Martyr Gerontius and those with him of David Gareji

The David-Gareji Monastery

The David-Gareji monastery complex stands on the half-desert slopes of Mount Gareja on the edge of the Iori Plateau, some sixty to seventy kilometres southeast of Tbilisi, in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia. It was founded in the sixth century by Saint David of Gareji, one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers who came to Georgia in that era; his disciples Dodo and Luciane expanded the original lavra, and in the ninth century Saint Hilarion the Iberian guided its further growth.

The community reached its height between the late eleventh and early thirteenth centuries. Over the centuries it suffered repeated devastation, including the Mongol incursion of 1265 and the Safavid attack of 1615, when the monks were massacred and the monastery's manuscripts and works of Georgian art destroyed. The 1851 raid in which the martyrs commemorated here perished belongs to this long history of assaults upon the wilderness.

The Raid of 1851 and the Martyrdom

In the summer of 1851 a Dagestani army invaded the David-Gareji Wilderness. According to the account preserved by the Church, the raiders looted the David-Gareji Lavra, carried off many of the monastery's sacred treasures and books, took numerous monks captive, and subjected the most pious among them to torture.

Several of the fathers were put to death. The synaxarion relates that the raiders first stabbed Hierodeacon Otar to death and then beheaded Hieromonk Gerontius; Hieromonk Serapion was battered to death with swords; Monk Herman was stabbed in the stomach and then beheaded; and Monk Besarion was likewise beheaded. The eighteen-year-old Monk Simeon attempted to flee on foot but was shot at with bows and arrows, then caught and beheaded. Monk Michael was subjected to the harshest tortures.

By tradition, after their martyrdom the bodies of these holy men were illumined with a divine light.

Veneration and Sources

The martyrdom of the holy fathers of the David-Gareji Monastery was described in 1853 by Hieromonk Isaac of Gaenati, who witnessed the tragedy; this eyewitness record, written within two years of the events, is the principal source for their commemoration.

They are venerated by the Georgian Orthodox Church as venerable-martyrs and are commemorated on August 12 (August 25 on the New Style). Hagiographic listings name the company as Gerontius (Geronti), Serapion, Herman (German), Besarion, Michael (Mikael), Simeon, and Otar.