Holy Hierarch Alexander (Okropiridze), Bishop of Guria and Samegrelo (†1907) — October 26 / November 8 (Julian Calendar)

The holy bishop Alexander (Alexis, son of David Okropiridze) was born in 1824 in the village of Disevi in the Gori district, into a priest’s family. Nurtured in the life of the Church from childhood, he studied first at the Gori Theological School and then continued at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. In 1845, immediately upon completing the seminary course, he was tonsured a monk at the Transfiguration Monastery in Tbilisi and given the name Alexander; on August 18 of the same year the saint was ordained archdeacon.

Alexander travelled to the Kazan Theological Academy to continue his studies, graduated with distinction, and returned to his homeland with the degree of candidate of theology. At first, until June 27, 1851, he taught Holy Scripture and Latin, moral theology and archaeology at the Tiflis Theological Seminary. Afterwards, by order of the Holy Synod (September 21, 1851), Hieromonk Alexander was appointed superintendent of the Abkhazian theological school and entrusted with guiding the hieromonks among the clergy of the Abkhazian diocese; at the same time he served as inspector of the Kutaisi theological school.

Alexander considered his chief task to be the conversion and confirmation in the Christian faith of those around him, and the founding of schools for them. Upon arriving in Abkhazia he showed great zeal in supporting the successful work of the schools established at Ilori for the Abkhazians. His labors, first as a teacher, then as archimandrite (from February 26, 1856) and bishop (from March 4, 1862), were rightly valued both by the local population and by all of Georgia, and without any exaggeration he was called the Second Apostle of Abkhazia. Between him and his flock there existed a fatherly bond founded on true Christian love.

In 1869 Bishop Alexander was transferred from Abkhazia to the diocese of Kartli-Kakheti, which he governed twice (1869–1882 and 1886–1898). Alexander Okropiridze was for twenty-five years Bishop of Gori and the first chorepiscopos of the Kartli-Kakheti diocese. In 1882–1885 he administered the diocese of Guria, and until 1903 the diocese of Guria-Samegrelo.

The episcopal ministry of Bishop Alexander coincided with an extremely difficult period for his country. Georgia stood on the brink of survival: the Georgian liturgy was no longer celebrated in Georgia, and the Georgian people, already in severe hardship, had turned their backs on the Church. The Georgian churches and monasteries, long regarded as centers of learning and culture, had become deserted wastes; the Georgian language was not taught in the schools; the impoverished population had no means to educate their children. It was necessary to multiply the editions of Georgian-language books that benefit the soul and enlighten the mind, and tireless, unceasing labor was needed to revive a dying national consciousness.

St. Alexander devoted exceptional labor to restoring and renewing churches and monasteries. He began his building work in Abkhazia itself, where he restored two churches in Sokhumi by his own efforts and at his own expense. While serving in Kartli-Kakheti and later in Guria-Samegrelo, he renewed and rebuilt the monasteries of Shio-Mghvime, Zedazeni and David Gareja, gave a great sum to begin the restoration of Shemokmedi Monastery, and restored and renewed the Jvari Monastery of Mtskheta, the great Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles in Mtskheta, the church of his native village of Disevi, and countless churches in Guria, Samegrelo, Adjara and Imereti.

His special care was directed toward Shio-Mghvime Monastery, which had almost become a wasteland, and its surroundings. He rebuilt the monastery entirely and built cells for the monks; a road was brought to Shio-Mghvime, a ferry was set up on the Mtkvari River, and a railway platform was established at Dzegvi so that trains could stop there. He purchased gardens and vineyards along the Mtkvari near the monastery and in Mtskheta, and revived the traditional monastic husbandry: viticulture, gardening and beekeeping. His personal example was followed by other bishops and monasteries, which also began planting gardens and vineyards near their cloisters.

With St. Alexander’s financial help, a diocesan school for girls was founded in Tbilisi in 1878, which raised many educated women and wonderful mothers for our nation. With funds he gave, and on his own initiative and recommendation, many spiritual and historical books, textbooks and collections of hymns were printed. During his long life, not a single religious or national undertaking began in Georgia without his support and participation.

Throughout his life the hierarch was a zealous defender of the Georgian language. He was one of the first to take up the cause of defending Georgian-language teaching in the parish schools of Samegrelo. Not long afterwards the aged bishop was removed from his post: by decree of the Exarch and the Holy Synod, “at his own request,” he was relieved of the leadership of the diocese and sent “to rest” at Shio-Mghvime Monastery, which he himself had restored. He left the monastery only once, in 1907, for the burial of St. Ilia the Righteous (commemorated July 20), to mourn his spiritual child. The eighty-three-year-old hierarch, His Grace Alexander, himself fell asleep in the Lord that same year, on November 9, in the Shio-Mghvime community he had restored. He was buried on November 16 in the same monastery.