August 15, 2005
St. Gabriel Possenti
…the story of the Patron Saint of Handgunners
JJ says,
In 1860, a band of soldiers from the army of 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. One of the soldiers was dragging off a young woman he intended to rape 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”.
Filed under: Gun Rights, Weapons
Very cool story.
Makes you wanna go to Iraq and show your stuff. But I don’t know if it would work the same way…
Im not Catholic but I thought it was pretty cool that they have a Patron Saint for guns. Interesting story as well.
I also am not Catholic but I think that’s really cool, I wonder if that have a neat little symbol thing on a chain for him like they do with the other patron saints.
That is in AWESOME story!
Check this out:
http://www.gunsaint.com/medallion.asp
In the Bible Jesus said: “Be as sly as serpents but innocent as doves.” That can be said of this story of Saint Gabriele Possenti. He slyly stole two of the pistols of the group of marauders, but he did this with the “innocence of a monk. Catholic auther Ann Ball describes the youthful Gabriele Possenti as quite the “cavalier” — he was an excellent marksman and horseman. He was engaged to two young ladies at the same time. Then he felt he had a calling to dedicate his life to God. Ann Ball’s book “Modern Saints” also has this story of Gabriele Possenti, but I don’t recall if it is in Volume one or Volume two…