🔸 November 2 - Saint Gabriel the Fool for Christ 🔥🔸 Today, we commemorate Saint Gabriel the Fool for Christ. He was a wonderworking Georgian monk during the era of Soviet persecution. St Gabriel was born in Tbilisi in 1929 with the name Goderdzi. When his father Vasili was murdered, the 2 year old Goderdzi was renamed Vasiko in his honour. Vasiko first heard the name of God at age 7 when he overheard his neighbours arguing, and one shouted, “You have crucified me like Christ”. The curious boy asked the men Whom Christ was, and they told him to read the story of His life. The boy rushed to the book market and purchased a copy of the New Testament which soon illuminated his soul. His heart aflame with a love of Christ, Vasiko would build small churches from pebbles in the yard. While many Georgians were discarding their icons for fear of persecution from the Communists, Vasiko went door to door collecting these icons which he cherished. Concerned over her child’s obsessions with God, Vasiko’s mother threw away his New Testament. At this point, the boy left home and took shelter in many monasteries including the Samtavro monastery. While completing his mandatory service in the Soviet army, Vasiko would often secretly attend liturgies. His comrades alerted the authorities, and they sent him to a medical commission where they declared him mentally insane. Discharged from the military, Vasiko committed himself to monasticism. He attended services at the Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi, and formed a close spiritual bond with Patriarch Melchizedek III who tonsured him a monk in 1954 with the name Gabriel. In 1965, thousands gathered in Tbilisi for the annual Soviet celebration of international workers day. St Gabriel was so disturbed by this communist cult that he set fire to the giant portrait of Lenin for which he was beaten and arrested. Banned from the priesthood by the Soviets, St Gabriel later constructed a hermitage behind his family home where he spent many years living in asceticism. He was later restored to the priesthood in his beloved monastery of Samtavro where he reposed in 1995, a smile still etched on his face.