Fathers of Gareji Killed by the Lezgins

The Fathers of Gareji Killed by the Lezgins are Shio the New, David, Gabriel and Paul, monks of the David Gareji Lavra in Georgia, killed by Lezgins between 1696 and 1700. They are commemorated on 1 June, old style (14 June, new style).

The David Gareji Monastery was always marked by the number of its monks and by strict struggle; those who fled the vanity of the world found peace of soul here. Shio was from the village of Vezisi in Kartli, of wealthy parents, Papuna and Tamar, who had eight children. After the parents died, his brothers quarrelled and the eldest killed the youngest with a knife. When Shio learned of it, grieved, he resolved to leave the world, in which love of property can make a brother kill his brother. His confessor advised him to go to Gareji and become a monk. The abbot of the time, Father Onopre Machutadze, received him gladly, gave him a cell and an obedience. Through his struggle, humility and love of the brethren, many came to him for counsel, and he often managed the monastery's affairs with the abbot's blessing.

Once the abbot went away on business and left the monastery in Shio's care. After vespers and the meal, a band of Lezgins fell upon the rested community. They seized the priest-⁠monk Shio, together with the monks David, Gabriel and Paul, and put them to death in torments; those who fled were overtaken and cut down with swords. Blood filled the church and the cells; the robbers plundered and burned the holy things and hacked the holy icons with an axe. King Erekle and Catholicos John were grieved and astonished that the Lezgins had come so far. With the catholicos' blessing and the king's command, the martyrs' remains were buried south of the tomb of Saint David of Gareji.