Saint Gabriel,
schema-archimandrite of the Seven Lakes Monastery near Kazan (†1915), was one
of the last great spiritual guides to grace Russia before the Revolution. In
his early monastic life he was a disciple of the great Elder Ambrose of Optina
Monastery, and drank deeply of the living water there. His life thereafter was
filled with trials, labors, and illness, all of which refined his soul and
formed him into a superb guide to those around him.
The biography
of St. Gabriel was written soon after his repose by one of his close disciples,
Archimandrite Symeon Kholmogorov, in an engaging and moving style. This
biography bears witness to the elder’s unceasing and ardent prayer, his
spiritual experiences, wondrous visions, and clairvoyance, as well as the
Divine healings wrought through his prayers. Having single-mindedly sought
after the highest good of love for God and man from his youth, he was granted a
profound revelation of God’s love for the world, seen in His redemption of the
human race. This revelation filled him with overwhelming gratitude to the Lord,
especially as he contemplated Christ’s earthly life. Thus was opened to him
that which he longed for: the experience of love for God with his entire being.
“I recognized
that I was deeply sinful,” he wrote, “but at the same time a fiery hope in the
saving love and mercy of the Lord truly uplifted my spirit. Tears of contrition
poured forth from my eyes. And what my heart experienced at that time, I cannot
describe. I felt no need of food. I was burdened when others visited me. I was
blissful, wounded by love for the Lord. I was willing to remain even eternally
alone and suffer, if only I could be with the Lord and be filled with love for
Him.”
This love for
God, which informed the elder’s entire life, filled him at the same time with
an overflowing love for others. As one who knew him wrote: “Elder Gabriel
showed utter childlike simplicity, all-forgiving love, and unchanging meekness.
Love — in all of its pure and holy emanations in man — was not his property and
did not come from him. It was a gift of God. This gift of grace-filled love was
poured out abundantly by the Holy Spirit upon Fr. Gabriel, and that is why all
who were near him felt so good, joyful, and comfortable.”
In his emphasis
on God’s love for man, and on man’s grateful response to it by loving God and
neighbor, St. Gabriel reminds one of holy Athonite elders of more recent times,
St. Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia (†1991) and St. Paisios of Mount Athos (†1994),
both of whom have been glorified by the Church in the last few years.
This new,
greatly expanded book on St. Gabriel contains the elder’s Life — first
published in English as One of the Ancients — and, for the first time in
English translation, his complete writings and letters to spiritual children,
as well as an Akathist hymn. It also features a biography of the author, who
suffered martyrdom at the hands of the Communists in 1937.
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