Icon with relics of the Venerable Gabriel (Urgebadze) of Samtavro

Venerable Gabriel (Urgebadze) is one of the most venerated Orthodox saints of modern times. He was born in 1929 in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia. From his early years, his heart was aflame with love for the Lord Jesus Christ, and, renouncing the vanity of the world, he chose the path of spiritual struggle and self-denial. In 1955, he received monastic tonsure with the name Gabriel and was soon ordained as a hieromonk. His life was filled with prayer, strict fasting, and profound humility, through which he acquired the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Venerable Gabriel (Urgebadze)

During the years of severe persecution of the Church in the Soviet Union, the saint showed the boldness of a confessor of the faith. He is especially known for his act on May 1, 1965, when in Tbilisi he publicly burned a portrait of Lenin during a state demonstration, denouncing atheism. For this, he was brutally beaten, arrested, and confined to a psychiatric hospital, where he endured many sufferings. Yet, like the ancient martyrs and confessors, he did not renounce Christ and remained steadfast to the end, preserving meekness, love, and prayer for his persecutors.

Even during his lifetime, the Lord glorified Saint Gabriel with the gifts of spiritual insight and wonderworking. People flocked to him for counsel and consolation, and he received everyone with fatherly love—healing wounded souls, strengthening faith, and guiding them toward repentance. From the late 1970s, he labored at the Samtavro Monastery in Mtskheta, where he undertook the подвиг of “foolishness for Christ,” offering the world an example of true humility and all-embracing love.

The blessed repose of the saint came in 1995. After his death, veneration for him not only continued but grew even stronger, as many testified to help and miracles through his prayers. The faithful pray to Venerable Gabriel for inner peace, deliverance from despondency, strengthening of faith and love for others, and for help and protection in difficult circumstances.

The relics of Venerable Gabriel (Urgebadze) at the Samtavro Monastery

In 2012, the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him among the saints. The relics of Venerable Gabriel rest at the Samtavro Monastery, and his feast day is celebrated on November 2.

At the Church of the “Life-Giving Spring” Icon of the Mother of God in Hot Springs, there is an icon and a relic of Venerable Gabriel.

Prayer to Venerable Gabriel (Urgebadze)

O Holy Venerable Father Gabriel, wonderworker of Samtavro, you who shone forth in the heroic feat of foolishness for the sake of Christ! Offer up your prayers for us to the Lord like fragrant incense. Deliver us, O most wondrous father, by your intercession from every misfortune and disaster; destroy the snares of the demons, quench all enmity, and heal the sick. The stream of God’s miracles flowing from your holy shrine never fails, nor does the torrent of His mercy dry up for us sinners who pray to you. Since you were granted the gift of great love from the Lord, bearing the burdens of your neighbors and shedding tears for the sinful and the suffering, carry our prayers and our tears of repentance to the throne of God. By your help, O father most worthy of praise, may we pass through the aerial toll-houses without hindrance and reach the Heavenly Homeland. There, the unceasing voice of those who feast glorifies the Most Holy Trinity—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.