Fr. Gabriel attracted everyone with his sacrificial Christian love. By humility and obedience, he led everyone to the Kingdom of Heaven. “For the humble, any trial will pass by. The Lord gives grace to the humble. Without humility, no one will enter the Kingdom of Heaven!” the Elder taught. He would arrange humility and obedience “exams” for us such that we often only realized what he was up to years later. The Elder loved to say: “The Lord demands both a heart and good deeds from us. ‘Whatever good you’ve done to another, you’ve done to Me,’ the Lord teaches.”
***
One cleric asked the Elder:
“What is fasting?”
“Let me explain,” the Elder said, and reminded him of all his sins committed since childhood.
The clergyman was so ashamed that he didn’t know where to turn, and he began to weep. The Elder suddenly brightened up and offered him some food.
“How can I eat now? I feel so terrible!” he said.
“And that’s fasting. When you remember your sins, repent, and no longer think about food.”
***
Before Great Lent, Father had the practice that he would kneel and pray for the forgiveness of his sins on the ambo in Holy Transfiguration Church. If he had angrily rebuked someone and that man didn’t come for forgiveness by evening, then he would go to him himself and ask forgiveness.
***
When I was his cell attendant, the worldly passions within me disappeared. I felt that rational thoughts and a sense of compassion were strengthened within me. He led me in an amazing way. Sometimes I felt so light, like I was floating in the air. Then Father would start humbling me. And when I felt a weight on my soul, like the whole world was resting on my shoulders and I was dying, he would comfort me with humor:
“Endure, endure, Mother. Whoever endures to the end will be saved!”
***
A husband and wife came to Father for a blessing. The wife was pregnant. Fr. Gabriel started instructing them to live a Christian life, to not get annoyed, to watch their words, because the child hears everything.
The husband objected:
“What are you talking about, Fr. Gabriel? You can’t even hear conversations through a wall, but a child can hear in the womb?”
“So you don’t believe it?” Fr. Gabriel said. And turning to the mother, he loudly said to the child: “My child, I’m asking you, don’t you hear the word of God?” The child started kicking so hard in the womb that the mother ran out of the cell, clutching her belly.
***
Some guests from the Holy Mountain came to visit the Elder. Fr. Gabriel gave one of them an icon of the saint whose name he bore. The stunned guest fell to his knees and entreated the Elder to come to Holy Mount Athos, where he would want for nothing. Fr. Gabriel said: “I won’t exchange my Georgia for Athos.” That monk was the abbot of Xeropotamou Monastery.
***
It was six in the evening and I was sitting with the Elder in his cell. He suddenly told me to leave and let him be alone. “You mustn’t look at me right now!” I hurried to the door. Looking back, I saw that his face was illuminated, giving off rays of sunlight.
***
One day a woman came to see the Elder and said:
“You saved me from death. Allow me to thank you.”
She told us the following story:
“I live near a cemetery, in a tiny old home. Some thieves broke in last night. Out of fear, I started calling on Fr. Gabriel for help. A miracle occurred: The Elder immediately appeared and began chasing them with a stick. The frightened robbers fled in a panic, and the Elder disappeared as suddenly as he had appeared.
***
Fr. Gabriel once told me when he was seriously ill:
“I’m going to Shavnabada Monastery right now.”
I thought he was kidding.
After a bit, I asked:
“Father, did you go to Shavnabada?”
“Yes, I did. They were eating when I arrived. Everything’s fine there.”
“Didn’t they see you?” I asked.
“No, from where? Had they seen me they would’ve been shocked, and besides, I didn’t want to show myself to them.”
“And what was Fr. Shio doing?” I asked.
“He was counting people,” the Elder said.
A few days later, the abbot of Shavnabada Monastery, Archimandrite Shio, came to see Fr. Gabriel.
I asked him:
“Are there many of you in your monastery?”
“I don’t know—some come, others go. I usually count them during trapeza.”
Fr. Gabriel looked at me meaningfully and smiled. I was shocked.
***
Fr. Gabriel, seriously ill, asked us to take him to the church. He knelt before the icon of the Mother of God and tearfully entreated the Most Holy Theotokos: “Accept me as a sacrifice, O Mother of God; only save my Georgia!” When pain for the fate of his homeland especially overwhelmed the Elder, he would call for me and ask me to sing a lullaby.
