Euthymius

Saint Euthymius Takaishvili, called the "Man of God," was a Georgian historian, archaeologist and professor, born on 3 January 1863 in the village of Likhauri in the Ozurgeti district of Guria, to a noble family. He was orphaned young and raised by an uncle.

He studied at the classical high school in Kutaisi, graduating in 1883 with a silver medal, and then history and philology at Saint Petersburg University until 1887. He returned to Georgia and gave himself to scholarship. In 1895 he married Nino Poltoratskaya. He gathered historical, archaeological and ethnographic materials from all over the country, and his interests covered history, archaeology, ethnography, epigraphy, numismatics, philology and art history.

In 1889 he founded the Exarchate Museum of Georgia, which kept ancient manuscripts, sacred objects and copies of frescoes from old churches. In 1907 he established the Society for Georgian History and Ethnography, which organized expeditions, among them one to the south-⁠west of the country, where the population had been Islamized. The people there, though they no longer spoke Georgian, received him with great respect. He was one of the nine professors who founded Tbilisi University in 1918, and he pressed for the restoration of the autocephaly of the Georgian Church.

Exile and return

On 11 March 1921 the Georgian government went into exile in France, and Euthymius was entrusted with guarding the state archive and the nation's spiritual and cultural treasures. He and his wife accompanied them to France. Hard years of exile followed, in which others laid claim to the treasures: according to the accounts, even the French government and the heir of a Georgian official, and during the Second World War the Nazis searched his apartment.

After the victory over Nazi Germany, the treasures and their guardian were flown back to the homeland on 11 April 1945. Stepping onto Georgian soil, Euthymius bowed and kissed the earth. He was received with honor, his professorship was restored, and he was recognized as an active member of the Academy of Sciences.

Last years

In 1951 the political police arrested his stepdaughter Lydia Poltoratskaya, and Euthymius, seriously ill, was left without his caregiver. In 1952 he was forbidden to lecture at the university he had helped to found and was kept under house arrest. Many tried to visit him but could not. He died of a heart attack on 21 February 1953, and about forty people followed him to the grave.

On 10 February 1963, the centenary of his birth, his body was moved to the Didube Pantheon in Tbilisi. When the grave was opened, it was found that not only the body but also his clothing and footwear had remained unchanged. His relics were moved once more, to the Pantheon beside the church of Saint David of Gareji on Mtatsminda, where they remain today. His wife's remains were brought from France and laid beside him in 1987.

The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him on 17 October 2002. He is commemorated on 3 January (new style; 16 January on the old calendar).