Hilarion the New of Georgia

Venerable Hilarion the New of Georgia, a hieroschemamonk, born Ise Qanchaveli, was born in 1776 in the village of Losiantkhevi in the Shorapani district of Kutaisi, to pious and God-⁠fearing noble parents, Khakhuli and Mariam Qanchaveli. He reposed on Mount Athos on 14 February 1864.

Youth and the royal court

His uncle, the hermit hierodeacon Stepane, took him into his care at the age of six. After the uncle's death Ise moved to Tabakini Monastery, and hearing that a seminary had opened in Tbilisi, he set out for it. On the way he visited Bishop Athanasios of Nikozi, who, delighted by the youth's fervent prayers, advised him to go home: "You will learn much more in the wilderness than in any classroom. The Lord, having instructed you in prayer, will lead you on a path that will serve your people and the Church." His father took him to Kutaisi to the court of King Solomon II of Imereti (1789 to 1815), who made him his personal spiritual adviser. At the king's suggestion he married Princess Mariam, was ordained priest and named confessor of the court church, and two years later he was a widower.

When the Russian Empire annexed Kartli-⁠Kakheti, the tsar's court urged Solomon to unite Imereti with Russia. The king called a council of nobles, and it was decided that Imereti would remain independent until his death, after which the tsar's court would take over. The political climate grew tense, the king had to flee to Turkey, and Protopresbyter Ise accompanied him into exile until the king's death in 1815. Then he received an amnesty from Tsar Alexander I, and Queen Mariam summoned him to Moscow, where she was held in "honorable captivity." Ise brought her a piece of the Life-⁠giving Cross that had belonged to the king, and the queen kept it in the court church.

On Mount Athos

Life at the imperial court wearied him, so he exchanged his clothes for beggar's rags and set off for Athos in 1819. He appeared before the fathers as an unknown pilgrim, visited Iviron Monastery and then Dionysiou. In 1821 he was tonsured a monk with the name Hilarion; he was given new garments but asked to stay in his rags. He fulfilled every obedience with love, and was troubled only because he did not know Greek and could not understand the services. He received permission from the abbot to borrow Georgian books from the great library of Iviron. There, as he knelt before the Iveron icon of the Mother of God, a Greek archimandrite who had known him in Moscow recognized him and cried: "Father Ise, holy shepherd, confessor of the king." The news spread through all the monasteries, but Hilarion, ashamed of the attention, withdrew into the wilderness.

In 1822, in reprisal for the Greek uprising of 1821, a pasha, Abdul Robut, surrounded the Holy Mountain with a huge army and ordered the abbots to submit. Among the envoys sent to Chromitsa was Hilarion. Learning that he was Georgian, the pasha, himself of Georgian descent and kidnapped by the Turks in adolescence, was overjoyed and offered him a move to his palace in Thessalonica with every kind of wealth. Hilarion refused and condemned his unbelief. The pasha cursed the Orthodox and the saints, among them the Mother of God, and Hilarion was released while the other monks were taken captive.

Back at the monastery, Hilarion regretted not having answered as he should, and grieved that the pasha kept killing Christians. He asked the abbot's blessing and went to the Turkish court in Thessalonica. There he stood before the pasha and fearlessly refuted his teaching: "You sought to deny the virginity of the Most Holy Mother of God. Even your prophet Muhammad admits that Jesus was born of a Virgin without seed." For three days he confronted the pasha, hoping to provoke an order for his death. On the fourth day he spoke of the falseness of Muhammad, and when asked where people go after death he answered, before believers of many faiths, that only those who truly believe in God, within the Orthodox faith of Christ, will be saved. The crowd demanded his execution and the pasha condemned him. Two servants of the pasha, Georgians by descent, asked that the sentence be revoked, since it would be shameful to kill a compatriot. Instead of martyrdom, Hilarion spent six months serving the sick prisoners of Thessalonica, and then, by God's will, returned to Athos.

Last years

He lived three years as a hermit and then withdrew to the tower of the New Skete, a dependency of Saint Paul's Monastery, for a life of strict asceticism. He ate only what he could draw with his hand from a narrow-⁠mouthed jar and drank one glass of water a day. In his reclusion demons tempted him with terrible visions. Once pilgrims who were not admitted formed a human ladder to reach the window of his cell, and Hilarion, rather than break his vow of reclusion, slipped away into the forest. Weakened by his labors, he left the solitary life. With the help of his friend Benedict the Georgian he recovered some strength and moved to Iviron, where he took charge of the Georgian library, organized a catalog and compiled twelve volumes of lives of saints, entitled The Flower Garden. He gave them to the abbot of Zographou, who published them in Russia in Georgian without naming the compiler.

He reposed at Saint Panteleimon Monastery (the Russikon), in a cell named for the Great Martyr George, on 14 February 1864. Gravely ill, he thanked the Lord to his last day: "Glory to God. I desired martyrdom, but God did not grant it. Instead He sent me an illness which will be equal to martyrdom if I am able to bear it." He asked his disciple Father Savva to bury him in secret, but circumstances later revealed his grave. In 1867, at the vigil of the Ascension, monks opened his burial vault and sensed a sweet fragrance coming from his body; at that moment a hermit saw a bright sphere of light, like the sun, over his cell.

The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him on 17 October 2002 and, to distinguish him from Saint Hilarion the Georgian (commemorated 19 November), called him "Hilarion Kartveli, the New." He is commemorated on 14 February (new style; 27 February on the old calendar).