Finding of the relics of the Righteous St Gamaliel

Commemorated on August 2
 
St Gamaliel was a Pharisee, a doctor of the Law (Acts 5:34), and the teacher of St Paul (Acts 22:3).

In the year 415, St Gamaliel appeared to a priest named Lucian. He was a tall, venerable man with a long white beard. He was dressed in white clothing which was edged with gold and marked with crosses, and held a gold wand in his hand.

Gamaliel called Fr Lucian by name three times, then told him to go to Jerusalem and inform Bishop John to open the tomb where his relics and those of other saints were resting. The priest asked the stranger who he was.

“I am Gamaliel, who instructed the apostle Paul in the Law,” he replied. Then he told the priest where to find the relics of St Stephen. He also revealed that he had taken St Stephen’s body and laid it in his own tomb after it had been lying exposed for a day and a night.

St Gamaliel also mentioned that St Nicodemus was buried at the same spot. “I received him into my house in the country,” he said, “and maintained him there until the end of his life. After his death, I buried him honorably near Stephen.”

St Gamaliel informed the priest that he and his twenty-year-old son Abibas were also buried there. Fr Lucian was afraid to believe this vision right away, lest it be a temptation from the Evil One. However, when St Gamaliel appeared again and commanded him to obey his instructions, he did so.

A monk named Migetius also had a vision of St Gamaliel and told Fr Lucian to search for the relics in a place called Debatalia. When the relics were uncovered, an ineffable fragrance was noticed.

The relics of Sts Stephen, Gamaliel, Abibas, and Nicodemus were transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople in 428 and placed in the church of the holy deacon Laurence (August 10).

SOURCE:

SAINT OR FEAST POSTED THIS DATE 2013(with 2012's link here also and further, 2011, 2010, 2009 and even 2008!)