Mor Gabriel
| Saint Gabriel | |
|---|---|
| File:Mor Gabriel.png | |
| Bishop | |
| Born | 574 Beth Qustan, Byzantine Empire |
| Died | 23 December 668 Mor Gabriel Monastery, Umayyad Caliphate |
| Venerated in | Oriental Orthodoxy |
| Major shrine | Mor Gabriel Monastery, Turkey |
| Feast | August 31 |
Mor Gabriel (Aramaic: ܡܪܝ ܓܒܪܐܝܠ: Saint Gabriel) was the 7th bishop of Tur Abdin in South-eastern Turkey.[1]
Biography
Saint Gabriel was born in Beth Qustan where he attended a local school and learned how to read and write in a relatively short time. Even in his youth Gabriel read holy books to obtain spiritual strength and wisdom. His parents wanted him to get married and build a family, but he chose to live an ascetic life with God. When he was 15 years of age he left his parents' house while they were sleeping, and went to the cloister of the well-known ascetic Gewargis. Gewargis allowed him stay in the cloister and later the same year Gabriel was inaugurated as a monk.
He was known to sleep just two hours a day and the remainder of the time he spent it praying to God and reading books. He was very humble and he always walked barefoot and tortured himself, sometimes until he started to bleed. After seven years of staying at Gewargis' cloister, he decided to leave the area because of the constant pressure he received from his parents. With permission from the abbot, Gabriel fled at night to Qartmin Monastery; the same monastery was later renamed Mor Gabriel Monastery as a tribute to Saint Gabriel.[2]
At the age of 39, Mor Gabriel was elected abbot of the monastery.[3] In 634, he was ordained as bishop of Qartmin monastery. During his life Gabriel is alleged to have performed many miracles, three of his most famous include resurrecting 3 people. Saint Gabriel died on Tuesday 23 December 668, at three o'clock PM. Thousands of people gathered on that day with ten bishops and hundreds of monks, nuns, and priests.
