Orthodox Christians celebrate the memory of St. Gabriel of Samtavro on October 20/November 2. No one but God knows how many people Elder Gabriel helped during his lifetime and how many miracles he has performed after his repose. Together with a fragrant icon of St. Gabriel, Nun Maria (Gluschenko), a nun of Holy Dormition Convent dependency in Kemerovo, carries a notebook of eyewitness testimonies of the multitude of miracles that occurred by the Elder’s prayers in Russia and Belarus. She says about St. Gabriel: “He is an apostle of love for our times, and we love him very much. He brings joy and warmth to all, and people are strengthened in faith.”
Taking advantage of the kind permission of Nun Maria, we offer a small part of the miracles of the fragrant icon of Elder Gabriel.
The fragrant icon of St. Gabriel (Urgebadze) with a piece of his mantia and burial board
I, Alexander Mansurov, am a parishioner of the Church of the Kazan Mother of God in Puchkovo (in Troitsk), and I would like to tell about an unusual occurrence in a house where St. Gabriel (Urgebadze) lived. This was in Tbilisi. I was in a group of pilgrims and was witness to how one of our children, Yegor, rocking in a chair left in the museum exhibition from the time of Elder Gabriel, broke the back legs of the chair, and went flying… into the cellar. He later told his grandfather, our parish priest Fr. Lev, that “someone” caught him and gently placed him on the cellar floor. The cellar itself was more than six feet deep. The boy wasn’t hurt. That’s what happened, somewhere around July 6 or 7, 2018.
8/1/2018
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I, Ekaterina Alexandrovna, venerated the icon of St. Gabriel (Urgebadze) in Kursk on February 25, 2018. I prayed a lot for the gift of a second child, and that same month I found out I was pregnant. The doctors had said that pregnancy was hardly possible for me for medical reasons. But by Batiushka’s prayers and the help of God, we are expecting a son… by the end of October—the day of the commemoration of St. Gabriel!!!
May the Lord save you for bringing this holy icon to us.
8/2/2018
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May the Lord save you for bringing oil from the holy relics of Elder Gabriel. My lower back was very sore. I anointed it with oil and prayer one time, and the pain was as if wiped away.
Handmaiden of God Anna
8/15/2018
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I, Olga, had feminine problems, and couldn’t get pregnant for a long time. They brought the fragrant icon of St. Gabriel to us in Kursk. I found out about it by chance and started going every day to venerate the icon, asking St. Gabriel to help me in my trouble. That same month I got pregnant, and now my husband and I are expecting a son.
8/15/2018
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I am grateful to the Lord and to St. Gabriel. Yesterday my friend Irina was at the Akathist with her requests. Late in the evening, the rector of the church called and invited her to work in the church (which is what she was praying about). She is happy and grateful. I am witness to this miracle!
8/19/2018, Kursk
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My daughter has poor eyesight. After she venerated the icon of St. Gabriel, she had a dream that Fr. Gabriel was embracing her, and she him. After that, her vision began to recover.
Handmaiden of God Elena
8/19/2018, Kursk
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In February 2018, my sister got a little icon of St. Gabriel and some oil from him for me. At home, I asked for the Lord to grant my daughter a child by the prayers of the holy fathers, including St. Gabriel, and in May the whole family took a trip to Georgia and asked at St. Gabriel’s relics to send a child to my daughter Alexandra and her husband Oleg. And now we are waiting for this miracle. If the Lord grants it, a child will be born in our family in February, which we have waited for for five years already.
We thank you, Fr. Gabriel, for your prayers!!!
Handmaiden of God Neonila
8/20/2018
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I want to thank Batiushka very much for his help. Literally overnight, the cause of my terrible headaches and toothaches was discovered. For a week and a half, the doctors couldn’t figure it out and no medicine could remove the terrible pain. Having heard that they brought the icon of Batiushka, my mother and I immediately went to him for help. The next day, a large abscess on my gum appeared. It turns out there was a cyst and it couldn’t be burst, but the doctors didn’t see anything. Then a miracle appeared: Everything cleared up overnight. I came today to thank him for his help and prayers, and to ask him to continue to help me and my family.
Thank you, Fr. Gabriel, for your prayers.
Handmaiden of God Vera
9/12/2018
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Glory to God for all things! By Batiushka’s prayers, my son began to talk. He is three and a half.
