860, Possenti rescued villagers in Isola from a terrorizing gang of renegade soldiers with a striking one-shot demonstration of handgun marksmanship.
The renegades had separated from the main body of Garibaldi's army following the battle of Pesaro.
The 20 or so renegades ransacked and pillaged Isola.
At the time, Possenti was a seminarian in a Passionist monastery adjacent to Isola. Prior to entering the Passionist religious order, he had become a pistol, rifle and shotgun marksman. When the renegades were doing their dirty work in Isola, Possenti entered the center of the village in an attempt to help out the terrorized townspeople.
Possenti wrested a handgun from the holster of a soldier attempting rape and rescued the soldier's intended young female victim. He grabbed a second pistol from one of that soldier's associates.
The rest of the renegade gang approached Possenti, thinking they could make short shrift of this religious figure.
At that point, a lizard ran across the road. Possenti fired one shot at it, killing it. He then pointed the two handguns at the gang and let them know in no uncertain terms that he meant business. He ordered the now-terrified cutthroats to disarm, which they did, and forced them to put out the fires they had started and to return the property they had stolen. Then, he marched the whole lot of them out of town. The grateful townspeople accompanied Possenti back to his monastery in triumphal procession, calling him, "Savior of Isola!"
Possenti died two years later of consumption. Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920.
For more information, visit the St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc.
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