"They gathered for the final slaying of the infant Gabriel by the Jew; his tortured body was nailed against a wall, his ribs were pierced repeatedly with weapons; neither his cries moved their cruel hearts nor did they think upon the Lord’s vengeance. Yet Christ our God has glorified him as His martyr and commands Christians to honour him as one who shared His saving passion."
(Stichera at the Verses, Tone 3)
The Pascha of the Cross and the Pascha of Resurrection — one does not exist without the other. Orthodoxy in Belarus rests upon the shoulders of saints who suffered greatly, those pillars who have upheld our faith in this land for over a millennium. Each shines a light on a particular chapter in our land’s history. This year marks 340 years since the birth of the child martyr Gabriel of Białystok. For over three centuries, this child, crucified with Christ, has stood boldly in prayer before God on behalf of his homeland.
Martyrdom is a mystery known only between God and the soul. Some saints spend their whole lives preparing for it, growing stronger through trials and struggles, rising from strength to strength until they reach their own Golgotha and can say with Saint Paul: "For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21). Yet perhaps only a soul as pure and innocent as the child Gabriel's could be crucified together with Christ on the day of His glorious Resurrection. Crowned with martyrdom, this little one entered swiftly into the joy of his Lord, fulfilling in a short span of days what others achieve over many years.
Białystok and Gabriel’s native village
His native village, Zverki, lay close to the Holy Dormition Monastery of Zabłudów, a stronghold of Orthodox faith during the years when Catholic rulers of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth vigorously promoted Uniatism. Here lived Peter and Anastasia Govdel, a young Orthodox peasant couple who earned their daily bread by honest labour and raised their firstborn son with reverence. Nearby, in Białystok, dwelt a Jewish sect known for strange and troubling rituals. At one tragic moment, these separate worlds collided. Gabriel, a small boy who trusted Christ without reserve, resisted no evil and innocently suffered at the hands of Shutko, a Jew whose mind was darkened. In this story lies the heart of the cross-bearing path of our land. Only genuine holiness can stand firm for truth in such a religiously, politically, and historically tangled situation. Standing for what is right often demands one's earthly life.
Białystok and Zverki in Podlasie — the birthplace of the child martyr Gabriel — lie in a historical region along the Belarus-Poland border between Chełm to the south and the Narew River northward. For 150 years, Podlasie belonged to the Russian Empire before passing to Poland in the twentieth century. Today, it remains home to some 46,000 Belarusians.
Gabriel was no ordinary child. His kindness, openness, and humility were plain to all. Peaceful, thoughtful, and free from spite or anger, Gabriel took delight in life, stayed hopeful, and readily shared his modest possessions with other children. From an early age, prayer was his constant companion. Villagers often asked him to pray for them, and his prayers always brought help.
The nearness of the Zabłudów Monastery of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos influenced Saint Infant Gabriel in many ways. He was baptised in its Dormition Church; there, during services, he learned about God, grew spiritually mature, and discovered prayer. This monastery and its church were founded in 1567 by Grigory Alexandrovich Khodkevich, a prominent Orthodox benefactor who served as Castellan of Vilnius, Hetman of Lithuania, and Governor of Grodno. Khodkevich also established a hospital and printing house at Zabłudów. In 1566 he brought from Moscow two renowned printers — Ivan Fyodorov Moskvitin and Pyotr Timofeev Mstislavets — and on 8 July 1568 printing began of their first book, "The Didactic Gospel." They completed it on 17 March 1569. Its title page read: "The book called The Didactic Gospel," printed "under the reign of the most serene ruler Sigismund Augustus… at the hereditary estate of G.A. Khodkevich… in the place known as Zabłudów, at his lordship’s own expense."
The Didactic Gospel printed at Zabłudów became widely known and much loved. Even in the difficult years of the Union, the monastery stood firm in the Orthodox faith.
The Dormition Church of the Most Holy Theotokos in Zabłudów, still in use today, was built between 1847 and 1855 on the site of a wooden church that had been part of the Dormition Monastery until 1821.
