A Brief Biography of Igumen Gabriel

Igumen Gabriel converted to Holy Orthodoxy as a young man and was received into the Faith at All Saints Orthodox Church in Raleigh, NC in June 2007. His desire for the monastic life brought him to Holy Cross Monastery in the summer of 2010, and he was clothed as a novice by Bishop George on the eve of Forgiveness Sunday in 2011. 

After completing the novitiate and a short interval as a ryassaphore-monk, he made his monastic profession and received the tonsure into the small schema on the feast of St. Benedict in March 2014. A few months later, he was ordained to the deaconate by Bishop George on the Feast of Holy Pentecost, and to the priesthood the following day on the Feast of the Holy Spirit.

After many years of serving as the monastery treasurer and dean, Hieromonk Gabriel was elevated to the rank of Igumen on the monastery’s patronal feast, the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, in September 2024.

During Great Lent of 2025, Archimandrite Seraphim announced his intention to step down from the abbacy due to his terminal cancer diagnosis. On Palm Sunday, the senior fathers of the monastery convened and prayerfully elected Fr. Gabriel to succeed Fr. Seraphim. With the blessing of Metropolitan Nicholas, Bishop Luke of Syracuse officially installed Igumen Gabriel as the monastery’s new abbot in August later that year, entrusting to him the abbatial staff on the feast of the monastery’s heavenly protector, the Holy Great-Martyr and Healer Panteleimon.