Happy Feast day, handgunners and marksmen...

[CS1983]

St. Gabriel, of Our Lady of Sorrows....

Today is the feast of St. Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows, Gabriel Possenti, according to the calendar of the Novus Ordo. In the older, traditional Missal we find that 28 February was given to him. His date is most properly 27 February since that is the day he died and was born into heaven in 1862.
....

In 1860, soldiers from Garibaldi entered the mountain village of Isola, Italy. They began to burn and pillage the town, terrorizing its inhabitants.

Possenti, with his seminary rector’s permission, walked into the center of town, unarmed, to face the terrorists. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape when he saw Possenti and made a snickering remark about such a young monk being all alone.


Possenti quickly grabbed the soldier’s revolver from his belt and ordered the marauder to release the woman. The startled soldier complied, as Possenti grabbed the revolver of another soldier who came by. Hearing the commotion, the rest of the soldiers came running in Possenti’s direction, determined to overcome the rebellious monk.


At that moment a small lizard ran across the road between Possenti and the soldiers. When the lizard briefly paused, Possenti took careful aim and struck the lizard with one shot. Turning his two handguns on the approaching soldiers, Possenti commanded them to drop their weapons. Having seen his handiwork with a pistol, the soldiers complied. Possenti ordered them to put out the fires they had set, and upon finishing, marched the whole lot out of town, ordering them never to return. The grateful townspeople escorted Possenti in triumphant procession back to the seminary, thereafter referring to him as “the Savior of Isola”.

Thus, some consider him to be the patron of shooters and handgun users. For good reason. Thus endeth the lesson.

Read more about this young saint:

http://wdtprs.com/blog/2014/02/st-ga...Really+Say%3F)

[Skip]

Things wrong with this story...

No one made an example of except lizard who didn't do nuthin'.
Soldiers let go, to return and rape/pillage later? Strategic fail!
Captured revolvers not on display for anyone who does try later.


Sounds like a badass though.

[BushMasterBoy]

I like the story of William Tell better. Shoot an apple off your sons head with a crossbow. I'm sure GEICO is appalled of this story.

[JohnnyDrama]

Thanks CavScout. As I have spent a lot of time in places heavily influenced by Catholicism I find stories like these very interesting.

Do you or anyone else out there know if it would be blasphemous to put his likeness on a firearm?

[CS1983]

It would be fine so long as your intention was good. The act itself isn’t evil. There’s an historical precedent for inscribing Bible verses, Religious monograms, etc. on shields and weapons.

[Gman]

That poor lizard. St. Francis of Assisi would not be happy. ;-)

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

[CS1983]

That poor lizard. St. Francis of Assisi would not be happy. ;-)

Sent from my SM-T700 using Tapatalk

Oddly, a lot of the modern hagiography surrounding St. Francis of Assisi is false and the result of the Romantic era and later the awful 1960's and 70's . He was by no means a hippie, as is so often portrayed.

I recently read a biography of St. Francis by Fr. Augustine Thompson, O.P., where he takes a pretty hard scholarly look at St. Francis. It was a fascinating look at him. Some interesting conclusions, such as his initial conversion might have been brought on by his earlier experience in the regional wars in Italy. For example, his problem with eating meat was not some PETA-like "love" of animals, but rather that it was indicative of someone who had not embraced poverty for the sake of the Gospel. However, he did not abstain if it was offered. He was also a poor leader. He really just wanted to be a vagabond penitent and not be in a leadership position. Due to obedience to one of the higher prelates who assisted him early on, he reluctantly ceased missionary activity in order to stay with the brothers.

If you are interested, it's here: https://www.amazon.com/Francis-Assis...stine+thompson

As for the lizard, it served its purpose. Soldiers got the point. Animals were meant to serve man. I doubt St. Gabriel lost sleep over it.

[Great-Kazoo]

It would be fine so long as your intention was good. The act itself isn’t evil. There’s an historical precedent for inscribing Bible verses, Religious monograms, etc. on shields and weapons.

Like people putting those Crusade crosses on their guns? It's a symbol of ones belief, exercising their Religious Freedom.

[Gman]

Oddly, a lot of the modern hagiography surrounding St. Francis of Assisi is false and the result of the Romantic era and later the awful 1960's and 70's . He was by no means a hippie, as is so often portrayed.

It was a joke. People really need to stop expecting me to be serious.