Father Gavril: Saint Gavril Athonite, Bishop of Velika – An unusual Saint, at an unusual time.
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Today we celebrate the memory of Saint Gavril Athonite, Bishop of Velika Diocese. An unusual saint, at an unusual time.
We complain today that if we were born at a different time and lived with other people, we would have been better. It is just an excuse for our weaknesses because we are self-loving and lazy and do not want to improve, i.e. to repent. That is a complete lie or rather, we are lying to ourselves. This claim is neither true nor acceptable to God, and we make out God to be unjust and uninterested in us. Our Holy Father Gavril, completely refutes this and personally with his life shows the opposite. We just need to make an effort.
Our Holy Father Gavril was born after the Balkan fratricidal wars and the First World War. He also survived the terrible World War II, in which he participated as a young man. He was holder of a badge of courage, although he never became a communist. Moreover, the post-war period, the time of the totalitarian communism through which he lived, was in no way an easy time for him. That was a time of spiritual apostasy and an open atheism (antitheism). There was no peace for him even when he went to Mount Athos. As a Macedonian, he was politically persecuted and was not accepted anywhere. But the Mother of God, the Abbess of the Mount Athos Garden, received him and She protected him. Tribulations never stopped for Our Holy Father Gavril. Even afterward, when he returned to his native Macedonia, while he was looking for a suitable place for monasticism, his life was also full of temptations (tribulations).
After settling in the Lesnovo Monastery, the Monastery became a spiritual center, not only for us Macedonians, but for the entire Orthodox world. Just as a lamp that cannot be placed under a lid and illuminates the surroundings, thus Father Gavril attracted (and still attracts) people and he illuminates the entire Orthodox world. Various people from different places and classes of the society came to him. He became a shining light in his time. Even politicians and high-ranking officials in that communist era secretly came to confess and consult with him.
In this time of ours, when we only complain and whine, is just a quiet breeze, in comparison to the time in which Saint Gavril lived. But he was not taking notice how bad it was externally, he did not complain and did not judge anyone. He did not turn his attention to anything external, but always with his mind, he was descending to the heart, which is the abode of God. Only in a purified heart can we meet, see, and converse with God. God Himself said that He will make our heart His abode and set a table in it.
By taking pleasure in, fulfilling ourselves with the grace of God, first through baptism, then through the virtues, and above all through prayer, we create personal relationship with God. Knowing this, he never took his gaze from his heart and did not engage in the worldly, vain things.
That is why God endowed him so much with His gifts of foresight, asceticism, prayer and miracles. Through his prayers miracles occurred that today’s modern world can never accept, even the order of the nature was changing.
What is it, that made him so special? The answer lies in: his firm faith, strong will, and clear focus on the goal of gaining God and His Kingdom right here on earth.
He took on humility as a basis, a foundation, without which, one cannot build the building of spiritual life. He replaced the love for the worldly things with the love for God and all that is in Heaven. He replaced the art of sculpture, which was his occupation while he was living in the world as a layman, with the art of all arts, and that is prayer. His food did not consist in the pleasures of lavish tables, but in fasting and tears.
Holy Father Gavril was the only true monk in Macedonia at that time. He was and still is an example and encouragement to all who want to follow God. He is also the herald of the restoration of monasticism in our Church, MOC – OA. We owe him a lot and we still beseech his holy prayers. We are honoured and commended to have His holy relics from which immense grace flows and is the source of numerous healings.
Our Holy Father Gavril, new beacon of Orthodoxy, pray to God for us!
Fr. Gavril Galev
Abbot of the monastery “St. Clement of Ohrid”,
Kinglake, Melbourne, Australia
12 / 01 / 2022