In those days, a Jewish tenant named Shutko, who belonged to a secretive sect known as the "black" Jews, noticed the gentle and prayerful child Gabriel. On 24 April 1690, as later court records revealed, Shutko waited until Gabriel’s mother Anastasia left home to bring lunch to her husband in the fields. Then he entered the Govdel family home, stole the boy, and took him away to Białystok, where his accomplices awaited. It was Great Lent. In a cellar beneath the city, these fanatics cruelly tormented the innocent child for nine days. They pierced his side; he bled heavily; finally, they crucified him on a cross placed in a large basin, then stabbed him repeatedly to drain all his blood. On Easter Sunday, 3 May — the ninth day of his suffering — young Gabriel died. The murderers threw his body into a wood near his home village. Despite warm weather, his remains showed no sign of decay. Miraculously, a pack of stray dogs guarded the body for several days from wild animals and birds. Their constant barking and howling eventually drew villagers to find Gabriel’s remains. Deeply shaken by this cruelty, Orthodox believers gathered in sorrow and buried the child near the cemetery church at Zverki.
The sufferings of the child martyr Gabriel of Białystok
The Lord did not let the villains escape. The martyrdom of the child led to a high-profile trial, and the details were recorded in the "legal records of Zabłudów." The criminals' names became known, and justice was done.
Thirty years later, in 1720, during a cholera outbreak, villagers, attempting to bury infants near Gabriel's grave, accidentally struck his coffin. After thirty years underground, Gabriel’s body remained untouched by decay. His incorrupt relics were carefully moved into a crypt beneath the church. In 1746, fire destroyed that cemetery church, yet Gabriel’s relics survived unharmed. Only one hand suffered burns; but when his remains were transferred later that year into the Protection Church at Zabłudów monastery, even this hand miraculously healed and new skin appeared upon it. The saint’s relics rested at Zabłudów monastery from 1746 until 1755.
In 1755, as the monastery's finances worsened and tensions grew between religious groups in the area, permission came from the highest church authorities to move Gabriel's relics from Zabłudów to Holy Trinity Monastery in Slutsk which stood as one of Orthodoxy's most solid strongholds at that time. The relics, carried in a coffin, travelled more than three hundred kilometres in a solemn procession. The body of the infant martyr Gabriel lay uncovered. He held a small cross in both hands, and it was clear his fingers were pierced and his body bore torn wounds.
From the first days of their arrival in Slutsk, the martyr’s relics brought healing to many who had lost all hope. Blind, deaf, and frail people, already turned away by doctors, came from large cities and far-flung places. Many children were healed, and the miracles touched people of all faiths: Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim. The monks diligently recorded these miraculous events in a special "Slutsk notebook," a precious document sadly lost to time.
The Cathedral of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Białystok, where the relics of the infant martyr Gabriel now rest
Archimandrite Dosifei (Goliakhovsky), of the Slutsk Monastery and representative of the Metropolitan of Kiev, composed a troparion and kontakion to honour the saintly child. In 1855, Father Modest, rector of the Slutsk Seminary, wrote a prayer dedicated to Gabriel. Later, in 1908, Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Volyn and Zhytomyr prepared a full church service for the martyr Gabriel, printed at the Dormition Monastery in Pochaiv; he also composed a canon in Gabriel’s honour. In 1897, through generous gifts from ordinary believers, a new silver casket was made to hold Gabriel’s holy relics.
The 1930s brought a new wave of church and monastery closures, and the Holy Trinity Slutsk Monastery fell victim. The martyr’s relics were moved to Minsk and placed on display in a museum of atheism. In 1942, believers transferred the relics to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Minsk.
The Transfiguration Cathedral in Minsk was dismantled in the 1960s.
During 1943–1944, Father Alexei Znosko, priest at the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in Svisloch village, wrote an akathist hymn honouring Gabriel. In July 1944, Gabriel’s relics were again moved from Minsk to Grodno’s Protection Cathedral. Finally, on 21–22 September 1992, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II, a solemn procession brought Gabriel’s holy relics from Grodno to Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Białystok, where they now remain.
