According to tradition, six-year-old Gabriel was kidnapped from his home in the village of Zverki (13 km from Zabłudów, Grodno Uezd then Grand Duchy of Lithuania, today's Poland) during the Jewish Passover, while his parents, pious Orthodox Christians Peter and Anastasia Govdel, were working in a nearby field.

[6] When his relics were transferred in 1755 to the Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Slutsk (Russian: Слуцкий Свято-Троицкий монастырь), in the Minsk Guberniya, a placard related that a Jew had been responsible for his death.

On April 11, 1690, a few days before the beginning of Passover, 6 year-old Gavril Belostoksky was found murdered and drained of his blood in his village of Zverki, which was at the time a Belarusian town, but is now in Polish territory.

[8]On July 27, 1997, a film depiction of the legend surrounding Gabriel's death was aired on Belarusian television which was criticised by Leonid Stonov as a move to "exploit the topic of blood libel.

"[9] The revival of the cult in Belarus was cited as an expression of antisemitism in US State Department reports on human rights and religious freedoms,[10] which were passed to the UNHCR.