Peter Kharischirashvili

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Peter Kharischirashvili
File:Petre Kharistchirashvili.jpg
Religion Georgian Greek Catholic Church
Personal
Nationality Georgian
Born 1804
Akhaltsikhe, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire
Died 7 October 1890
Constantinople
Senior posting
Rank Priest
Religious career
Ordination 1842

Peter Kharischirashvili[1] (in Georgian: პეტრე ხარისჭირაშვილი / ხარისჭარაშვილი, born in 1804 or 1805 in Akhaltsikhe, Tiflis Governorate, Russian Empire – 7 October 1890 in Constantinople) was a Georgian Catholic Hieromonk, theologian and public figure, scientist and the founder of the Servites of the Immaculate Conception in Istanbul.

Biography

Early years

Peter Kharischirashvili was born in 1804 or 1805 in Akhaltsikhe, according to most sources.[2][3] According to his tombstone, Kharischirashvili was born on May 2, 1818, which is the date accepted by Zakaria Chichinadze.[3] Meanwhile, other sources give his birth date as April 20, 1818.[4]

He studied at the parochial school and later went to study at the seminary in Gyumri, and finally to Rome to study Superior Theology.

Priesthood and last years in Georgian lands

In 1842 he returned to Akhaltsikhe, there he was ordained, and was appointed assistant archimandrite to Pavle Shahqulianis.[2][4] His return to Georgia also meant an awareness and a determination to fight so that Catholic Georgians could worship God in their native Byzantine Rite in the traditional Old Georgian liturgical language.[2][5]

Kharischirashvili captivated his faithful thanks to his eloquent preaching. Despite obeying the law and offering only the Badarak in Classical Armenian, he preached in the vernacular Georgian language. He worked hard to improve the situation of his people, exempting the dowry for women with few resources, and teaching people to read and write.[2] His authority, however, aroused suspicions among the Armenians. The tensions reached their highest point when the Armenians announced the decision to build a seminary at Akhaltsikhe and Shahqulianis supported them. Kharischirashvili faced him and, finally was sent to Khizabavra, and from there to Vale.[2]

In the 1850s he was transferred to Khizabavra (today's Aspindza region).

Sacerdotal life abroad

In 1856 he moved to Venice, where he joined the Armenian Catholic Church's Mekhitarist Congregation. He founded a Georgian language printing press and published a number of significant historical and theological books in the Georgian language on San Lazzaro Island. Kharischirashvili also translated books from Armenian, which he had found in the library of the Mekhitarist community. Thanks to his work, Pope Pius IX allowed him to found a new Georgian religious congregation on May 7, 1859 in Constantinople and also a typikon there.[2][4] Approval was given for the use of three rites, Roman Rite, Armenian Rite, and the Byzantine Rite in the traditional Old Georgian liturgical language.

Upon his arrival he founded the congregation of the Servites of the Immaculate Conception and began to celebrate the Byzantine Rite Divine Liturgy in Old Georgian.[2] A convent of nuns and a Catholic school were also founded. Each year the school had more than 100 students, many of whom were former Georgian serfs whose freedom was purchased by Fr. Kharischirashvili himself, and others who came from Georgia.[2] His work also attracted Orthodox and Muslim Georgians.[2]

In 1861, Fr. Kharischirashvili founded the first parish of the Georgian Greek Catholic Church in one of the most prestigious districts of Istanbul. As the Roman and Armenian Rites were the only Rites permitted by the House of Romanov for Catholics in Georgia within the Russian Empire, the Byzantine Rite in Old Georgian was offered mainly by the Servites at Constantinople, which was seen as the mother-house of their congregation.

Fr. Kharischirashvili spoke eight languages, but he paid particular attention to education in Georgian. In addition to theological work, his congregation and school have also had a significant influence upon the Georgian language, its grammar, literature, and history. Their pupils were also taught excerpts from Shota Rustaveli's The Knight in the Panther's Skin. The students were also taught Latin and French.