Since 1993, each year on 2 – 3 May, believers carry Gabriel’s relics from Białystok to the Convent of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos, built in his birth village of Zverki. There the relics stay throughout summer until 21 September, when another solemn procession returns them to Białystok. The Church honours Saint Gabriel’s memory on 3 May and on the third Sunday after Pentecost (the Sunday of All Saints of Belarus). The Polish Orthodox Church also commemorates him on 20 September — the day his relics arrived in Białystok.
The reliquary with the relics of the child martyr Gabriel in the Convent of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God in his home village of Zverki (Poland)
The infant martyr Gabriel serves as an advocate and healer of children. Over more than three centuries, thousands of reports of his kind help have been noted. Today he is the heavenly patron of the Fellowship of Orthodox Youth in Poland, and Orthodox Churches throughout the world celebrate his memory. Churches are built in his honour, and small portions of his relics are reverently preserved in churches across Belarus, Russia, and Poland.
Yet, alongside the deep reverence shown by millions of Orthodox Christians, the circumstances of his death have long been a source of religious and political contention. The extent to which evil avoids being exposed is seen in the repeated efforts by different church and non-church figures, as well as some Jewish groups, who tried to persuade the Russian Church’s leadership to “remove the infant saint Gabriel from the number of the saints.”
Regrettably, the Polish Orthodox Church has recently altered the troparion and kontakion for the holy Martyr Infant Gabriel, originally composed in 1752 by Archimandrite Dosifei (Goliakhovsky) of the Slutsk Monastery and still used in worship.
Originally, the troparion (Tone 5) read: "O holy child Gabriel, for Him who was pierced for our sake by the Jews, you too were cruelly pierced in your side; for Him who poured out His blood for us, you also gave your whole body to wounds and bloodshed. Now you dwell with Him in eternal glory; remember us also, we pray, who honour your memory here on earth, asking health for our bodies and salvation for our souls."
In the Polish Orthodox Church today, this troparion has been altered to read: "O holy child Gabriel, for Him who was pierced for our sake by wicked people, you too were cruelly pierced in your side…"
Likewise, the original kontakion (Tone 6) stated clearly: "Your homeland was Zverki, O martyr of Christ Gabriel; there you were snatched away by true beasts — the Jews. At once deprived of your parents, you suffered greatly one torment after another, until at last you entered your heavenly homeland. Deliver us too from every trial and sorrow here on earth, we pray you; intercede that we may inherit eternal life."
This kontakion has now been replaced with a more "politically acceptable" version: "Born in the God-protected village of Zverki, O martyr Gabriel of Christ, there you spent your childhood. From your father's house you were deceitfully stolen away by wicked people and endured many cruel torments…"
The Church of the Child Martyr Gabriel in Minsk
How important these precise words are in Orthodox worship texts is made clear by the case of the new martyr John Vostorgov. For indeed, the Church is "the pillar and ground of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15).
In 1915, amid the Great War, Bishop Vladimir of Białystok, seeking to safeguard a sacred relic, sent the ark containing a particle of the relics of the child martyr Gabriel to Moscow. There, the relics found a home in the Cathedral of the Protection on Red Square — better known to many as Saint Basil's Cathedral. The cathedral's rector, Archpriest John Vostorgov, deeply honoured the memory of young Gabriel. He grew to love this saint with all his heart, holding weekly prayer services before the relics and preaching moving sermons to his congregation about Gabriel's suffering and martyrdom.
Holy Newmartyr John Vostorgov
After the October Revolution, however, this faithful devotion drew the anger of the new authorities. Archpriest John was falsely accused of various crimes, including "reciting the troparion to the child Gabriel." In fact, the main "evidence" used against him was precisely this — the words of the troparion and kontakion engraved on Gabriel's reliquary, before which Father John had often prayed. Perhaps even then, these two saints were already bound together by unseen threads in Heaven. In August 1918, this eloquent preacher of Moscow, Archpriest John Vostorgov, was executed by firing squad. The entire clergy of Saint Basil's Cathedral — including even its caretaker — were also arrested, and soon afterwards the cathedral itself was closed.
