Mother Gabrielle Marie Breaux

Mother Superior and foundress of the Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will, Mother Gabrielle Marie began her religious life as a Poor Clare of Perpetual Adoration in the U.S. For thirty-three years, she worked under the guidance of the late Abbess Mother Angelica, foundress of EWTN. She served as Novice Mistress for sixteen years and as a Vicar for nine years. During that time, she fell in love with the Divine Will writings of the Servant of God, Luisa Piccarreta, after reading through one of the volumes of the Divine Will writings given to her by one of the postulants in the novitiate.

In 2009, Mother Gabrielle Marie received a sabbatical during which time she made a retreat at a Benedictine monastery with her friend and spiritual director, Fr. Jacques Daley, OSB. While on retreat, they felt God placed a call on their hearts to found a new monastic community in Italy dedicated to Eucharistic Adoration and Luisa Piccarreta’s writings from the Book of Heaven on how to live in God’s Most Holy and Divine Will. In 2011, this became a reality when Msgr. Luigi Negri accepted the Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will in the Diocese of San Marino-Montefeltro, Italy. The Benedictine Monks followed a few years later under Bishop Andrea Turazzi. In 2016, the family was completed when their bishop gave permission to found the Third Order of Benedictine Oblates of Divine Will. In October of 2023, Mother Gabrielle Marie moved to Maryville, TN with four other Sisters in order to open another house of the Benedictine Daughters of Divine Will in the United States. At the moment, they are building a monastery in Maryville, TN through a generous benefactor, which will be able to house fourteen Sisters.