On this day, June 27 according to the Julian Calendar (July 10 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Hieromartyr Kirion II, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, who gave his life for the faith during the turbulent period following the Russian Revolution.
Hieromartyr Kirion II (born Giorgi Sadzaglishvili) was born in 1855 in the village of Niqozi in the Gori district, into a clerical family. After completing his secondary education, he studied at the Gori Theological Seminary and then at the Kyiv Theological Academy, where he graduated in 1880 with a degree in theology.
He was ordained to the priesthood and served in various parishes and administrative positions in the Exarchate of Georgia. Despite the oppressive conditions of the Russian Exarchate that had suppressed the independence of the Georgian Church since 1811, Kirion remained a passionate advocate for the restoration of the Georgian Church’s autocephaly. He wrote numerous scholarly works on Georgian Church history and was a prominent figure in the Georgian national and ecclesiastical renewal movement.
In 1917, following the Russian Revolution, the Georgian Orthodox Church restored its ancient autocephaly. Kirion was elected as the first Catholicos-Patriarch of the restored autocephalous Georgian Church, enthroned in September 1917. His tenure was brief but historic: he worked tirelessly to restore order and canonical life to the Georgian Church after more than a century of Exarchal administration.
On June 27, 1918 (Old Style), Catholicos-Patriarch Kirion II was found martyred at his residence in Shorapani. The circumstances of his death remain disputed, but the Georgian Church has glorified him as a hieromartyr, recognizing his death as a witness to the faith in a time of violent upheaval.
May the intercessions of Hieromartyr Kirion II be with us all.