Hieromartyr Kirion Of Georgia

Hieromartyr Kirion, secular name George Ieronimovich Sadzaglishvili, was born in 1855 in the village of Nikozi, Gori district, Tiflis Governorate, to a priest's family. He was educated at the Ananuri theological school, the Gori and Tiflis theological seminaries, and the Kiev Theological Academy, graduating in 1880. He served as assistant inspector of the Odessa Theological Seminary, then taught in Gori, Telavi, Kutaisi, and Tiflis, and supervised Georgian monasteries and schools.

In 1886 he was tonsured a monk with the name Kirion and became archimandrite of Kvabtakhevi Monastery. He was a prolific scholar-historian and philologist: he published over 40 monographs on the history of the Georgian Church, folklore, and Georgian Christian culture, compiled a terminological dictionary of Old Georgian, discovered an unknown 1089 Gospel manuscript, and documented the monuments of the Liakhvi Gorge (1898), many of which were later lost.

In 1898 he was consecrated Bishop of Alaverdi, and in 1901, Bishop of Gori. As one of the leading advocates for restoring Georgian church autocephaly, he testified twice before a 1905 Russian imperial commission on the question (rejected at the time). For his stance he was repeatedly transferred by Russian authorities to distant sees — Kherson, Orel, Sukhumi, Kovno; in 1907 he was denied permission to attend the funeral of the Georgian poet Ilia Chavchavadze; in 1908 he was arrested on fabricated conspiracy charges, provoking international appeals for his release. He was rehabilitated by 1915 and elevated to Archbishop of Polotsk and Vitebsk.

The autocephaly of the Georgian Church, abolished in 1811 after Georgia's annexation to the Russian Empire (the Georgian Church was subordinated to the Russian Holy Synod as an exarchate), was proclaimed restored in March 1917 amid the collapse of tsarist authority. Kirion returned to Georgia and became one of the chief architects of the restored autocephalous Church; in the fall of 1917 he was elevated by the Holy Synod of the Georgian Church to the throne of Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, declaring at his enthronement that he came "not as a hired servant, but as a faithful and obedient son." On May 26, 1918, Georgia proclaimed political independence; the next day Kirion led a service of thanksgiving.

On June 27, 1918, Kirion was found dead at the patriarchal residence at Martkopi Monastery. Despite rumors of suicide that circulated, Church tradition unanimously rejects this version as false, holding that he was murdered; the official investigation was regarded as a mere formality, and the perpetrators were never identified (Bolshevik agents or political rivals are variously suspected).

He was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church on October 17, 2002, in the rank of hieromartyrs.

His feast is kept on June 27/July 10.

IMPORTANT CORRECTIONS: category righteous→hieromartyr, title Righteous→Hieromartyr — Kirion was a hierarch and, per the Church's understanding of his violent death, a hieromartyr, not a righteous layman. His secular name has been established as George Sadzaglishvili. life_years_display has been corrected from the meaningless "1st-15th century" to the correct dates (1855-1918). The feast date (June 27/July 10) and the fact of his 2002 canonization, both absent from the stub, have been established.