Giorgi Mkheidze

Venerable Giorgi Mkheidze was an archimandrite and Georgian monk, born in 1887 and died in 1960 (1962 by other sources), venerated as a saint. He came from an impoverished princely family. In his youth, feeling the monastic call, he left the military school in Petersburg and for a time lived as a hermit. He became known for mercy and unacquisitiveness: if he met a poor man he would take off his clothes and give them to him, and if they were his last he would dress in sackcloth. Before coming to Bethany he lived at Hiri monastery, closed in 1924; the same year he came to Bethany.

Two of his brothers were communists, one of them, Peter, a deputy of Beria. Wanting to turn him from chastity, the brothers once locked him in a room with a loose woman; Giorgi stood in a corner the whole time, facing the wall, reading prayers. Both brothers died in 1938: Ivan shot himself, and Peter was shot with his wife. In the years of persecution, thanks to Fathers Ioane and Giorgi, Bethany remained a monastic place for many years; officially they were "guardians of an architectural monument", but services were held in the church. Five years before his death Father Giorgi received the great schema with the name Ioane. Both fathers are buried at Bethany. They are commemorated on 8 September (new style; 21 September on the Julian calendar of Georgia).