Grigol Peradze
Grigol Peradze (
St. Priest Martyr Grigol), (
September 13,
1899 -
December 6,
1942) was a famous
Georgian ecclesiastic figure,
theologian, historian,
Archimandrite,
PhD of History, Professor.
Grigol Peradze was born in the village of
Bakurtsikhe, in the
Gurjaani district of the
Kakheti region, in Eastern
Georgia. His father, Romanoz Peradze, was a priest.
In 1918 Peradze graduated from the
Tbilisi Theological Seminary, and afterwards studied at the
Tbilisi State University until 1921.
On
February 25, 1921, Georgia was occupied by Soviet
Russia. Grigol Peradze went into exile in Germany in November the same year.
In 1926 he graduated from the
University of Bonn (
Germany). In 1927 he received a PhD degree in History (the title of his PhD thesis was
"History of the Georgian Monasticism from its creation until 1064").
From 1927 - 1932 Peradze was an Associate Professor at the
University of Bonn. From 1933 - 1942 he was a Professor of
Patrology at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology of
Warsaw University, in
Poland.
In 1931, Grigol Peradze was ordained a priest in the
Greek Orthodox Cathedral of
London; in 1934, he received the rank of Archimandrite. In 1931, he founded a Georgian St. Nino
Orthodox church in
Paris. In the same year he began to publish a Georgian scientific journal titled
"Jvari Vazisa" ("Cross of Vine").
In the 1930s, Peradze discovered numerous important written manuscripts of Georgian Christian culture in
Romania,
Bulgaria,
Greece,
Italy,
Germany, and
Austria (Georgian manuscripts of the Typicon of the Georgian
Petritsoni Monastery (Bachkovo,
Bulgaria), the so-called
Tischendorf manuscripts of the Apagae of the Monastery of the Holy Cross at the University Library in the
University of Leipzig, Germany, etc.).
Peradze's fruitful ecclesiastic and scientific activities were brought to an end in 1942 when, on
May 4, he was arrested by the German
Gestapo. On
December 6,
1942, Grigol Peradze was killed in the
Nazi concentration camp of
Auschwitz (
Oswiecim) when he entered a gas-chamber instead of a Jewish prisoner who had a large family.
Main fields of scientific activity of Grigol Peradze were: the history of the
Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church, source studies of the history of Georgia and the Georgian Church,
Patrology, history of Georgian literature,
Rustvelology (
Shota Rustaveli was a great Georgian poet of the 12th century), etc.
Grigol Peradze was canonized by the
Georgian Orthodox and Apostolic Church in 1995. The Feast Day for St. Priest Martyr Grigol is
December 6.
* Die Anfänge des Mönchtums in Georgien.- "Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte", 47, Heft 1, Stuttgart, 1928, pp. 34-75 (in German)
* L'activité littéraire des moines géorgiens au monastère d'Iviron au mont Athos.- "Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique", 27, Fasc. 3, Paris, 1927, pp. 530-539 (in French)
* Über das georgische Mönchtum.- "Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift", 34, Heft 3, Bern, 1926, pp. 152-168 (in German)
* Die Probleme der ältesten Kirchengeschichte Georgiens.- "Oriens Christianus", 29, Bd. 7, Wiesbaden, 1932, pp. 153-171 (in German)
* Zur vorbyzantinischen Liturgie Georgiens.- "Le Museon", 42, Fasc. 2, Louvain, 1929, pp. 90-99 (in German)
* Les Monuments liturgiques prébyzantins en langue géorgienne.- "Le Museon", 45, Fasc. 4, Louvain, 1932, pp. 255-272 (in French)
* The Liturgy of Saint Peter.- "Kyrios", 2, Fasc. 3, 1937, pp. 260-262
* An Account of the Georgian Monks and Monasteries in Palestine as revealed in the Writings of Nongeorgian Pilgrims.- "Georgica", 2, Vol. 4-5, London, 1937, pp. 181-246
* Über die Georgischen Handschriften in Österreich.- "Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes", 47, Heft 3-4, Wien, 1940, pp. 219-232 (in German)
* Im Dienste der Georgischen Kultur.- "Aus der Welt des Ostens", Königsberg, 1940, pp. 30-50 (in German)
* Victor Nozadze. "Grigol Peradze".- Georgian journal "Mamuli", Buenos-Aires, No 5, 1952
* Tamar Dularidze. About the life and death of Grigol Peradze.- "Russkaia Misl", New York, 13-19.VII, 1995 (In Russian)
* "Artanuji" (The Georgian historical scientific journal), Tbilisi, No 11, 2003 (Special issue: Grigol Peradze), 120 pp (In Georgian)
*
Świadkowie XX wieku - Grzegorz Peradze (in Polish)*
A Georgian Saint (Grigol Peradze) by Lukas Vischer.- The Ecumenical Review, January, 2000*
Sviaschennomuchenik Arkhimandrit Grigorii (Peradze) (in Russian)
