It was at the Passionists’ beachfront retreat house that I first learned of St. Gabriel Possenti. I became enamored with his story — a young man who died in 1862 at the age of 24 of tuberculosis.

Officially, Possenti is St. Gabriel of the Sorrowful Mother and, as designated by Pope Benedict XV, the patron saint of Catholic youth. According to the Rev. Arthur Carrillo, ...

It wasn't until I began promoting St. Gabriel Possenti as a Patron of Handgunners in the late 1980s that anti-gun bigots began a belated attempt to attack the account of the lizard incident.