Gabriel of Thessalonica

Gabriel of Thessalonica was hierarch of Thessalonica at the turn of the fifteenth century. He died in 1416. He is considered a saint according to a Bulgarian source. Our sources give no day of commemoration.

He came of a family of clergy of Thessalonica and studied under the hieromonk Macarius Choumnos. In 1383 he settled in Constantinople and distinguished himself in church circles, becoming abbot of the Chora monastery and overseer of all the monastic institutions of the Byzantine capital. In 1389 he was elected metropolitan of Chalcedon and won the esteem of the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos as a capable and prudent hierarch. About 1397 (by another source, in 1395) he returned to his native city and, through his character and authority, imposed himself on the conquerors and obtained privileges for the people of Thessalonica. He took the lead in the negotiations for the evacuation of the city by the Turkish troops (1402 according to one source, 1403 according to another).

At Thessalonica he succeeded Isidore Glabas in the metropolitan see, in hard times, for in the meantime the city had been taken by the Turks (1387 according to a Greek source, 1391 according to a Bulgarian one). According to the Bulgarian source he was metropolitan of Thessalonica from 1393 to 1416.