Romanoz Chikhladze

Saint Romanoz Chikhladze was a Georgian archpriest who was shot in 1937. He was born in 1879 in the village of Gordi in the Khoni district, into a priest's family. He finished the Kutaisi gymnasium with a diploma of distinction, then went to Ukraine and entered the Theological Academy of Kyiv. His fellow student Kornelii Kekelidze said in a public lecture that Father Romanoz was an outstanding student in learning and diligence, with perfect command of Russian, ancient Greek, Latin and German and good knowledge of philosophy, theology and literature. He also knew chemistry, physics, mathematics and bookkeeping.

After ordination he served for a time at the church of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Khoni, then returned to Gordi. He was a helper and defender of the poor. When illness appeared in the parish he went in person to the sick and did not leave them until they were healed; a dead person without kin he honoured, served the funeral and escorted to the grave. For his tireless service to Christ the authorities put him under special watch. His only offence was the priesthood. The state could not make him put off the cassock and cross, so he was arrested three times and cruelly tortured, and in 1937, by the decision of the troika attached to the central government of the republic, he was shot in the surroundings of Metekhi, at Tbilisi. In the same period his brother-⁠in-⁠law, the priest Ambrosi Kukhalashvili, was also shot.