Contact: John Snyder, St. Gabriel Possenti Society, 202-239-8085

ARLINGTON, Va., Feb. 25 /Christian Newswire/ -- "The St. Gabriel Possenti Society, Inc. commemorates our patron's feast day on February 27," John M. Snyder, the society's founder/president, noted today.

"The special day is most significant this year since it now is 150 years since 1860," added Snyder. "That was the year St. Gabriel Possenti used handguns to rescue residents of Isola del Gran Sasso, Italy from a gang of marauders.

"By his action, our patron demonstrated that handguns may be used by good people to protect the innocent from violent criminal perpetrators. This is an important lesson to ponder today as people in the United States and throughout the world face perennial threats of murderous violence from terrorists."

In a video, Snyder detailed St. Gabriel Possenti's active confrontation of the marauders in 1860. www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXNE2jBaL9o

St. Gabriel Possenti, a Catholic seminarian, died of natural causes in 1862. Pope Benedict XV canonized him in 1920. The Society seeks his official Vatican designation as Patron of Handgunners.

Snyder is the author of a Possenti biography, Gun Saint, available from the publisher, Telum Associates, LLC, and from Amazon.com.