Bl. Gabriel of Ferrara

  Posted on January 13, 2019  by admin  No comments

Born: c.1543 in Milan, Italy as Camillo

Died: 15 January 1627 in Vienna, Austria of natural causes, relics enshrined in the church of the Brothers of Mercy on Taborstrasse in Vienna

Born to the nobility, the Count of Ferrara, Italy. Trained as a surgeon, he practiced medicine in Milan, Italy and served as personal physician to the Duke of Urbino, Italy. He joined the Brothers of Mercy, a hospital order, in 1591, taking the name Gabriel and making his vows in 1595. Wrote the Nuova Selva di Cirurgia in 1596, which became a standard for teaching surgery in Italian and German. Transferred to a Brothers monastery and hospital on Tiber Island in Rome, Italy in 1598, he became prior of the house in 1599. Provincial of his Order in 1602, and worked in its general administration. Vicar-General of the Brothers of Mercy in the German provinces from 1605 to 1627, he was entrusted with founding houses and hospitals throughout the region. After successfully treating King Sigismund III of Poland in 1608, in 1609 he founded a hospital in Kraków, Poland, and then later elsewhere in Poland, Lithuania and Belarus. After successfully treating Emperor Matthias of Austria, he founded a hospital in Taborstrasse in Vienna, Austria in 1614. After successfully treating Archduke Ernst of Styria, saving his arm from amputation, he founded a hospital in Graz, Austria in 1615. Brother Gabriel served as a field surgeon in the Thirty Years War, and worked with imperial troops at the battle at Jasna Gora near Prague in 1620; this led to his leadership of a hospital in Prague in 1621.

Helped found a hospital in Neuburg an der Donau in modern Germany in 1622. Archduke Ernst’s brother, the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II, supported Gabriel, and in 1624 provided support to the Brothers of Mercy in Austria. Founded the hospital in Trieste, Italy in 1625. At his death, he left behind a network of houses bringing the Brothers to piety, and hospitals caring for the poor.