The Monk Gabriel

Saint Gabriel, Confessor and Fool for Christ
Archimandrite
Born	26 August 1929 Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic
Died	2 November 1995 Mtskheta, Georgia
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	2012
Feast	November 2

Gabriel (Georgian: გაბრიელი, translit.: gabrieli), born Goderdzi Urgebadze (გოდერძი ურგებაძე; 26 August 1929 – 2 November 1995) was a Georgian Orthodox monk venerated for his dedicated monastic life and piety. With many miracles ascribed to him, Gabriel's grave at Mtskheta has attracted an increasing number of pilgrims. The Georgian Orthodox Church officially canonized him as Holy Father St. Gabriel, Confessor and Fool for Christ (წმ. ღირსი მამა გაბრიელი აღმსარებელი-სალოსი), on 20 December 2012.

Gabriel was born as Goderdzi Urgebadze in Tbilisi in the family of a Communist Party functionary, who was murdered in 1931. After a compulsory service in the Soviet army, he decided to join the monastic life and was tonsured a monk under the name of Gabriel in 1955. He made himself famous by setting fire to a banner depicting Vladimir Lenin during an International Workers' Day parade in downtown Tbilisi in 1965. He was arrested, tried, ruled to be psychotic, and confined to a mental hospital for seven months. An account of this incident was also published in the West, in the Orthodox zine Death to the World in 1994.

Gabriel spent much of his later life at the convent of Saint Nino, a nunnery attached to the Samtavro church in Mtskheta, an ancient town north of Tbilisi. He died there in 1995 and was buried at the Samtavro churchyard.

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