Feast day: February 27
Gabriel Possenti of Italy was born in 1838 and died in 1862 at only 24 years of age. A member of the Congregation of the Passion, he was preparing for ordination as a priest when he was struck with tuberculosis.
He was canonized incredibly soon after his death, comparatively, in 1920 and declared by Pope Benedict XV to be the patron of youth. He is also the patron of students, seminarians, novices, and clergy. “His devoted life, full of cheerful humility, was ordinary and uneventful.” As a student and a seminarian, he was never in the public eye. He lived his ordinary live in the best way he possible could. So, he can be seen as the saint for all of us, a saint for everyday life. (From Saints Passionate and Peculiar [Saint Mary’s Press])
(Image by Philippe Plet, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons)