Cloud of Witnesses
Reviewed entry
Hieromartyr20th century

Hieromartyr Gregory (Peradze) of Georgia

1899-1942

Also known as Gregory Peradze

A Georgian priest-monk, theologian, and professor who served the Orthodox diaspora in Europe and died in Auschwitz during the Second World War.

November 23New Calendar
Feast Day
December 6Old Calendar
Suggest a correctionContribute
Icon galleryBrowse icons and imagery elsewhere
Commemorated as

The Holy Hieromartyr Gregory (Peradze), Archimandrite of Georgia

Life

Gregory (Grigol) Peradze (1899-1942) was a Georgian priest-monk, patristic scholar, and university professor who served the Orthodox diaspora in interwar Europe and died at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Second World War. Born to a priestly family in the Kakheti region of Georgia, he became one of the leading academic specialists of his generation in Georgian church history and manuscript studies, holding posts at the universities of Bonn and Warsaw while ministering to scattered Georgian Orthodox communities in Paris and elsewhere.

Arrested by German occupation authorities in 1942 for his wartime work on behalf of Jews and other persecuted people, he was deported to Auschwitz, where he died in December of that year. According to the accounts preserved in his commemoration, he gave his life in place of fellow prisoners. The Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him in 1995, and he is commemorated on 23 November (Old Style) / 6 December.

Troparion1 hymnReadHide
TroparionTone 4

By sharing in the ways of the Apostles,
you became a successor to their throne.
Through the practice of virtue, you found the way to divine contemplation, O inspired one of God;
by teaching the word of truth without error, you defended the Faith,
even to the shedding of your blood.
Hieromartyr Gregory, entreat Christ God to save our souls.

Text used with permission of the Orthodox Church in America (oca.org).

Timeline8 momentsReadHide
  1. 31 August 1899Birth in BakurtsikheBorn in the village of Bakurtsikhe in the Kakheti region of Georgia to a priestly family.
  2. 1918Completes seminary in TbilisiGraduated near the top of his class from the Tbilisi Theological Seminary, having entered in 1913, and went on to study at Tbilisi State University while also performing military service for Georgian independence.
  3. 1922-1927Doctoral studies in GermanyStudied theology and eastern languages abroad, earning a doctorate at the University of Bonn with a dissertation on the history of Georgian monasticism, and conducting manuscript research at the British Museum and the Bodleian Library at Oxford.
  4. 1931Monastic tonsure and ordinationTonsured a monk and ordained, becoming the first regular priest of the Georgian Church of St Nino in Paris, which he founded, and founding and editing the Georgian scholarly journal Jvari Vazisa.
  5. 1933-1942Professor of Patrology at WarsawAppointed professor of patrology in the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Warsaw University; he had earlier served as an associate professor at the University of Bonn. He was elevated to archimandrite in 1934.
  6. 4 May 1942ArrestArrested by the German occupation authorities in connection with his work on behalf of Jews and other persecuted people, and later deported to Auschwitz.
  7. 6 December 1942Death at AuschwitzDied at the Auschwitz concentration camp in German-occupied Poland.
  8. September 1995CanonizationCanonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Contributions & Legacy

3 contributionsReadHide

Scholarship and Diaspora Ministry

Peradze was among the foremost academic specialists of his time in Georgian church history and manuscript studies. After completing his doctorate at Bonn with a dissertation on the history of Georgian monasticism, he taught as an associate professor there and lectured on Georgian and Armenian literature, and from 1933 held the chair of patrology in the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at Warsaw University.

Alongside his academic work he ministered to the Georgian Orthodox diaspora in Europe. Tonsured and ordained in 1931, he became the first regular priest of the Georgian Church of St Nino in Paris, a community he founded, and he established and edited the Georgian scholarly journal Jvari Vazisa ('Grapevine Cross'). Through the 1930s he located and studied important Georgian Christian manuscripts in libraries and collections across Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Germany, and Austria.

Arrest and Martyrdom

Following the German occupation of Poland, Peradze used his scholarly standing to protect Georgian cultural treasures and aided Jews and other people targeted by the occupiers. He was arrested in 1942 and deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where he died on 6 December 1942.

The accounts preserved in his commemoration relate that he offered his own life in place of fellow prisoners. By one account he took the blame for a death to spare others from reprisal; by another he entered a gas chamber in place of a Jewish prisoner. The differing versions agree that he died as a martyr in the act of self-sacrifice for others.

Veneration and Memorials

The Georgian Orthodox Church canonized Gregory Peradze in 1995, and he is commemorated on 23 November (Old Style), corresponding to 6 December. He was posthumously awarded the Order of the National Hero of Georgia in 2013.

His memory is marked by a memorial chapel in Warsaw, a museum in his hometown of Bakurtsikhe, and commemorative plaques at the University of Warsaw and at St George's Church in Bakurtsikhe.

Related SaintsShowHide

Browse other saints who share his calling and place.

More Theologians71More Teachers81More Georgia139More Saints Under Communism184More Priests383More Monastics1353
Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org), Lives of the Saints