“Today there are many men who want to attend to their sanctification

in a stable life juridically organized and guided by obedience,

but without joining the traditional Institutes,

that is, without leaving the environment of their life and apostolate”.
UPS III, 108

Foreword. One hundred years ago, on 29 June 1907, our Founder was ordained priest.  After entering the seminary of Alba and “feeling obliged to prepare himself “, the young student began to observe with greater attention as model of his life and priesthood his teacher in philosophy, the Canon Francesco Chiesa (1874-1946), but making sure at the same time to know better the social environment wherein he lived by studying in depth the historical and social sciences and by more diligent application to the study of  theology.

“The great teachings of the encyclicals of Leo XIII”  – Fr. Alberione will write in 1953 – were interpreted for the seminarians by Francesco Chiesa, especially those “regarding social questions and the freedom of the Church” (AD 19). They will be the contents that will inspire the future priest and charismatic founder and that will ripen in him the conviction of staying always with the Church well planted in the world.

After ordination he became interested very quickly in the movement of the Catholic laity,   having in mind for the launching of the future Pauline Family a lay Catholic organization. Such a project will then become reality through the establishment of the Pauline Cooperators (1917). It must be said that, as for some preceding foundations, also for the start of the Pauline Institutes of consecrated secular life, he is spurred by a Church document: in this case by the Apostolic  Constitution Provida Mater Ecclesia, promulgated by Pius XII on 2 February 1947 which confirms  the possibility of living the consecrated life, besides that in a religious community, also in a completely secular environment.  

The foundation. On 25 January 1957 Fr. Alberione writes, tells his secretary Fr. Antonio Speciale to type and send to the various communities of the Pauline Family the following: “Fruit of the year dedicated to St. Paul: 25.1.1957 - 25.1.1958. To complete the Pauline Family and its apostolate we ask for two Secular Institutes, according to the Apostolic Constitution “Provida Mater Ecclesia”: one male and the other female. – We received a modest beginning; always in Jesus Christ, Way, Truth and Life”[1]. In 3 August Fr. Alberione receives Mr. Odo Nicoletti who he had already known in 1955 and to whom he proposes that he work, in civilian clothes, with the Pauline priest Fr. Natale Sabarino, assigned in book marketing; at lunchtime he invites him close to him to follow up their talk begun in the morning. With Nicoletti he will have many talks: one respectively in September, October, November; three in December.

In an annotation that dates back to the end of 1957, Fr. Alberione tells Mary, Mother, Teacher and Queen of the Apostles, about his commitment to start three Institutes to complete the Pauline Family: “I, your unworthy son,  accept with my heart the will of your Jesus: to complete the Pauline Family. I shall start the three Institutes: “Jesus Priest”, “Mary of the Annunciation”, “Saint Gabriel the Archangel”[2].

In January 1958 the Founder meets with Mr. Odo Nicoletti for well eight times. In 16 February  he  confides to him that he will be the first to be part of a male Secular Institute that Providence is preparing in the Pauline Family. In May he holds three talks with him; then he will receive him in July and August.

On 25 May 1958 Fr. Antonio Speciale from the personal notebook of Fr. Alberione copies  in his Diary the following prayer that he (Fr. Alberione) wrote four days before while at Alba:  

“To Mary M T Q (Mother, Teacher and Queen) I, your unworthy son, surrender to the holy will of the Divine Master. But I have absolute need of these graces: faith as needed, purity of intentions, vocations, the certainty to do in everything only your will, the necessary spiritual and material graces, the Cooperators. = Two Secular Institutes. Do you, Mary, do you, Jesus, sign and guarantee this bill? I count only on you. I’m asking a thousand for one  = Use me like a broom  – In penance for my sins. All for Jesus Christ, Way, Truth and Life  – Glory to God and peace to men. That all generations proclaim you and sing you blessed.

Jesus Christ mediator before the Father; Mary mediatrix before Jesus Christ”. 

On 8 September 1958 a course of Spiritual Exercises starts in the House of Writers at Albano for some young men. It is conducted by Fr. Alberione and by the Paulines Fr. Evangelista Robaldo and Fr. Natale Sabarino, who preach. It ends in 12 September with the entrance into the novitiate of the following: Antonio C., Francesco L., Ezio M., Odo Nicoletti, Luigi P., Daniele Pennati, Walter T. The date 12 September 1958 is considered by the Gabrielites as the date of the foundation of the Institute “Saint Gabriel the Archangel”. Emitting their vows on 11 August 1960 will be: Francesco L., Odo Nicoletti, Daniele Pennati, Luigi P., Florindo A., Germano F. The last two joined the first ones at the start of the second year of novitiate.  

Their identity. In an article that appeared in San Paolo in April 1958 we find this exact reference of the Founder: “The Institute of Saint Gabriel takes its name from Saint Gabriel the Archangel because it wants to form and launch its members to an apostolic life of penetration, using among other means, the cinema, television, and radio that are put under the patronage of Saint Gabriel the Archangel by His Holiness Pius XII through his encyclical on cinema, radio and television Miranda prorsus” (San Paolo, April 1958). In reality, it was not in this encyclical letter that the Pope had declared the Archangel Gabriel as the “patron of telecommunications and of their employed and managers”, but in the “special brief” Quoniam omne datum (cfr. I, 2).

If we have to gather the thought of the Founder about the Institutes Aggregated to the Society of St. Paul, we would have in synthesis this presentation taken from various oral and written interventions attributed to him:  

“You will be lay people, without any distinctive religious sign; you will live with your family,  operate in schools, offices, factories and will carry out your testimony from the inside of these institutions, but you will be consecrated […]. You will be “salt” and “leaven” in the contemporary world […]. You will be consecrated to God and dedicated to the apostolate in the world and with the means of the world […], so that to all men may be announced Christ who answers all the expectations of the human spirit and even surpasses them: Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life […]. The Society of St. Paul that is like a mother to the other Institutes, must give them the Pauline spirit […]. The warmth and the life-giving light must descend from the Pauline priests who have here a great and delicate ministry […]. To give Jesus Christ to the world, in his totality, as He defined himself: “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life”. 

Informazione: http://www.alberione.org/ita/fondazion_gab_ita.htm