Hieromonk
Saint Gabriel Vladimirov (born Grigory Petrovich Vladimirov) was born on January 14, 1873, in the village of Kotliarivka in the province of Pskov. After completing his studies at the local school, he traveled to Mount Athos, where he labored in ascetic life until 1914. There he became a monk and received the name Gabriel.
After being ordained a hieromonk, he served faithfully as a clergyman. In 1918 he was assigned to the military office of Novgorod. In 1920, he was arrested but later got released. He subsequently worked as a lecturer in the provincial department of national economy until 1923, when many educated and faithful Christians began to lose their positions. Saint Gabriel refused to abandon his priestly ministry and joined the Skovorotsky Monastery.
In 1924, he was arrested for illegally entering a border zone and was exiled to Novgorod. He later associated himself with opponents of the ecclesiastical policies of Metropolitan Sergius. From 1928 onward, he secretly carried out priestly services in cemeteries and in the homes of the faithful. In 1929, he was arrested once again and accused of undermining state political initiatives.
On August 3, 1930, he was sentenced to ten years of imprisonment in a labor camp. He remained there from 1930 to 1932, until he was later exiled to Kazakhstan. On September 9, 1937, he was arrested together with a group of clergy and laypeople, accused of participating in a counterrevolutionary organization.
The saint never admitted guilt. Nevertheless, he was executed on November 19, 1937. He was buried in an unknown mass grave near Shymkent. In 2000, he was recognised as a saint and glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church.