The school's students included, among others, Fr. Michel Tamarati and Mikheil Tarkhnishvili. In 1870, he founded a new Georgian printing press in Constantinople, and distributed many of the books free of charge to poor people. He paid special attention so that ever book was grammatically correct. Among the published works is the publication of poetry "ყვავილების კონა" (qvavilebis kona). The good march of the congregation caused that a new house and printer in Montauban (France) also had been opened in that decade. Only in 1877-81, this printout was printed and spread over 25 different books in Georgia. The Georgian language was used to protect and started to affect its grammar. While the Georgian Orthodox Church had lost its autocephaly to the Tsarist civil servants of the Most Holy Synod and was forbidden to participate in the development of the Georgian language and it's literature, the Istanbul monastery continued the work of Gregory of Khandzta and laid the foundation for the subsequent mass revival of Georgian language education by Prince Ilia Chavchavadze.

Death and legacy

He died on October 7, 1890 in Istanbul (other sources say October 9).[4] His headstone says:

OSSA PETRI CARISCIARANTI / GEORGIA DOMO DOMO AKALCIK / SERVORUM / ANCILLARUMQUE VIRGINIS / AB IMMACULATO CONCEPTU / INSTITUTORIS / AC MODERATORIS GENERALIS PRIMI / PIISSIMA VITA CESSIT / VII ID OCT MDCCCXC / VIXIT ANNOS LXXII MONTHS V TWELFTH XXVI RI P ".[6]

According to Father Christopher Zugger, nine Servite missionaries from Constantinople, headed by Exarch Shio Batmanishvili, came to the newly independent Democratic Republic of Georgia to permanently establish Catholicism of the Byzantine Rite in Old Georgian there, and by 1929 their faithful had grown to 8,000.[7] Tragically, their mission came to an end with the arrests of Exarch Shio and his priests by the Soviet secret police in 1928, their imprisonment in the Gulag at Solovki prison camp, and their subsequent murder by Joseph Stalin's NKVD at Sandarmokh[8] in 1937.[9]

Bibliography

  • ბლუაშვილი, უჩა (2008). მესხეთის სახელოვანი შვილები / Славные сыновья Месхети (in Georgian and Russian). საქართველოს პარლამენტის ეროვნული ბიბლიოთეკა. pp. 70-76, 175-180. ISBN 978-9941-0-1076-7.
  • ჭიჭინაძე, ზაქარია (1895). აბატი პეტრე ხარისჭირაშვილი. შარაძისა და ამხანაგობის სტამბა.
  • Dalleggio, Eugène; Čičinaże, Zak'aria (2003). İstanbul Gürcüleri (in Turkish). Translated by Fahrettin Çiloğlu. Sinatle Yayınları. pp. 43-50. ISBN 9789758260157.
  • კურტანიძე (Kurtanidze), ლ (L) (2002). "პეტრე ხარისჭირაშვილი და" სიბრძნე კაცობრივი " ". კავკასიის მაცნე / Caucasian Messenger (5). ISSN 1512-0619.

References

  1. ↑ Also written as Carisciarian, Caristchiarianti, Karishiaranti, Kharistchirashvili, Kharistshirashvili, Harisçiraşvili, Krischiaranti, Харисчирашвили.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 ბლუაშვილი, უჩა (2008). მესხეთის სახელოვანი შვილები / Славные сыновья Месхети (in Georgian and Russian). საქართველოს პარლამენტის ეროვნული ბიბლიოთეკა. pp. 70-76, 175-180. ISBN 978-9941-0-1076-7.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Zakaria Chichinadze (1895). აბატი პეტრე ხარისჭირაშვილი . შარაძისა და ამხანაგობის სტამბა.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Dalleggio, Eugene; Čičinaże, Zak'aria (2003). İstanbul Gürcüleri (in Turkish). Translated by Fahrettin Çiloğlu. Sinatle Yayınları. p. 44. ISBN 9789758260157.
  5. ↑ In the Russian Empire the Byzantine liturgy was reserved for the Georgian Orthodox, and Catholics could only celebrate the Armenian rite (Armenian language) or Roman rite (in Latin language).
  6. ↑ Natsvlishvili, Natia (2015). "A struggle for identity: Georgian Catholics and their monastery in Istanbul". Caucasus Survey 3 (1). ISSN 2376-1199
  7. ↑ Zugger & 2001 The Forgotten: Catholics of the Soviet Union Empire from Lenin through Stalin, p. 213.
  8. ↑ Zugger 2001, p. 236.
  9. ↑ Zugger 2001, p. 259.

External links

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