Saint Gabriel or Mor Gabriel (Aramaic: ܡܪܝ ܓܒܪܐܝܠ; Saint Gabriel) (634– 23 December 668) was the 7th bishop of Mor Gabriel Monastery and Tur Abdin in Southeastern Turkey. [1]
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Saint Gabriel was born in Alagöz. There he attended a local school and learned how to read and write in a relatively short time. His Parents wanted him to get married and build a family, but he chose to become a monk. When he was 15 years of age he left his parents' house while they were sleeping, and went to a cloister. There he met a man called Gewargis. Gabriel asked Gewargis to let him stay in the cloister and later the same year Gabriel became a monk.
He was sleeping just two hours daily and the rest of the time he spent it praying God and reading books. He was so humble and he always walked barefoot and 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 pressure his parents were applying on him. So he went to Saint Simon's monastery, the same monastery was renamed Mor Gabriel Monastery as a tribute to Saint Gabriel. [2]
Saint Gabriel performed many miracles in his life. He brought to life three people after they died, and once he spoke to a dead monk after one year of his death.
Saint Gabriel died on Tuesday 23 December 668, at three o'clock PM. Thousands of people gathered on that day with ten bishops and hundreds of monks, nuns, and priests.