GABRIEL
330
GABRIEL
Boue on the Ogowai in the Fan country. More than
two hundred missionaries have died in the Gaboon
territory and a hundred continue the work. They
are divided into priests, brothers, both lay and teach-
ing, and nuns. There are 47 priests; native priests
and seminarians, native brothers and sisters, and up-
wards of a hundred catechists aid in the work of
evangelization, and the number of Catholics is more
than 12,000. The moral gain is slow but evident;
progress is always being made. There have been
great obstacles to the spread of the Gospel, obstacles
not always due to the barbarism, fetichism, slavery,
and cannibalism of the pagan tribes.
M. Briault.
Gabriel, i){<^"l3J, "Fortitudo Dei", one of the three archangels mentioned in the Bible. Only four ap- pearances of Galiriel are recorded: (a) In Dan., viii, he explains the vision of the horned ram as portend- ing the destruction of the Persian Empire by the Macedonian Ale.xander the Great, after whose death
The Archangel Gabriel
Giovanni Barbieri (Guercino), Palazzo Colonna, Rome
the kingdom will be divided up among his generals, from one of whom will spring Antiochus Epiphanes. (b) In chapter ix, after Daniel had prayed for Israel,
we read that " the man Gabriel flying swiftly
touched me ' ' and he communicated to him the mysteri- ous prophecy of the " seventy weeks ' ' of years which should elapse before the coming of Christ. In chapter X, it is not clear whether the angel is Gabriel or not, but at any rate we may apply to him the marvellous de- scription in verses 5 and 6. (c) In N. T. he foretells to Zachary the birth of the Precursor, and (d) to Mary that of the Saviour. Thus he is throughout the angel of the Incarnation and of Consolation, and so in Chris- tian tradition Gabriel is ever the angel of mercy while Michael is rather the angel of judgment. At the same time, even in the Bible, Gabriel is, in accordance with his name, the angel of the Power of God, and it is worth while noting the frequency with which such words as "great", "might", "power", and "strength" occur in the passages referred to above. The Jews indeed seem to have dwelt particularly upon this feature in Gabriel's character, and he Ls regarded by them as the angel of judgment, while Michael is called the angel of mercy. Thus they attribute to Gabriel the destruction of Sodom and of the ho,st of Sennacherib, though they also regard him as the angel who buried Moses, and as the man deputed to mark
the figure Tau on the foreheads of the elect (Ezech.,
4). In later Jewish literature the names of angels
were considered to have a peculiar efficacy, and the
British Museum possesses some magic bowls in-
scribed with Hebrew, Aramaic, and Syriac incanta-
tions in which the names of Michael, Raphael, and
Gabriel occur. These bowls were found at Hillah, the
site of Babylon, and constitute an interesting relic of
the Jewish captivity. In apocryphal Christian litera-
ture the same names occur, cf. Enoch, ix, and the
ApocaljTise of the Blessed Virgin.
As remarked above, Gabriel is mentioned only twice in the New Testament, but it is not unreasona- ble to suppose with Christian tradition that it is he who appeared to St. Joseph and to the shepherds, and also that it was he who "strengthened" Our Lord in the garden (cf. the Hymn for Lauds on 24 March). Gabriel is generally termed only an archangel, but the expression used by St. Raphael, " I am the angel Ra- phael, one of the seven, who stand before the Lord" (Tob., xii, 15) and St. CJabriel's own words, " I am Ga- briel, who stand before God " (Luke, i, 19), have led some to think that these angels must belong to the liighest rank; but this is generally explained as refer- ring to their rank as the highest of tJod's messengers, and not as placing them among the Seraphim and Cherubim (cf. St. Thomas, I, Q. cxii, a. 3; III, Q. xxx, a. 2, ad 4uni).
In addition to the literature under Angel and in the bibli- cal dictionaries, see Pusey, The Prophet Daniel (London, 1S6S); Edersheim, Jesiis the Messiah (London and New York, 1890). .\ppend. XIII: H. Crosby, Miehael and Gabriel in Homiletic Reriew (1890), XIX, 160-62; Bardenhewer, Maria-Verkiln- digung in Bihl. Studien, X, 496 sqq.
Hugh Pope.
Gabriel, Brotheus op Saint. — The Congregation of the Brothers of Christian Instruction of St. Gabriel was originally founded by Blessed Louis Grignon de Montfort in 1705, but it did not spread much till it was amalgamated with one founded in 18.35 by Mon- signor Deshayes, Vicar-General of Rennes. It took the anomalous title of the Brothers of St. Gabriel; because the first chapel of the congregation was dedicated to St. Gabriel; this was at Boulogne. The object of the congregation is the Christian education of the young and also of the blind, the deaf, dumb, and the care and education of orphans. The members take no vows, but after making a novitiate of three years they promise to obey the superior and to devote themselves to the works of their institute; they are generally men of sufficient means to support them- selves. They are governed by a superior elected by the votes of the whole community for three years: he is assisted b\' four counsellors elected in the same way. The congregation in 1851 had as many as ninety-one houses mostly in France and in the Diocese of PVank- fort in Germany. Later it had 122 schools in France besides two for the blind and eight for deaf-mutes. The French mother-house was at St. Laurent-sur- Sevrein Vend(5e: in 1880 it had 790 members. Recent statistics give the congregation 170 schools and col- leges, eight asylums for the deaf and dumb, three for the blind, and several homes for orphans. The novi- tiate for Canada is at Sault-au-Rccollet near Mon- treal. The brothers have a college at Montreal and four schools in the archdiocese, besides three schools in the Diocese of Three Rivers and one at St. Ours in the Diocese of St. Hyacinth.
Heimbtjcher_ in Kirchenlex.; Steele, Monasteries of Great Britain; Catholic Directory; Canada Ecclesiastique.
Francesca M. Steele.
Gabriel Bell. See Bells.
Gabriel Biel. See Biel.
Gabriel Possenti, Blessed, Passionist student; renowned for sanctity and miracles; b. at Assisi, 1 March, 1838; d. 27 February, 1862, at Isola di Gran Sasso, Province of Abruzzo, Italy; son of Sante Pos-
