Gabriel (Jabra) Nasir

Holy Martyr Gabriel (Jabra) Nasir was from Hafa, in the Latakia region of Syria. Once he set off with two companions, also Christians, on a trading trip toward Jisr al-⁠Shughur, accompanied by a Muslim guide. On the road armed men came out against them and shouted: "Accept Islam and you will be saved."

The two companions declared their Islam at once. Gabriel did not accept and stayed in the Christian faith. They began to beat him with rifle butts, and he said only: "I am a Christian." Beaten until his whole body was black and the blood flowed, when he could no longer speak he crossed his index fingers and kissed them. Worn out, he fell unconscious, and the attackers left him thinking him dead. The guide, an honest man, went back to Hafa and told what had happened. The martyr's nephew, Nasim Hanna Elias, went out with Muslim friends, found him and brought him on a mule.

He came to himself but could no longer speak; by signs he showed that he wished to receive Holy Communion. His sister, Euphrosyne, held him on her breast, and the priest gave him the Holy Mysteries, and the martyr gave up his soul. He was buried at the entrance of the town church dedicated to the Archangel Michael. The year of his death is 1918; the day is not known. His relics were lost, because when the church was enlarged the earth at the entrance, with the bones, was cleared away.