Hieromonk
Saint Gabriel the New Martyr was born on April 24, 1898, in the village of Ogorodniki, in the Slutsk district of Minsk Province, into the family of the farmer Ivan Gur. He received his education at a church school. Following the death of his father in 1918, he became a novice at the Monastery of Saint Nicholas in the Diocese of Chelyabinsk, where he remained until the monastery was closed in 1922.
He subsequently traveled to Mount Athos, where he stayed until 1925. On January 22 of that same year, he received the monastic tonsure and was given the name Gabriel. On November 6, he was ordained a hierodeacon. Beginning on March 4, 1929, he served at the Church of the Annunciation in the Moscow region.
In October 1929, he was ordained a hieromonk. During this period, he cared tirelessly for the faithful, baptizing infants and preaching the Gospel despite increasing pressure from the Soviet authorities. On December 11, 1929, he was summoned for interrogation and accused of engaging in anti-Soviet propaganda. He firmly denied the charges, stating that he preached only what was contained in the sacred books of the Church.
On December 31, 1929, his activities were discussed at a meeting of the local council. As a result, Father Gabriel was arrested on January 8, 1930, and sentenced to three years of imprisonment in a labor camp. After his release in 1932, he continued his ministry in various churches, carrying out his pastoral work under the constant threat of arrest.
On September 29, 1937, he was arrested once again and subjected to interrogation for an entire month. On November 17, 1937, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. He was executed on November 19, 1937, and buried in an unmarked mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
