Mtskheta:
the ancient capital of Georgia. This small town attracts tourists and pilgrims
– and not without reason. The famous Djvari, Zedazeni, Svetitskhoveli, and
Samtavro monasteries are here. It is to Samtavro Women’s Monastery that a
torrent of suffering people flows in a continuous stream. They come to the
grave of Starets Gabriel (Urgebadze), who was
glorified in the choir of saints of the Georgian Church on December 20, 2012.
This occurred an unbelievably short time after his repose—17 years later.
In 2006, the Mount Athos Publishing House
("Svyataya Gora") published a beautiful book entitled “The Elder’s
Diadem.” You
don’t read this book, you devour it—it’s impossible to tear yourself away from
it. The starets was called “the great love of the twentieth century.” He often
wore a placard around his neck that said, “A man without love is like a pitcher
without a bottom.”
A Man
Full of Love
Aliis inserviendo consumor.
(I am consumed in serving others.)
Latin proverb
The holy confessor
Gabriel (Urgebadze) was born on August 26, 1929. His name in the world
was Goderdzi. For a long time, his mother was against her son’s aspiration to
monasticism, but towards the end of her life she reconciled herself with his
choice, and subsequently she herself took the veil. She also was buried at
Samtavro Monastery.
Goderdzi came to believe in God while he was
still a child. One time the neighbors were fighting, and one of them said, “You
have crucified me like Christ.” The boy began to wonder what “crucified” meant,
and Who Christ was. The adults sent the child off to the church, where the
church warden advised him to read the Gospel. He saved up his money, bought a
Gospel, and in a few years had learned the text practically by heart.
A longing for monasticism arose in him in his
youth. Later, the elder would say, “There is no greater heroism than
monasticism.” And he proved this by his whole life.
He took monastic vows when he was 26, receiving
the name of Gabriel, after St. Gabriel of Mt. Athos, the starets who
had walked through the water and brought to shore the Iveron Icon of the Mother
of God, which had floated to Athos over the sea. Fr. Gabriel especially revered
the wonderworking copy of the Iveron Icon kept at Samtavro Monastery.
Fr. Gabriel built a church with several cupolas
in the courtyard of his home on Tetri Tskaro Street in Tbilisi. He erected it
with his own hands and finished around 1962. Fr. Gabriel found the icons for
this church at the town dumps, where in those atheistic times people brought
and threw out, along with the trash, a large number of sacred objects.
Sometimes he wandered around the dumps days on end. He had a small studio where
he cleaned the icons and gave them frames and settings of various materials.
The walls of his church were covered with icons. He even framed photographs and
pictures of icons from secular magazines.
On May 1, 1965, during a demonstration,
Hieromonk Gabriel burned a 12-meter portrait of Lenin which hung on the
building which housed the Supreme Council of the Georgian SSR, and he began to
preach about Christ to the people who were gathered there. He was severely
beaten for this and put into a solitary confinement cell at the Georgian KGB.
At the interrogation Fr. Gabriel said that he did it because “it is forbidden
to treat a man like God. The Crucifixion of Christ ought to hang where the
portrait of Lenin was. And you need to write, “Glory to the Lord Jesus Christ.”
In August 1965 Fr. Gabriel was put into a psychiatric hospital for an
examination. There he was diagnosed as insane: “A psychopathic individual who
believes in God and angels.” They gave him a “white ticket.” But after that even more
horrible things happened to him. In order to please the authorities, the
hierarchs of the Church did not allow him to come into the church and did not
let him into the services—they drove him away. Batiushka did not have the possibility of
receiving Holy Communion, which he wanted with all his heart. He could go
several days without food, could go a long time without sleep, but he could not
live without the Church. And the starets often cried out of
powerlessness, opening his soul to his sisters.
Fr. Gabriel settled in Samtavro in the 1980’s,
and in the latter years he lived in a round tower. For a while, the nuns
wondered at Batiushka’s eccentricities, not seeing in them as yet any special
podvig. At first it seemed strange to them that for some time he lived in the
hen house, where there were large chinks in the walls, and that in the winter
he went barefoot…. The elder’s behavior didn’t fit into any kind of framework
and didn’t correspond to any human conceptions. But later they began to feel
that extraordinary love radiated from him: he loved everyone. The starets would
often shout at the sisters, demand obedience of them, make them do something,
or make them eat from dirty plates. But it was impossible to take offense at
him—in his eyes shone tender love.
Before Mother Theodora became Abbess, Fr.
Gabriel brought her with him to Tbilisi and made her go begging. The two of
them would beg for alms, but then the elder would distribute everything to the
poor. If they took a taxi back, he might shout at the taxi driver and give him
no money at all, or he might pay many times more than he owed.
During Holy Week the sound of continuous weeping
could be heard coming from his cell. While he was praying, some people saw him
rise 15–20 inches off the ground and saw light coming from him. The faithful
revered Fr. Gabriel as a great ascetic and they would come to him as to a
living saint. When the starets would receive a large number of guests, he would
always see to it that “the professor”—that is what he call red wine—was on the
table. He would generously treat his guests, while he himself ate almost
nothing. Father used to say that you have to be nourished with Divine love, and
not just on food.
Otar Nikolaishvili was Batiushka's spiritual
child and often spent time in his cell. Once Fr. Gabriel unexpectedly said to
him that they had to go right then and there to the Monastery of St. Anthony
Martkopsky—that it was urgent. Otar didn't know what to say: his car wasn't
working right, he was having problems with it. Batiushka insisted, and somehow
they started out. Then the road began to go up a mountain, and the automobile
began to cough and sputter, but the starets suddenly said, "Don't worry,
son—St. Anthony Martkopsky himself is sitting in the back seat—but don't you
turn around." And the car suddenly tore off ahead so fast that the driver
had to step on the brakes. As soon as they drove in through the monastery
gates, the engine cut out on the spot. Just at that time, several armed people
came in there looking for trouble. The starets stepped out in front and said,
"Shoot me." This embarrassed and sobered the bandits, and they left
the monastery.
According to the elder's will, his body was wrapped
in a mat and given over to the earth in the place where St. Nina had labored.
Fr. Gabriel died on November 2, 1995 of edema. He suffered terribly from the
pains, but never showed it.
A countless number of healings began to occur at
his grave after his death. All Georgia deeply venerates the elder.
The Samtavro-Transfiguration Church and the
Monastery of St. Nina have a website called Starets Gabriel—Confessor of
Christ, which is dedicated to Archimandrite Gabriel. Many well-known people
have left their comments about him; among them are:
Mother Superior Georgia of the Gorny Convent in
Jerusalem: “You have a true starets. You are in Paradise…” and
Schema-Archimandrite Vitaly (Sidorenko): “Monk
Gabriel is the greatest monk.”
From the Sayings of the Elder
Whoever learns to love will be happy.
Only do not think that love is an inborn talent. One can learn love,
and we must.
Without sacrifice for the sake of the Lord and
of our neighbor nothing will come of the spiritual life. You won’t learn
to love without sacrifice.
God will not accept empty words. God loves
deeds. Good deeds are what love is.
Live so that not only God would love you,
but also so that people would love you—there is no greater thing than this.
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