Grigol Peradze

Grigol Peradze

Grigol Peradze (also Gregor Peradze Georgian გრიგოლ ფერაძე ; born September 13, 1899 in Bakurziche , Kakheti , Georgia ; †  December 6, 1942 in Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) was a Georgian Orthodox theologian , orientalist and priest monk. In German-occupied Poland he cooperated with the resistance and helped persecuted Jews. In the concentration camp he went to the gas chamber for a fellow inmate . Is venerated by Christians as a holy martyr.

Life

He was born the son of the Georgian and Orthodox priest Romanos Peradze († 1905) and his wife Mariam Samadalašvili († 1932) in the eastern Georgian region of Kakheti (part of the Russian Empire until 1918). He graduated from school in 1913 and attended the Theological Seminary in Tbilisi run by the Russian Orthodox Church until 1918 . He then studied literature and history at the newly founded Tbilisi State University , completed basic training in the army of the Democratic Republic of Georgia and taught at a village school in Manawi.

In 1921, on the recommendation of the head of the re-established Georgian Orthodox Church , Catholicos Patriarch Ambrosius I , he received a grant from the German Orient Mission (DOM) and moved to Berlin , where he learned German, Hebrew and Greek. In 1922 he enrolled at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin , studied theology with Adolf von Harnack and above all Karl Holl as well as oriental languages ​​with Carl Brockelmann . In 1925, on the recommendation of Johannes Lepsius , he went to the University of Bonn , where he continued his studies with Heinrich Goussen , Anton Baumstark and Paul Kahle . After completing his doctoral thesis, he visited the Bollandists in Brussels , the Catholic University of Leuven and the British Museum in London . On December 17, 1927, he officially received his doctorate with the thesis The Beginnings of Monasticism in Georgia in Bonn, then assistant lecturer for oriental studies and lecturer for (Old) Georgian and (Old) Armenian, but not private lecturer , at the University of Bonn . At the Fifth German Orientalist Day in Bonn in 1928, he gave a groundbreaking lecture on "On the pre-Byzantine liturgy of Georgia", more specifically on its importance for research into the ancient church liturgy of Jerusalem and Palestine .

In 1929 the St. Nino Congregation was founded in Paris , the only Georgian Orthodox parish outside Georgia, but organizationally belonging to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople . The community consisted of members of the government-in-exile of the Democratic Republic of Georgia and anti-Soviet regime opponents who had to leave their homeland in 1921 and 1924. In 1931 Peradze was ordained a monk and priest by the Greek Orthodox Bishop for Western Europe, Metropolitan Germanos (Strinopoulos) of Thyateira, and took over the St. Nino parish in Paris as pastor . There he published the yearbook Dschwari Wasisa: La Croix de Sainte Nino until 1934 .

In 1933 the Polish Orthodox Church appointed him as a makeshift professor of patristics at the State Orthodox Theological University in Warsaw . In 1934 the Ecumenical Patriarchate named him an archimandrite with the right to wear a miter because of his scientific and spiritual achievements . Peradze went on research trips to Romania , Greece , Bulgaria , Palestine , Syria , Italy and Austria , discovered and published previously unknown old Georgian manuscripts .

After the German occupation of Poland in 1939, Peradses theological seminars in Warsaw were suspended. He supported the Polish resistance, helped persecuted Jews and Georgians. Georgians in exile who were close to the National Socialists reported him to the occupying power. In May 1942 he was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in Pawiak prison in Warsaw . Poland's Orthodox Church campaigned in vain for his release.

In November 1942 he was taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. He died there less than a month later. There are two representations of his death: one he died because the SS had set dogs on him, and another, for which there is a surviving fellow inmate as a witness, because he went to the gas chamber for another prisoner.

canonization

1995 Peradse of which was the Georgian Orthodox Church and the Polish Orthodox Church canonized and received the honorary title of Holy Priest Martyr Grigol . He is also venerated as a saint in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. A wall painting in the Greek Orthodox Church "John the Baptist" in Brühl near Bonn shows his life-size picture.

Works (selection)

Monographs

• The beginnings of monasticism in Georgia . Tempelverlag, Potsdam 1927 (partial print of the dissertation);
• Liturgia sancti et omnilaudati Apostoli Petri . In: HW Codrington: The Liturgy of Saint Peter (Liturgy historical sources and research 30). Aschendorff, Münster i. W. 1936, 156-163;
• Religia Szoty Rustaweliego . In: G. Nakasidze: Szota Rustaweli . Warszawa 1937;
• In the service of Georgian culture (1926-1940) (autobiographical article for the anthology Aus der Welt des Ostens , which, however, remained unpublished; uncorrected proofs received in Warsaw, published after this in 1999 as follows :)
• In the service of Georgian culture (1926-1940) . Introduction by Hubert Kaufhold. In: Oriens Christianus 83 (1999) 193-225.

