House and Church of Father Gabriel Urgebadze (Tbilisi City)
Venerable Father Gabriel (Holy Father Saint Gabriel of Samtavro, Confessor and Fool for Christ) (Georgian: წმ. ღირსი მამა გაბრიელი აღმსარებელი-სალოსი) – Father Gabriel of Georgia (Georgian: გაბრიელ ქართველი) , in the yard of his own house, built a small church out of improvised materials. He often said, “To whom the Church is not a mother, to whom God cannot be a father”. Father Gabriel (Georgian: წმინდა მამა გაბრიელ ურგებაძე) found icons for this church in the city dumps, where in those godless years, many shrines were thrown out with the garbage. Father Gabriel had a small workshop where he cleaned icons and made frames for them from different materials. Even photos and pictures of icons from secular magazines he put in frames.
The government destroyed the church four times, and Father Gabriel rebuilt it four times. However, there were also times when first they destroyed it, and the next day they secretly offered money for Father Gabriel to rebuild the destroyed church. After one, another destruction of the church, the chief of police and the secretary of the district committee secretly came to apologize. Originally the church had 7 domes. During the last restoration, Father Gavriil in place of seven, erected a single, high dome. This is the form in which today’s church survived. By the grace of God, the church has survived years of misfortune. In the temple built by Gabriel’s hands, the grace of the Holy Father reigns. His second-hand items are still intact and are becoming more and more valuable with time. Today, Orthodox believers from all over the world come here and ask Father Gabriel for spiritual peace and help
City of Tbilisi (Georgian: ქალაქი თბილისი), Tbilisi Municipality (Georgian: თბილისის მუნიციპალიტეტი)