The authorities banned the troparion and kontakion dedicated to young Gabriel. Their official ruling declared these prayers "clearly counter-revolutionary," claiming they corrupted the minds of working people. Anyone caught reciting them publicly was to be prosecuted. Concerning the relics themselves, a decree from Moscow's People's Court on 5 December 1919 stated: "The box containing remains of the so-called martyr Gabriel is to be handed over to judicial authorities as material evidence of criminal activity, for further transfer to an appropriate place. This box and all its contents have been placed in custody at the Museum of Criminology under the Main Directorate of the Militia" (from the journal Revolution and Church, 1919; no. 6–8).
Among the countless saints known fully only to the Lord, we find many martyrs who willingly offered themselves as "a living sacrifice." These courageous souls stood ready to follow Christ wholeheartedly — even unto death — and by their suffering bore witness to Him who is "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6). They showed clearly that life in Christ and with Christ has eternal worth beyond measure. Our reverence towards their sacrifice allows us to share in that same divine life and openly declare our faith. When we honour their deeds, we join in this life and declare our own faith. In such matters, getting the facts right matters deeply so that evil stands exposed and truth wins out. If we blur these lines, we step back from Truth itself — from which may the Lord keep us through the prayers of the infant martyr Gabriel and all His saints. Amen.
O blessed Gabriel, guardian of childlike innocence and bearer of courageous witness in suffering, precious jewel of our land and faithful reprover of those who deny Christ! We sinners come humbly before you, crushed by sorrow for our wrongdoings and ashamed of our faint hearts. With sincere affection we call out to you: do not turn away from us in our impurity, O treasure of purity itself; do not despise our weakness, patient instructor in endurance. Rather, look down from heaven upon our frailty, heal us by your prayers, and teach us to imitate your steadfast loyalty to Christ.
If we cannot bear the cross of trials and sufferings with patience, even then, holy servant of God, do not withhold your merciful help from us. Instead, ask the Lord to grant us relief and comfort. Hear also the prayers of mothers who plead earnestly for their children; intercede before the Lord that He may grant them health and salvation.
There is no heart so hard that it remains unmoved when hearing of your sufferings, holy child. Even if we can offer nothing more than a heartfelt sigh of compassion, still enlighten our minds and hearts through such gentle thoughts. Guide us by God’s grace to mend our lives. Kindle within us a tireless zeal for the salvation of our souls and the glory of God; help us never to forget the hour of death.
Above all, when our final hour draws near, drive far from our souls every tormenting thought and despairing whisper of the evil one. Fill us instead with trust in God’s forgiveness through your powerful prayer. Thus may we praise always — both now and at the end — the boundless mercy of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and your strong protection forevermore. Amen.
Material prepared by the team of obitel-minsk.ru
Photos from the Internet
Sources used:
1. Holy Martyr Infant Gabriel of Białystok (Zabludowski). Gabriel of Białystok, Slutsk, infant (sinkovskoe.ru)
2. Martyr Infant Gabriel of Białystok — Slutsk Diocese (sluck-eparchiya.by)
3. Life of Gabriel of Białystok — Church of Ivye (xram.by)
4. Metropolitan Savva consecrated the monastery church in the homeland of the infant martyr Gabriel in Polish Zverki (sobor.by)
5. Holy Martyr Infant Gabriel of Białystok | Holy Protection Cathedral of Grodno (pokrovgrodno.org)
6. Service to the Holy Martyr Gabriel the Infant, in the year of our Lord 1690, who was martyred in Białystok, whose incorrupt relics remain in Slutsk to this day. — Pochaiv: Typographia Pochaev-Uspensky Lavra, 1908.
7. The case of Archpriest John Vostorgov. Part 2: ru_history — LiveJournal
