“The death of His saints is honorable before the Lord” (Ps. 115:6). These words were fulfilled over the Monk Gabriel, whom the Lord vouchsafed to repose piously after his deeds of shepherding and church building. For the righteous, bodily death is not fear and horror, but the gateway to the heavenly palaces prepared by Christ for His faithful followers. Having carried the good yoke in earthly life with patience and hope, the holy saint could firmly say: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, and now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, will give me on that day” (2 Tim. 4:7-8). The honorable remains of the elder were transferred to Odessa and on November 2 were buried in the crypt of the courtyard church.
“A city that stands on the top of a mountain cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:18). The all-merciful Lord does not abandon the human race out of His love for Him, but cares about it and saves it from evil and destruction through His chosen ones - the saints of God, opening their gates and burial places.
Clergymen of the St. Elias Cathedral in Odessa sometimes heard inexplicable knocking noises in the basement of the church. According to the testimony of old parishioners, according to a pious local legend, it was known that at the bottom of the church, the relics of its builder rested hidden. With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Agathangel of Odessa and Izmail, the clergy of the church decided to examine the supposed burial site, which is located under the baptismal building. This happened on Friday, July 9 (22), 1994. The following event was a sign of the discovery of holy relics. On this day, a young man of about nineteen, possessed by an evil spirit, was brought to the church. Like a Gadarene demoniac, he screamed and fought in the arms of his parents. With difficulty they managed to get him into the baptismal room to pray, during which he lay unconscious on the floor. After he was sprinkled with holy water, the young man, to the surprise of his relatives, got up and, looking very tired, but in good condition, left the baptismal room.
This clearly indicated that the spirit of malice that came out of the young man could not be near the place where the relics of the saint rested.
In the evening, the priests and church workers, having examined the walls of the room and dismantled the partitions, found a coffin covered with a mantle in a niche. At the same time, those present felt a breath of fresh air. This is how the relics of the elder Archimandrite Gabriel were found. The honorable relics were placed in the church in the tomb.
Healings from the relics were noted already in the first days. Thus, on July 13 (26), on the patronal feast of the Archangel Gabriel, the seriously ill servant of God N., possessed by an evil spirit, received significant relief during prayer at the found relics.
On July 14 (27), during the evening service and prayer at the relics, disabled person of the second group Z-th received complete healing of his sore leg. He left the church without limping or leaning on a stick.
On July 16 (29), a paralytic was brought to the cathedral on a stretcher. Being near the relics, the patient felt that a bright light covered him and received relief from his suffering.
Since childhood, the servant of God A-ko has suffered from spastic paralysis (the central nervous system is affected (Lit's disease), experiencing excruciating pain. After repeated visits to the St. Elias Cathedral and prayers at the relics of St. Gabriel of Athos, she received significant relief, the pain almost went away, normal sleep appeared, and she began to move without the help of others.
Miracles at honest relics are sometimes performed in the presence of many witnesses, sometimes in hidden secrets by faith flowing to the shrine.
His venerable relics exude healing to all who flow to them with faith, for there, in the heavenly villages, Saint Gabriel prays to the Lord for those who honor his holy memory, who honor him with a loving heart, who honor him with their lives and who cry out in prayer with hope: Reverend Our Father Gabriel, pray to God for us!
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St. Anthony of Pechersk († 1073, commemorated July 10, September 2)
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St. Nicodemus of Vatopedi (Athos) (XIV, commemorated July 11)
This God-bearing father shone with his wondrous life within the boundaries of Vatopedi. It is known about him that he was an old man and, according to Christ, a mentor in philosophy to the divine Gregory Palamas.
Prmch. Nicodemus of Albania, Ohrid, Myrrh-streamer († 1722, commemorated July 11)
The Holy Martyr Nicodemus was born in Albania, in the town of Eelbanas. His parents were pious and, when he reached adulthood, they married him, from which he had children. Meanwhile, entering into constant connections and acquaintances with the Hagarians, Nicodemus became carried away by the sensual promises of their Koran: to please them, he renounced the faith of Christ and finally reached such a degree of immorality that, despite the convictions and tears of his family, he forcibly turned away his children, except for one, whom the Christians managed to kidnap and secretly send to the Holy Mountain. However, the latter were never able to completely hide this from Nicodemus. Having learned that his son was on the Holy Mountain, he rushed there with the goal of certainly finding his child and taking revenge on the entire Holy Mountain as soon as possible, according to his own strength and means.
He assumed so, but the humane God, who desires salvation for everyone, ordered the fate of his life differently - instead of allowing the criminal father to lure his son into Islamism, He attracted him, the unfortunate outcast, to Himself through repentance, so that the Holy Mountain became for him to some extent the reason for salvation. Silence, fasting labors, deprivations of all kinds and removal from everything sensory, even from family ties - all this, which he saw on the Holy Mountain in the monks, upon his arrival there, struck him to the extreme: he remembered the past, when the hopes of the afterlife and the heavenly beauties and those promises of Christ were not alien to his heart, which are as far from Mohammed’s as far, or even further, the sky from the earth or the light from darkness; he remembered that he himself had once belonged to Christ, and he wept bitterly, inconsolably over his disastrous condition. His thoughts were reborn: he turned again to God with repentance and, without leaving the Holy Mountain, took on the angelic image with the name Nicodemus.
For three years, day and night, he mourned his apostasy, exhausting his flesh with fasting and various deprivations and exploits. Finally, having heard such speeches from some fathers that whoever denied Christ before people would benefit greatly from confessing Him again before them, he decided to atone for his sin with the blood of the sufferer. To find out whether this would be pleasing to God and whether this was His will, he turned for advice to the Monk Akakios, who labored in the Kavsokalivsky monastery. He cried for a long time at the feet of Elder Akaki, asking for his prayers and a decision - what should he do in a cramped position of spirit that required suffering. The monk, who enjoyed general fame and trust on the Holy Mountain, as a truly holy ascetic, affectionately raised Nicodemus and then, retreating a little from him, turned to God in prayer. Having finished his prayer, he quietly said something to Nicodemus and then, when he cried long and bitterly, he handed him the old man’s staff with the words: “Go with God, God will help you: you will accomplish a feat, and a martyr’s crown is being prepared for him in heaven.”
Thus, having been instructed by the monk with prayers and blessings for the elderly, Nicodemus, barely moving from Lenten exhaustion, set off on his journey. Meanwhile, before his departure from the Holy Mountain, the Lord honored him with His Divine appearance, strengthened him and clearly revealed all the torments that he must endure in His name and even showed him the very place where his head would be truncated. Comforted and confirmed by such favor of the Lord, Nicodemus joyfully flowed into the field of suffering. From the Holy Mountain he directly arrived in Albania, his homeland, and there solemnly, before the Turks who knew him, he confessed Christ as the true God, and humiliated Mohammed as a flatterer and a deceiver. The Turks presented him to the Pasha. And here blessed Nicodemus repeated his confession, disparaging Islamism. Enraged by this, the pasha ordered to throw him down from the high terrace of his house, hoping to crush his body into pieces: however, what happened was the opposite. Sufferer, by the grace of God,