Simon Mchedlidze

Saint Simon Mchedlidze, hieromartyr, was a Georgian priest, educator and journalist of Western Georgia. He was shot by the Soviet authorities on 1 September 1924, in the repressions that followed the August Uprising of 1924. He was canonized as a holy martyr by the Georgian Orthodox Church on 19 September 1995. His commemoration is on 1 September.

He was born in 1856 in the village of Sviri, in Imereti, in Western Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. He studied at the Tbilisi Theological Seminary and then graduated from the Stavropol Theological Academy. He began his work in education at the old Senaki School of Nobility. In 1891 he moved to Kutaisi, where he founded a private pro-⁠gymnasium. In 1894 he was ordained a priest.

By 1902 he had been appointed head priest of the church of Saint George in his native village of Sviri. He was a prolific editor and publisher and founded several periodicals, among them Shinauri Saqmeebi (Internal Affairs), a weekly published from 1908 to 1916, and Gantiadi (The Dawn), a theological and literary collection of 1913 to 1915. He established the printing house of the Imereti Religious-⁠Educational Brotherhood. In 1918 he founded a secondary school in the village of Lashe, which still operates today.

After the Soviet takeover of Georgia, Mchedlidze remained an active and outspoken figure in the Church. In the repressions following the August Uprising of 1924 he was arrested by the Cheka. On 1 September 1924 he was shot by firing squad in the Sapichkhia forest near Kutaisi, together with Metropolitan Nazarius and other clergymen. On 19 September 1995 the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church canonized him as a Holy Martyr.