Simon of Gareja

Holy Venerable Martyr Simon of Gareja was a monk of the Davit Gareja desert in Georgia and received the crown of martyrdom in the summer of 1851, with six other fathers.

That summer a large band of Dagestanis attacked the Davit Gareja desert. They plundered the monastery, took captive the hieromonks Gerontius and Serapion and the monks Herman, Bessarion, Michael, Otar and Simon, and put them to death as martyrs. The suffering of the fathers of Davit Gareja was described in 1853 by Isaac, a hieromonk of Gelati, a living witness of the plunder.

Simon is commemorated on 25 August, in the new style, in the Georgian tradition; he is not included in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.