Parish Clergy
Father Gabriel Gadah, Proistaminos
Voice: +1 (352)-245-0499
Email: frgabriel@stmarksgoc.org
Father Gabriel Gadah grew up in Sarasota, Florida and attended Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church. Upon graduation from High School, Father Gabriel enlisted in the United States Navy and was Honorably Discharged in 1991. Upon completion of his military service, Father Gabriel attended Manatee Community College and earned an Associates of Science Degree and went on to the University of South Florida and earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting.
Upon graduating from USF in 1996, Father Gabriel remained in the Tampa, Florida area for 8 years working in the banking, finance and telephone industry. In 2003 Father Gabriel heard the calling to enter the priesthood through his grandmother and shipmate, Father Michael Lambakis. Father Gabriel earned his Masters of Divinity from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, Massachusetts in 2008. After graduation he was assigned as the pastoral assistant to Saint John the Divine in Jacksonville, Florida. After taking a short break, in 2012 he was assigned, as the pastoral assistant, to Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Houston, Texas. At Annunciation, Father Gabriel would meet his beautiful Presbytera Dorian and were married in 2014. The two of them have been blessed with three beautiful children, Basil, Tabitha and Simon.
Father Gabriel served at Annunciation for nine years and was blessed to be able to be a part of a very vibrant and active community. While at Annunciation, Father Gabriel served along side Father Michael who both had served in the US Navy together on the same ship and in the same department. Father Gabriel was ordained to the Holy Deaconate in 2015 and the Holy Priesthood in 2016. Over his nine years at Annunciation, he watched the Cathedral expand and grow. In the summer of 2021, Father Gabriel, with the Blessing of both His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver and His Eminence Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta, would receive his new assignment to Saint Mark Greek Orthodox Church beginning August 15, 2021.
Father Gabriel enjoys tinkering with electronics/computers and enjoys spending as much time as possible with his family helping Presbytera raise their three children.
Father George Papadeas of Blessed Memory, Founder and Former Priest
Partial Timeline
Although not his native tongue, Father George Papadeas spoke and typed the Greek language more eloquently than most Greeks. He could easily address Heads of State and he often did.
All that Fr. George set out to do, he did and did well. He would always say to his five children, in Greek, “Meeya, keh Kallo” which translated was “Do it once and Do it well”.
He lived his life by this teaching, accomplishing more than can be imagined of one individual who took Pride in everything that he did.
The Greek Orthodox faith lost a Pioneer of their Church. Father George Papadeas, born in Altoona, Pennsylvania to Greek Immigrants in 1918, died at the age of 93 from complications of congestive heart failure on Friday morning, November 18, 2011.
Prior to 1937, Greek Priests in America were imported from Europe to serve their Greek American faithful but World War II changed that. The Greek Orthodox Church in America realized that they needed to teach and produce their own Priests to serve the growing Church in America. George Papadeas enrolled in the Charter class of the newly formed Greek Theological Seminary at Pomfret Center, Connecticut.
Graduating Valedictorian in 1942, he then became the very first American Born Clergyman to be Ordained into the Greek Orthodox Church. As it turned out, he also became the longest actively serving Priest in the same church with over 69 Years of continuous service to the Church.
Throughout his career as a Priest, Fr. Papadeas was instrumental to the growth of the Greek Church in America. He broke new ground initiating many firsts and he created many programs that are still in use throughout parishes across the country.
Father Papadeas was passionate and driven, truly a “Jack of all trades”, but also a Master of Many. He could perform Services on Sunday and soon after swing a hammer like a seasoned carpenter… he actually did so in the construction of the altar of the new Church in Long Island. In the late 50’s, Fr. George generated the keyboard layout for Greek language typewriters to make it easier for American typists. He gave it to the Smith-Corona Typewriter Company for use in the construction typewriters for the Greek speaking community worldwide.
In 1960, at The St. Paul’s Cathedral on Long Island which he had founded only a few years earlier he brought a Weeping Icon of the Virgin Mary that began to tear in the middle of the night at the house of his parishioner, Pagona Catsounis. Hundreds of thousands from all faiths witnessed that manifestation and in 1990 was named by New York Newsday as one of the most significant events of the last 50 years. Then Vice President Nixon summoned him to the Whitehouse to hear the firsthand account of what had transpired and in 1990, on the 40th Anniversary of the Manifestation, Fr. George wrote his accounts in a book aptly titled, “Why Did She Cry?”
In 1963, Fr. George was the first to translate the Orthodox Holy Week Easter Services from Greek into English and subsequently published the book Holy Week Easter that has been used in communities Worldwide and considered the “gold standard”. The Retired Greek Clergy of America stated in their newsletter recently that “This Book saved Holy Week for our Orthodox Churches in America”
Fr. George went on to become the Dean of the Archdiocesan Cathedral in New York City and then continued his service in Greece and finally in Florida. His positions and accomplishments are too many to list but a partial history can be seen at www.FatherGeorgePapadeas.com.
Amongst countless recognition, he received the Order of Phoenix medal from the King of Greece in 1966 and was given the singular title of Head Protopresbyter by The Archbishop of North and South America, an honor given to only one Priest per lifetime.
Fr. Papadeas’ impact on the Greek Orthodox Religion and its followers was far reaching. He never retired, starting a New Greek Orthodox Community in Ocala at age 86 which he drove to by himself until just a few months before his passing. Father George Papadeas was 93.