Woe to that monk or priest who doesn’t live a life of suffering for his people.
***
When instead of love he would receive insults, ridicule, and humiliation, I would ask him in surprise: “Do you really still love them?” And he would mournfully reply: “I pity and love them even more now.”
***
He had a rule of never making visitors wait for him: “How can you have peace if someone’s waiting for you? The heart of a good monk should be as sensitive as a woman’s.”
***
He would take everyone without exception into his tiny cell and preach God’s grace and love to them: “The heart is strong but the body is weak. Care not for the body, rather save the soul. Whoever overcomes gluttony and idle talk is already on the right path. Seek the Kingdom of Heaven first of all, and the rest will follow of itself,” he would say, recalling the words of Holy Scripture.
***
One day the Elder asked us:
“What does the saying, Let his prayer be counted as sin mean?”
“It probably means he prayed wrong,” we said.
“No, he prayed properly,” the Elder said.
“Then the prayer probably didn’t come from his heart…”
“It came from his heart!!!”
“Perhaps he prayed absentmindedly.”
“Look at you, thinking you've become saints. Distraction is inherent to every one of us.”
We couldn’t figure it out and we asked the Elder to explain it to us.
“Let me explain,” Father said.
Just then, a man came into his cell for a blessing. Fr. Gabriel asked him to do him a favor, but the young man said no, saying he was too busy: “I can’t right now, but maybe later.” And with that, he left.
“And now he’s going off to pray five hours straight, but will the Lord receive his prayer if he refused to help me? If you don’t keep God’s commandments, there’s no need to bother God with your long prayers. The Lord won’t hear you and your prayer will be accounted to you for sin. Good deeds open the doors of Paradise, humility leads you into Paradise, and love shows you God. If prayer isn’t followed by good deeds, that prayer is dead,” the Elder said.
***
Father gave us an example from his life related to the sin of condemnation:
“In the altar, we were judging a priest who was taken by the passion of drunkenness, and I condemned him in the presence of the Patriarch, wanting to show my own impeccability, although I didn’t even know this priest.
“We always had wine at home. I wanted a drink, so I had a glass of wine, then left for Sion Cathedral. Entering the altar, I felt that intoxication had overtaken me. I stumbled and nearly fell. The Patriarch managed to catch me. It seemed like no one noticed, but I knew I had been taught a lesson.
“Whatever you use to condemn someone will be used to condemn you. When you condemn someone, know that you condemn God Himself.”
***
A young man came to see the Elder one day. The Elder looked at him intently and said: “I don’t see your soul. Go and receive the holy Sacrament of Communion right now, and may the Divine grace of God save you!”
The young man fulfilled this blessing and communed that very day. That evening, some friends invited him to a party, but he declined because he had communed. These friends then invited another man, and that man died that very evening in an accident.
***
Fr. Gabriel was visiting a family when a young man arrived. Fr. Gabriel looked at him and said: “My child, misfortune awaits you. Come over here so I can bless you and take away your trouble.” The young man received his blessing. Sometime later, he was grazed by a stray bullet, but it didn’t harm him at all.
***
One day after Liturgy, the faithful left the church having just received grace, but upon seeing a stray dog, they started throwing rocks at it. Fr. Gabriel bitterly remarked:
“Ah, believers, it’d be better if they didn’t come to church at all and stand there pretending to pray.”
***
Fr. Gabriel loved to sit at the top of the stairs leading up to the tower. A priest was coming up the stairs one day when Fr. Gabriel turned to me and said:
“Want me to mess with this priest?”
I was scared—Fr. Gabriel then addressed him with the most obscene language.
The priest stopped and calmly said:
“Fr. Gabriel, I’m much worse than that.”
The Elder lovingly embraced him and said:
“You’re my true brother!”
***
Sometimes Fr. Gabriel would take out a jug of wine in front of his cell, cover it with a towel, and pretend to hide it. He did this to give the appearance that wine was his weakness.
***
Fr. Gabriel warned us not to put him in a coffin when he died, but told us to leave the coffin for his mother, saying:
“Sometimes a person is buried the same day they die.”
