Archpriest Zakaria Machitadze
Saint Arsen the Great, a pupil and spiritual son of Grigol of Khandzta, was the youngest son of a certain aristocrat, Mirian, from Meskheti in southern Georgia.
In the 17th century the Persian aggressors razed churches, monasteries, and fortresses and drove out thousands of Georgian families to resettle them in remote provinces of Persia. The deserted territories were settled by Turkic tribes from Central Asia. In the chronicle The Life of Kartli it is written: “The name of Christ was not allowed to be uttered, except in a handful of mountainous regions: Tusheti, Pshavi, and Khevsureti.”
The holy martyrs Isaak and Ioseb the Georgians were born into a Muslim family, but their Georgian mother, a Christian, secretly raised them according to the Christian tradition. The brothers were so firmly dedicated to the Faith that they journeyed to Byzantium to request that Emperor Nicephorus I Phocas (802–811) permit them to settle in his capital.
Blessed Abba Ioseb of Alaverdi was a disciple and companion of St. Ioane of Zedazeni, who in the 6th century arrived in Georgia with twelve Syrian ascetics to spread the Christian Faith.With the blessing of his teacher, Fr. Ioseb settled in the village of Alaverdi in eastern Georgia. According to tradition, he carried with him a cross formed from the wood of the Life-giving Cross of our Savior.
Thirty-five thousand Persian soldiers marched toward Georgia in the year 1795. The Georgian king Erekle II (1762–1798) and his two thousand soldiers declared war on the invaders as they were approaching Tbilisi. The Georgians won the first skirmish, but many perished in the fighting. The enemy was shaken and was preparing to flee the battleground, when several traitors reported to Aqa Muhammed Khan that King Erekle had lost nearly his entire army.