Mor Gabriel

Mor Gabriel

August 31st is the commemoration of the dukhrono of St. Gabriel +667 according to the Liturgical Calendar of the Syriac Orthodox Church. Mor Gabriel was born in Beth Qustan, where he attended a local school & learned how to read & write in a relatively short time. Even in his youth, Gabriel read holy books to obtain spiritual strength & wisdom. His parents wanted him to get married & 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 & went to the Monastery of the well-known ascetic Gewargis. Gewargis allowed him stay in the cloister & later the same year, Gabriel was inaugurated as a monk. He was known to sleep just two hours a day & spent the remainder of the time praying to God & reading books. He was very humble & he always walked barefoot & 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. After some years, at the age of 39, Mor Gabriel was elected abbot of the Monastery. During his life, Gabriel is alleged to have performed many miracles. He is known to have resurrected 3 people. In 634, he was ordained as bishop of Tur Abdin. When St. Gabriel passed, thousands of people gathered on that day with ten bishops and hundreds of monks, nuns, and priests. The Qartmin Monastery was later renamed in his honour. Dayro d'Mor Gabriel - Turabdin (Deyrulumur) is the oldest functioning Monastery in the entire world. Sadly it has been embroiled in a dispute between the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Turkish government which has usurped it along with 50+ other church institutions. Oh Mor Gabriel! Plead for us before God's throne of grace. Amen. Syriac prayers in honour of Mor Gabriel: https://tinyurl.com/yvccppd4Life of Mor Gabriel: http://bit.ly/MorGabrielVita from Qartmin Trilogy: http://bit.ly/MarGabrielDayro d-Mor Gabriel renamed in his honour http://www.morgabriel.org/history.htmlhttp://sor.cua.edu/ChMon/MidyatDGabriel/index.html