Essays

• The Georgian Church under Bolshevism . In: The Orient . 4, pp. 33-37 (1922).
• About Georgian monasticism . In: International Church Journal . 16 (1926), pp. 152-168.
• The training period of our Georgian theologian in Germany . In: The Orient . 8, pp. 80-83 (1926).
• The old Georgian literature and its problems . In: Oriens Christianus . 3 (1927), pp. 205-222.
• L'activité littéraire des moines géorgiens au monastère d'Iviron au Mont Athos . In: Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique . 23, pp. 530-539 (1927).
• Speech by Dr Gregor Peradses (Georgian Church) at the Lausanne Conference . In: The Orient . 9 (1927), pp. 108-109.
• The early Christian literature in Georgian tradition . In: Oriens Christianus . 25/26 (1928/29), pp. 109-116
• On the pre-Byzantine liturgy of Georgia . In: Le Muséon . 42, pp. 90-99 (1929).
• Sketches on the cultural history of Georgia . In: The Orient . 12 (1930), pp. 45-52.
• The Problems of the Georgian Gospel Tradition . In: Journal for New Testament Science and the Knowledge of the Older Church . 29 (1930), pp. 304-309.
• The teaching of the twelve apostles from Georgian tradition . In: Journal of New Testament Science and Knowledge of the Older Church . 31 (1932), pp. 111-116.
• Georgian manuscripts in England . In: Georgica . 1,1 (1935), pp. 80-88
• A document from the medieval liturgical history of Georgia: Instruction of our St. Father's Ekhwthime Mthazmideli . In: Kyrios . 1 (1936), pp. 74-79
• The influences of Georgian culture on the culture of the Balkan peoples . In: The Orient . 18 (1936), pp. 1-9
• Oriental monasticism . In: The Christian Orient in the past and present . 1 (1936), pp. 20-23
• The spiritual life in today's Soviet Georgia and in the mirror of beautiful literature . In: Writings of the Albertus University of Königsberg. Humanities series . 14 (1938), pp. 270-288
• About the Georgian manuscripts in Austria In: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes . 47 (1940), pp. 219-232

literature

• Henryk Paprocki: L'archimandrite Grigol Peraʒe (1899-1942) . In: Revue des études géorgiennes et caucasiennes 4 (1988) 198-230;
• Ilma Reissner: A newly canonized saint of the Georgian Orthodox Church: Archimandrite Grigol Peradze . In: Hermeneia . (1996), pp. 135-143.
• Jerzy Lubach: Wojenne losy ks. Grzegorza Peradze . In: Karta . 18 (1996), pp. 147-149.
• Tblissi: le père Grigol Peradze canonisé . In: Service Orthodox de Presse . 203 (1995), pp. 11f.
• Christian Weise:  Peradse, Grigol / Gregor. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 17, Bautz, Herzberg 2000, ISBN 3-88309-080-8 , Sp. 1064-1069. and https://www.academia.edu/8502924/Gregor_Peradze (digitized version)
• Grigol Peradse (1899-1942) and Germany. Special issue of the magazine for culture, language and history of Georgia and the Caucasus "Georgica", No. 33 (2010), 250 pages, published by Shaker-Verlag Aachen. ISBN 978-3-8322-9981-1 / contained therein: Steffi Chotiwari-Jünger / Sophia Vashalomidze: Grigol Peradse in Berlin, Potsdam and Bonn (1922-1932) (pp. 9-58) and all of Peradze's writings in German ( Pp. 59–250) ./
• Heinzgerd Brakmann: Baumstark and Syzygoi. Eastern liturgical studies at the University of Bonn . In: Albert Gerhards - Tinatin Chronz (ed.): Orientation over the whole . LIT. Berlin 2015, pp. 99–144.
• Irakli Jinjolava: The Ecumenical Vocation of the Orthodox Church According to the Georgian Theologian and Saint Priest-Martyr Grigol Peradze . In: Ostkirchliche Studien 65 (2016) pp. 237–270.
• Irakli Jinjolava: A Portrait of Grigol Peradze Against the Background of the Ecumenical Vocation in the Orthodox Church . In: Pro Georgia, 2019, t. 29, p. 287-291.

Web links

Commons : Gregory (Peradze)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Grigol Peradze in the catalog of the German National Library
• Lukas Vischer: A Georgian saint: Grigol Peradze (1899-1942), 2000 (English)
• Heinzgerd Brakmann on St. Gregor Peradze