Nazarius Lezhava

Holy Hieromartyr Nazarius, born Joseph Lezhava, was Metropolitan of Kutaisi in the Church of Georgia. He was born in 1869 in the village of Didi Jikhaishi in Imereti and was killed on 27 August 1924 at Simoneti. The Church of Georgia canonized him as a martyr in 1994.

He was the son of a priest. He received his primary education at the theological school of Kutaisi and graduated from the Tbilisi seminary in 1892. He was ordained deacon and, on 22 February 1893, priest for the Saviour church at Khoni. In these years he lost his wife and two daughters. In 1901 he entered the Theological Academy of Kiev and on 26 August 1904 he was tonsured a monk with the name Nazarius.

In 1905 he graduated from the academy as candidate in theology, with a dissertation on the Cappadocian theological school, and was appointed teacher of homiletics at the Volhynia seminary. From 1907 he headed the theological school at Klevan. In 1910 he was raised to the rank of hegumen. In 1911 he was made abbot of the Hermitage of Saint John the Baptist in the eparchy of Kartli and Kakheti, with the rank of archimandrite, and from 1912 he was superintendent of the monasteries of the same eparchy. In 1916 he became a member of the Georgian-⁠Imeretian Synodal Office.

He joined the Church of Georgia in its restored autocephaly. On 17 November 1918, in the patriarchal cathedral at Mtskheta, he was consecrated bishop of Kutaisi and Gaenati, with the rank of metropolitan.

On 23 February 1921, when the Red Army entered Georgia, the treasures of the churches of Sioni and Svetitskhoveli were placed in four chests and taken to Kutaisi. The Bolsheviks learned where they were hidden and arrested the metropolitan, accusing him of agitation against the government and of concealing church property. He was sentenced to death, a penalty commuted to imprisonment, with confiscation of his property.

In April 1924 he was amnestied and released. He returned to his diocese, which was in grievous condition. He was not allowed into his own residence, which was used as a warehouse, and had to live with his brother.

On 27 August 1924 a delegation from the village of Simoneti came to him asking him to consecrate the village church. The metropolitan went with his companions and consecrated it. That night agents of the secret police burst into the house where they were staying, bound and beat them, and took them to the village council. An extraordinary troika sentenced to death, without trial or inquiry, Metropolitan Nazarius, the priests Simon Mchedlidze, German Jajanidze and Hierotheus Nikoladze, and the deacon Vissarion Kukhianidze. The sentence was carried out the same day.

The Church of Georgia canonized him in 1994 by a decision of its Synod. On 20 July 2012 the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church entered his name in the Synaxis of the Saints of Volhynia, where he had served as a teacher.