There is a towering
figure in the nation of Georgia’s recent history whose life is tremendously meaningful
for Dixie.
Mr George
Sadzaglishvili (1855-1918; after receiving the monastic tonsure, he was given
the new name Kirion) was the son of a Georgian priest. After his schooling he was active in
educational and Church circles, but his most intense interest early in life seemed
to be uncovering and preserving the history and folklore of the Georgian
people:
In 1880 he graduated from the Kiev
Theological Academy and was appointed assistant dean of the Odessa Theological
Seminary. From 1883 to 1886 Saint Kirion was active in the educational life of
Gori, Telavi, Kutaisi, and Tbilisi. In 1886 he was appointed supervisor of the
Georgian monasteries and dean of the schools of the Society for the Renewal of
Christianity in the Caucasus. He directed the parochial schools, established
libraries and rare book collections within them, and published articles on the
history of the Georgian Church, folklore and literature under the pseudonyms
Iverieli, Sadzagelov, and Liakhveli (the Liakhvi River flows through his native
region of Shida [Inner] Kartli, the central part of eastern Georgia).
. .
.
Bishop Kirion was a tireless researcher,
with a broad range of scholarly interests. To his pen belong more than forty
monographs on various themes relating to the history of the Georgian Church and
Christian culture in Georgia. He compiled a short terminological dictionary of
the ancient Georgian language and, with the linguist Grigol Qipshidze, a History of Georgian Philology.
The South
has figures like Bishop Kirion who have worked tirelessly to reveal and
strengthen Southern culture: Frank
Owsley, Mel Bradford, Richard Weaver, Cleanth Brooks, Donald Davidson, and
others. This connection makes what
Bishop Kirion accomplished for Georgian independence all the more relevant for
us here in Dixie.
Having along
with others demonstrated the uniqueness of the Georgian culture, and her freedom
in the past in governing her religious life, Bishop Kirion made a bold
declaration to restore Georgia’s ancient prerogatives. But his actions resulted in a bitter defeat:
In 1905, at the demand of Georgia’s
intelligentsia (under the leadership of Saint Ilia the Righteous), the regime
formed an extraordinary commission to formally consider the question of the
autocephaly of the Georgian Church. Saint Kirion delivered two lectures to the
commission: one on the reasons behind Georgia’s struggle for the restoration of
an autocephalous Church, and the other on the role of nationality in the life
of the Church. The commission rejected the Georgian claims to autocephaly and
subjected the leaders of the movement to harsh repression.
Like the
South, Georgia’s first attempt at restoring her old freedoms was repulsed quite
harshly. But that did not stop Bp Kirion
and his allies, nor should it stop the South.
And their persistence, with God’s help, would eventually bring about the
desired end:
By the year 1915
the regime had ceased to persecute Saint Kirion. They restored him to the
bishopric and elevated him as archbishop of Polotsk and Vitebsk in western
Russia. He was not, however, permitted to return to his motherland.
In March of 1917
the Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Church declared its autocephaly restored. At
the incessant demands of the Georgian people, Saint Kirion finally returned to
his motherland. One hundred and twenty cavalrymen met him in Aragvi Gorge
(along the Georgian Military Highway) and reverently escorted him to the
capital. In Tbilisi Saint Kirion was met with great honor.
In September of
1917 the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church enthroned Bishop Kirion as
Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia.
The address
of Bp Kirion at his enthronement as Patriarch has the ring of Southern
tenderness to it:
“My beloved
motherland, the nation protected by the Most Holy Theotokos, purified in the
furnace by tribulations and suffering, washed in its own tears: I return to
you, having been separated from you, having sought after you, having grieved
over you, having sought for you and now having returned not as a prodigal son,
but as your confidant and the conscience of your Church.
“I know that in
your minds you are all inquiring, ‘What has he brought back with him? With what
ointment will he heal his wounds? How will he comfort himself in his sadness?’
Consider my words: He came not to
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many
(Matt. 20:28). I, likewise, have come not as a hired servant, but as a faithful
and obedient son!”
The
significance of Georgia regaining her religious independence now becomes
manifest: It was the step that made
political independence possible –
. . .
The rest is
at https://www.reckonin.com/walt-garlington/georgias-quest-for-independence-and-ours.
--
Holy Ælfred
the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!
Anathema to
the Union!
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