Francesco Possenti was born in Assisi, Italy and joined the Passionist Congregation, a monastery devoted to reverence of the Passion of Christ (during which time he took the name Gabriel). A member of a privileged family, the young saint-to-be did not demonstrate any particular holiness, but a severe illness led him to promise his future to God in exchange for health. He just may not have specified how long the health should last, for only six years after entering the novitiate and before taking his final vows, Gabriel succumbed to tuberculosis at the age of twenty-four. Pope Benedict XV declared him a saint in 1920.
