Gabriel Of Białystok
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Gabriel of Białystok (; ), also known as Gabriel of Zabłudów (; alternatively ''Gavrila'' or ''Gavriil''; – April 20, 1690), is a child saint in the
Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...
and
Polish Orthodox Church The Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church (), commonly known as the Polish Orthodox Church, or Orthodox Church of Poland, is one of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches in full communion. The church was established in 1924, to accommodate O ...
. The story of his death is considered by some authors, specially from the
Jewish community Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
, as an example of antisemitic
blood libel Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mu ...
. His
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
is held on
April 20 Events Pre-1600 * 1303 – The Sapienza University of Rome is instituted by a bull of Pope Boniface VIII. 1601–1900 * 1653 – Oliver Cromwell dissolves England's Rump Parliament. * 1657 – English Admiral Robert Blake destroy ...
(of the
Julian Calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts ...
, which equates to May 3 of the
Gregorian Calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It went into effect in October 1582 following the papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII, which introduced it as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian cale ...
).


Life and canonization

According to tradition, six-year-old Gabriel was kidnapped from his home in the village of Zverki (13 km from
Zabłudów Zabłudów (; ) is a town in Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, seat of Gmina Zabłudów. History The town of Zabłudów was founded in 1553, it was also granted Magdeburg rights, Magdeburg town rights. An annual ...
,
Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...
Uezd An uezd (also spelled uyezd or uiezd; rus, уе́зд ( pre-1918: уѣздъ), p=ʊˈjest), or povit in a Ukrainian context () was a type of administrative subdivision of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the Tsardom of Russia, the Russian Empire, the ...
then
Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...
, today's
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
) during the
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish
Passover Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday and one of the Three Pilgrimage Festivals. It celebrates the Exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Biblical Egypt, Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus, God in ...
, while his parents, pious Orthodox Christians Peter and Anastasia Govdel, were working in a nearby field. Shutko, a Jewish arendator of Zverki, was accused of taking the boy to
Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...
, piercing him with sharp objects and draining his blood for nine days, before bringing the dead body back to Zverki and dumping it in a local field.Saint Gavriil
Belarusian Orthodox Church]
After the discovery of his body, Gabriel was buried in Zverki, in an area of the local cemetery where child plague-fatalities would later be interred. In a funeral of 1720, the grave was accidentally unearthed and the body was found to be incorruptibility, supernaturally incorruptibile; the remains were then transferred to the crypt of Zverki's Orthodox church. Gabriel's cult grew over the years, largely due to reputed healings at his grave. In 1746, the relics were transferred to Zabłudów and then onto various locations. When his relics were transferred in 1755 to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in
Slutsk Slutsk is a town in Minsk Region, in central Belarus. It serves as the administrative center of Slutsk District, and is located on the Sluch (Belarus), Sluch River south of the capital Minsk. As of 2025, it has a population of 59,450. Geography ...
(), in the
Minsk Minsk (, ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach (Berezina), Svislach and the now subterranean Nyamiha, Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the administra ...
Guberniya, a placard related that a Jew had been responsible for his death. His cult developed and spread throughout the
Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
, and he was canonized in 1820. He is considered the
patron saint A patron saint, patroness saint, patron hallow or heavenly protector is a saint who in Catholicism, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy or Oriental Orthodoxy is regarded as the heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, fa ...
of children. In the 1930s the relics were transferred to the Minsk Museum of
Atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...
. In 1944, they were moved to
Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...
, where they stayed until 1992 when they were moved to Białystok (), where they remain the focus of pilgrimages.


Blood libel concerns

Some authorities have expressed concern that veneration of Gabriel of Białystok may be used to foment anti-Semitism. In a 1997 report to the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), first deputy of the Euro-Asiatic Jewish Congress, Yakov Basin suggested:
Contemporary accounts, which claim that Jews murdered a boy in a ritual manner in order to use his blood, are resurrecting the medieval canard that Jews use the blood of Christian babies for their ritual purposes during pre-Passover days. On April 11, 1690, a few days before the beginning of Passover, 6 year-old Gavril Belostoksky was found murdered and drained of his blood in his village of Zverki, which was at the time a Belarusian town, but is now in Polish territory. Soon thereafter, the accusation that he had been murdered by Jews who needed his blood to bake matzoth was spread throughout Belarus. The libel was bolstered in 1844 in
Vladimir Dal Vladimir Ivanovich Dal (, ; 22 November 1801 – 4 October 1872) was a Russians, Russian Lexicography, lexicographer, Multilingualism, speaker of many languages, Turkology, Turkologist, and founding member of the Russian Geographical Society. Du ...
's book, ''Investigation of the Murder of Christian Babies by Jews and the Use of Their Blood.'' The Russian Orthodox Church canonized Gavril in the 20th century as the patron saint of sick children; he is commemorated in the beginning of each May.
On July 27, 1997, a film depiction of the legend surrounding Gabriel's death was aired on Belarusian television which was criticised by Leonid Stonov as a move to "exploit the topic of blood libel." The revival of the cult in
Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...
was cited as an expression of antisemitism in
US State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
reports on human rights and religious freedoms, which were passed to the
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. The autocephalous
Orthodox Church in America The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In ...
, operating within the communion of Russian Orthodoxy, has continued commemoration of Gabriel of Bialystok as a child martyr and saint but refer to his assailants only as "evil people" in the
kontakion A kontakion (Greek , ''kondákion'', plural κοντάκια, ''kondákia'') is a form of hymn in the Byzantine liturgical tradition. The kontakion form originated in Syriac hymnography and gained prominence in Byzantium during the 6th century, ...
read on his
feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
, emphasising "the evil of which fallen man is capable, regardless of ethnicity or creed."


See also

* Antisemitism in the Russian Empire * List of Russian saints *
Simon of Trent Simon of Trent (; , also known as ; 1472–1475), also known as Saint Simon (or Simeon) of Trent, was a young boy from the city of Trento, Trent, in the Prince-Bishopric of Trent (now Trentino, Italy), whose disappearance and death were blamed on ...


References


External links


National-Patriotic Tendencies in the Belarusian Media
by Vyacheslav Feigin, Yakov Basin. The "Judaica Rossica" series, #2.

biography of St. Gavriil, Белорусская Православная Церковь

by David Meltser (Vestnik magazine)
Antisemitism in Belarus (2005)
by Yakov Basin * Great Synaxaristes:
Ὁ Ἅγιος Γαβριὴλ ὁ Μάρτυρας
'' 20 Απριλίου. ΜΕΓΑΣ ΣΥΝΑΞΑΡΙΣΤΗΣ. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gabriel of Bialystok 1684 births 1690 deaths 17th-century Christian saints 17th-century Eastern Orthodox martyrs Antisemitism in Belarus Antisemitism in Russia Blood libel Conspiracy theories in Russia Eastern Orthodox saints from the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Russian Orthodox child saints