Photo of Saint Gabriel - https://www.pinterest.com/pin/331859066273340749/
Saint Gabriel was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, on August 26th, 1929. When his father died at the age of two, his family named him Vasiko in his honor. He became a follower of Christ at a very young age, hearing one of his neighbors proclaim, “You have crucified me like Christ.” he began to wonder what those words meant.
Vasiko then saved enough money to buy a copy of the gospel and became well-read in it even at a young age. The persecution of Christians by the communists was fierce at the time; Vasiko would dig through dumpsters searching for icons people threw away and preserving them. He had a vision of God and had a demonic attack against him in his childhood that showed him his purpose in life. When recalling the vision, he said, “Upon witnessing the Demon, my faith in Christ grew stronger, and I declared – if the Demon exists, then God exists in even greater measure. Moreover, I came to appreciate the beauty of human beings."
Unfortunately, his mother did not want him to lead a religious life, though she was surprised by his passion for Christianity. She had not said much until she began to see the passion that would take hold in his heart; she told him to refuse that life and to live like everyone else. So Vasiko left his mother’s house and went to a monastery, where he would stay for a short while. He would then find himself in the care of a fortune teller named Margo. When Margo had fallen ill, Vasiko offered to see that the people were coming to her, and she agreed. God granted him the gift of prophecy, and he would tell the visitors about their lives and the sins they committed. He urged them to go to church and confess, believing what people were saying about Vasiko; Margo turned away from fortune-telling and turned to Christ.
In 1949, Vasiko was conscripted for military service, and although the military was strict, he kept the fast and visited church frequently. When his service had ended, the Soviets called Vasiko in for an examination, and they asked him about his childhood visions. The doctors would diagnose him as insane for believing in angels and demons, so he would no longer be legally allowed to work. Belief in the supernatural was a threat to the secular communist system, so they made sure he could not be a problem.
Vasiko would live in solitude, visiting the monastery and eventually taking the vow and choosing to be named Gabriel. Saint Gabriel lived boldly for Christ; during a Communist demonstration where a twelve-meter portrait of Lenin was hung over the supreme council of the Georgian SSR, he set fire to the portrait. While the portrait burned, he preached Christ to the crowd, proclaiming that the glory is for him.
Portrait of Saint Gabriel burning Lenin - https://whispersofanimmortalist.blogspot.com/
The authorities grabbed the monk, beating him almost to death. He was later taken to the authorities, where he was held and tortured, and they planned on sentencing him to death. Yet they gave him a way out if he confessed to an alleged conspiracy by the Georgian church against the Soviets; Saint Gabriel refused, doubling down on what he said about Lenin. The news of this spread to the Western countries, so the Kremlin decided to keep him in an asylum forever.
Yet God had a plan for the saint, and he would be freed from the asylum with the help of Georgian academic A. Zurabashvili. Despite being free, Saint Gabriel would still come into conflict with the authorities by continuing the work of the Lord by building churches. In order to please the Soviets and to try and prevent more persecution, the hierarchs suspended him from the priesthood and did not allow him to attend the services.
At the lowest point of his life without the church, Saint Gabriel would become what many call a “fool for Christ.” If they claimed that he had a mental illness, then he would become what they thought of him. Saint Gabriel roamed the streets as an outcast, preaching Jesus loudly. He would drink and pretend to be drunk; he lived in a hen house and went barefoot in the winter. Despite the eccentric personality he portrayed, everyone around him could feel the love and wisdom radiating from him.
Saint Gabriel would later rejoin the church, where he would lead pilgrimages through many of the churches and monasteries destroyed by the Communists. In the final years of his life, he grew very ill and was bedridden by a broken leg. He passed away on November 2nd, 1995, in peace and with a smile on his face.
Despite all the hardships and persecution, Saint Gabriel stayed faithful to Christ. His love showed to everyone around him, and he never compromised his values, even in the face of unspeakable evil or when he was excommunicated from the church he loved. Persecution is a genuine reality for many Christians, and Saint Gabriel serves as a great example of standing boldly in the faith.
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