We went to doctors, but they said everything is fine—he’ll go to kindergarten and he’ll start to talk. We heard on TV that they had brought the icon of St. Gabriel to our city. We went to the church with our children. By the grace of God, we met Mother Maria, whom we told about our problem. She prompted us how to pray to the saint, and how to anoint our son with oil. I did everything as she said. We went back to the church to venerate the icon again, and a miracle occurred right before our eyes. My son began to say things that were difficult for him before. He began to speak in short sentences, new words. He doesn’t speak clearly yet, but he tries, and it works out. I believe that the Lord helped us by the prayers of Batiushka Gabriel.
Glory to God for all things! Holy Venerable Gabriel, pray to God for us!
Handmaiden of God Ksenia
9/21/2018, Zhelenogorsk, Kursk Province
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I am Fomina LIya Gavrilovna, a chanter in the Church of All Saints in Kemerovo. I suffered from trophic ulcers on my legs for many years, and from swelling of the feet. I read the Akathist to St. Gabriel, tearfully entreating him to heal me. I prayed to him again at home in the evening and anointed my ulcers and feet with holy oil from his relics. The next morning, when I woke up, I saw that the ulcers had completely healed. The swelling had subsided. A week later, the sores completely disappeared.
I thank God for showing us such a saint. I have immense gratitude to him.
10/2018, Kemerovo (Western Siberia)
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By the prayers of St. Gabriel, we had a miraculous healing of a baby in our family. No medicine helped, and the child suffered for a long time from allergic rashes that turned into seeping wounds. After praying to the saint, all the ulcers were anointed with holy oil, and the next day, they dried up. And a day later, the child was cleared of all wounds.
Wondrous are they works, O Lord. We thank St. Gabriel for his prayers and help. Do not forget us sinners, St. Gabriel, and pray for us.
September 2018, Kursk
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I am the starosta of the Church of the Protection of the Mother of God, Galina Ivanovna. They brought the icon to our church. Who it was on the icon, I didn’t know then, but the saint’s loving, kind look met me immediately. The icon was of a large size and it was impossible to fit it on the central analogion. I thought, let him himself show where to place it, and the thought immediately came to me to place the analogion with the icon on the left, where it would be immediately met by those entering the church. The writing on the icon was Georgian, and Zurab Sholovich explained to me that it was a new Georgian saint. To my surprise (I realized it later), I immediately began communicating with him as with a relative.
The day before was a feast of the Theotokos, and we had no flowers, there was no money at the candle desk; there was construction going on. I had no money of my own to buy flowers. I asked Batiushka: “Please, Father, help me buy flowers for the Mother of God so we, the negligent, won’t meet the feast without flowers.” In the hustle and bustle, I went home. In the morning, I went to work and they gave me money for flowers for the Mother of God. I went up to the icon and thanked Batiushka Gabriel for his help. St. Gabriel also helps in the construction of the church.
Kursk
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I, Raisa, am a resident of Zhelenogorsk. When they brought the relics of St. Gabriel, I fervently entreated that my husband would quit drinking. To my surprise, the next day, my husband went to venerate the relics. There wasn’t a single day where he didn’t drink a glass of vodka at dinner. After visiting and venerating the relics, he developed an aversion to alcohol. Since the time he said he wouldn’t drink any vodka, he hasn’t drunk any more.
Glory to God for all things. Thank you for brining the relics to us, and St. Gabriel for his help and the preservation of our family.
11/26/2018
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I want to tell you about a miracle that happened before my eyes. A woman and her daughter came to pray at the icon of St. Gabriel with a request to help her daughter get a job, since she hadn’t had a job in two years. Having prayed the Akathist at the icon and having prayed to St. Gabriel at the moleben, they left the church. Then came a call from the Employment Bureau. They were offering my daughter a job. They joyfully returned, told us about it and ran off to thank St. Gabriel.
According to Nun Spyridona
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Another girl came to the moleben to St. Gabriel, so the saint would help her find her better half. A week later, she met a young man whom she soon married.
According to Nun Maria
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I, Elena, was very angry and offended by everyone for a long time. As a result, I had backed myself into a corner. I was wasting my life on resentment. I left the icon of St. Gabriel on 4/8/2018 a completely different person. All the anger and resentment left, and I started to look at those around with me with new eyes. By the prayers of St. Gabriel, I was filled with love and faith.
8/12/2018
