Gabriel of Kapsala

Venerable Gabriel of Kapsala was an Athonite monk of the tenth century who hosted the Archangel Gabriel in his cell and received from him the hymn "It is truly meet". He is commemorated on 11 June.

He lived as a hermit at Karyes, in the cell of the Dormition of the Mother of God in today's Pantokrator Monastery, Kapsala, in obedience to a virtuous elder. One evening, when the elder was at the vigil in the church of the Protaton, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to him in the likeness of a monk, and in this vision Gabriel heard from the angel the song "It is truly meet to bless you, O Theotokos...". He spoke with the angel and brought him a slab of stone, on which the archangel's finger engraved, for remembrance, the hymn to the Mother of God (in the year 980). Since then this hymn has spread to all ends of the world.

The venerable man's cell was named "Axion estin" ("It is meet"), the well nearby was called "Song", and the wonderworking icon of the Theotokos before which the hymn was first sung was moved to the church of the Protaton and set behind the Holy Table, where it is to this day. The Protos of the Holy Mountain, the hieromonk Seraphim Thuipolos, of the sixteenth century, wrote about Venerable Gabriel and the archangel's miracle. The venerable man is honoured with other Athonite venerable saints on 11 June, the feast of the wonderworking icon "Axion estin". The service was composed by the hierodeacon Benedict of the Monastery of Saint Panteleimon (1838).