These words are burned into my memory.
Five years after the Elder reposed, his mother, Nun Anna, reposed. She passed away on Holy Wednesday at eight in the evening. The next, they informed His Holiness at Liturgy, and it was blessed to bury Fr. Gabriel’s mother that same day.
The Elder’s words came to mind. He foresaw five years in advance that his mother would be buried within a day.
***
One time during the tonsure of a nun, Father lamented:
“My child, my child, how I pity you. What a heavy cross you’re taking upon yourself!”
Some time passed, and the nun left the monastery and returned to the world.
***
The Elder was very fond of the opera Daisi [by Zacharia Paliashvili—Trans.]. Sometimes he would go to the opera house. He especially loved the scene where the Patriarch blesses the people. Although it was an actor playing the part of the Patriarch and it was a show, Fr. Gabriel always stood up when he came on stage.
Once the actor got flustered and the show was temporarily stopped. Taking advantage of the confusion, Fr. Gabriel got up on stage and began preaching about Christ.
***
One day a young lady came to see the Elder and told him how there was constant bickering and fighting at her house and that her brother had run away from home.
“The Elder immediately went to our house. He walked in and saw that my brother was already home,” she later said.
“Some kind of power made me return,” her brother said.
“Fr. Gabriel went to the icons and started praying. I saw how the icon of the Mother of God radiantly lit up, illuminating the Elder’s face. His prayer was so powerful that all impurity was removed from our family. Since then, peace and tranquility have reigned in our family,” the girl said.
***
The Elder asked one believer:
“Do you know what love is?”
“How could I not know! It’s when someone shoots at your neighbor and you shield him.”
“No,” Father said. “It’s when your neighbor is sick, and to save him you have to go a long way, and despite any possible dangers along the way, you go and bring him medicine. That’s love.”
***
Fr. Gabriel taught us:
“First of all, seek the Kingdom of Heaven!”
“And how do we seek the Kingdom of Heaven?” we asked.
“When you’re eating, remember the hungry, the suffering, and the thirsty. Pray! Prayer can move mountains.”
***
One day Fr. Gabriel told us about a vision he had:
“The Lord was holding a globe with a large cross on it. I asked God:
‘How will men be saved before the Second Coming?’
‘Men will be saved by kindness and love.’”
***
One night before going to bed, shortly before his repose, he pointed to the corner and said:
“Death is standing there in the corner, waiting for me. I’m leaving you so I can pray for you. I must lift up your prayer to the Lord.”
Two weeks before his repose, he was given an icon of the Savior Not Made by Hands in a crown of thorns. I told him that when they gave him the icon, he got better and that he would heal completely.
He shook his head and said:
“If the Savior didn’t have the crown of thorns on His head, I’d get better. But this icon with the crown of thorns means that I’m destined to die in agony.”
The Savior’s eyes were closed in the icon, but after some time, they opened. I told Fr. Gabriel about it.
He said:
“You’ll hear about my repose three days ahead of time.”
And indeed, three days before his death, I read the moleben to the Most Holy Theotokos, asking for the Elder’s recovery. That night I had a vision: The Most Holy Theotokos said she would come in three days and completely heal the Elder.
When I told Fr. Gabriel about my vision, he asked me to stay awake all night and talk with him. I gave it my best, but I couldn’t make it and I fell asleep.
When I woke up, I saw that Father was awake.
“You promised you wouldn’t fall asleep!” he said, chiding me.
I felt ashamed.
At four in the morning, he called out in a weak voice:
“Mother, Mother… Sister, Sister…”
I walked over to him. Tears were streaming from his eyes. I dropped to my knees. He blessed me, made the sign of the Cross over Georgia from all sides, lovingly looked around his cell and began to pray, keeping his eyes on the icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker.
It felt like the cell was invisibly filled with angels.
Bishops Daniel and Mikhail arrived in the evening and read the prayer for the departure of the soul. Fr. Gabriel looked around at everyone with a touching smile and peacefully gave his soul to the Lord.
The amazing thing was that I felt no burden in my soul over his death: There was a feeling of lightness, love, and blessedness. There was no fear of death, but the joy of the Nativity and Resurrection.
