Euthymius Shervashidze

Holy Hieromartyr Euthymius Shervashidze was Metropolitan of Gelati in Georgia from 1776 to 1820. He was born in 1746 and reposed on 21 April (3 May) 1822 at the Alexander-⁠Svirsky Monastery in Russia, where he had been sent into exile. He was at first under the jurisdiction of the Catholicosate of Abkhazia, and from 1814 under that of the Georgian Exarchate of the Russian Church. The Church of Georgia numbered him among the saints in 2005. His commemoration is on 21 April.

He was born into the family of the Gurian eristavi Christopher Shervashidze. His uncle was Metropolitan Maxim III of Jumati, and his spiritual guide was the Catholicos-⁠Patriarch of Abkhazia Joseph (Bagrationi). A charter of 1767 names him as Metropolitan of Jumati.

He was a supporter of the union of Georgia. In 1789, together with Metropolitan Dositheus (Tsereteli) of Kutaisi, he led the delegation sent by King Solomon II to Kartli-⁠Kakheti, to King Erekle II, with a proposal to unite the two kingdoms. The talks did not succeed. He gave generously and busied himself zealously with church building. A charter of 7 April 1787 records that he restored the church of Saint Nicholas in the Gelati Monastery and gave it peasants; in 1790 he gave the church of Saint George in the village of Gamochinebuli peasants bought with his own funds from the estates of Georgian eristavis; in 1804 he gave the village of Boslevi to the Gelati Monastery; and in the village of Mukhakrua he built a church at his own expense and endowed it with peasants.

From 30 August 1814 he was under the jurisdiction of the Georgian Exarchate. In 1819, together with Dositheus Tsereteli, he stood at the head of the church revolt against the reforms of Exarch Theophylact (Rusanov). In the night of 4 March 1820 he was arrested and, together with Archimandrite Gregory (Tskitishvili), taken to Novgorod. Then, by order of Emperor Alexander I, they were moved to Saint Petersburg, and from there placed at state expense in the Alexander-⁠Svirsky Monastery. He reposed there and was buried in the sanctuary of the monastery church.

In the summer of 2001 his relics were brought to the Georgian church of the Shestokovo Icon of the Mother of God in Saint Petersburg. On 1 April 2005 they were taken to Tbilisi and placed in the patriarchal cathedral of Sameba, and on 8 April they were carried to the Gelati Monastery, where they were laid to rest the next day in the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God, to the right of the iconostasis. On 27 May 2005 the Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him as a hieromartyr.