Gabriel of Kavsokalyvia

Gabriel of Kavsokalyvia, with the family name Andrikopoulos, was born in 1916 in a village near Kalavryta. His life, like that of the majority of Athonite fathers, was largely an unknown mystery; what is known comes from his disciple and spiritual son, the hieromonk Christodoulos of Leros, a paralytic, who bears the cross of the wheelchair glorifying God unceasingly.

In the army camp at Corinth he received God's call through a supernatural event. In the confusion caused by a hasty night roll call, the timid and reserved recruit fell and was badly hurt; he bore the pain all night, dragging himself to bed, without anyone noticing the serious fracture of his hip. Hospitalized the next day, he reached great anxiety before the operation. Then, past midnight, the door suddenly opened and a rider with his horse entered the ward, came up to him, touched his leg and went out without saying anything. At dawn the usual visit left speechless the medical staff who had prepared for the operation. As the elder himself later discovered and related, no one else in the ward noticed the wonderful visit of the Holy Great Martyr George. After the army he left for the Holy Mountain and, keeping the ascetic tradition of the old Athonites, never left Athos until his departure to the Lord in 2010. A hidden, humble, insignificant and simple monk, for almost a century, in the hut of the Annunciation, next to that of Saint George, in which the great Porphyrios struggled.

Father Christodoulos left few testimonies. One day Elder Gabriel called him without warning: "Tell the fathers in Leros to pray much. A great temptation is coming." Indeed, soon the scandal with the local bishop broke out, which led to his removal, as Elder Amphilochios of Patmos (d. 1970) had warned him many years before. Another time, when Christodoulos phoned to ask prayer for a father with grave spiritual problems, later the elder told him by himself: "Now he is Theodore." He had already "seen" the priest who had cast off his cassock and returned to the laity. Father Christodoulos had asked whether he could call him whenever he needed, and the elder agreed, as with all who have great boldness before the Lord, like Father Amphilochios or Saint Porphyrios, his neighbour, who said: "When I leave, I will be closer to you. After death distances are abolished." He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.