Tbilisi, November 6, 2014
The city (municipal) council of Tbilisi has announced the renaming of Kokutsa Cholokashvili Avenue. Cholokashvili (1888-1930) is regarded as a national Georgian hero, one of the leading opponents of bolshevism.
From now on this avenue will bear the name of the saintly Orthodox Archimandrite Gabriel (Urgebadze).
The section of Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street adjacent to the Cholokashvili Avenue is named after him as well, reports Blagovest.info with the reference to Sana.ge.
As the Committee for the names and symbols of city council chairwoman Lia Jakhvelidze has explained, the new junction between entrance to the racecourse and the former Trans-Caucasian Military District building will be named after Kokutsa Cholokashvili.
It was the holy archimandrite’s sister and 3,000 parishioners of Georgian churches together with her who appealed to the Georgian Patriarchate and the municipal authority with the request to rename Cholokashvili Avenue to St. Gabriel Avenue.
With the blessing of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of All Georgia the avenue where Venerable Blessed Gabriel used to live has been renamed in his memory, and near his house in which the saint built a house church, a new church will be constructed.
It will be already the second church in Georgia dedicated to St. Gabriel.
As a mark of respect for the memory of Georgian national hero Kakutsa Cholokashvili, for immortalization of his name the city council has chosen a location where a public garden as well as a square in his memory might be built.
