Saint Ilia Chavchavadze

Tavadi (Prince) Ilia Chavchavadze (Georgian: ილია ჭავჭავაძე; 27 October 1837 – 12 September 1907) was a Georgian journalist, publisher, writer and poet who spearheaded the revival of Georgian nationalism during the second half of the 19th century in the period of Tsarist rule. He has been called Georgia's "most universally revered hero" and the "Father of the Nation." He was a leader of contemporary youth intellectual movement named "Tergdaleulebi" which spread modern and European liberal ideals in Georgia. Chavchavadze founded two modern newspapers: Sakartvelos Moambe and Iveria. He coined the phrase "Ena, Mamuli, Sartsmunoeba" ("Language, Homeland, Faith"), a slogan of Georgian nationalism. After the 1905 Russian Revolution Chavchavadze was elected as a representative of the Georgian nobility to the imperial State Council. Chavchavadze was killed in Tsitsamuri, near Mtskheta, by a gang of assassins. In 1907 he was canonized as Saint Ilia the Righteous (წმინდა ილია მართალი, tsminda ilia martali) by the Georgian Orthodox Church. Chavchavadze was born in Qvareli, a village in Kvareli, located in the Alazani Valley, in the Kakheti province of Georgia, which was part of the Russian Empire at that time. His mother, Mariam, died on 4 May 1848, when he was ten years old, and his father asked his sister, Makrine, to help bring up the children. After 1852, when his father Grigol died she was the only remaining caretaker of the family. In 1848, after the death of his mother, he was sent to Tbilisi by his father to begin his secondary education. After graduating from the academy, Chavchavadze attended University of St. Petersburg, Russia. In the 1860s, "Tergdaleulebi", the new generation of Georgian intellectuals, educated at Russian universities and exposed to European ideas, promoted national culture against assimilation by the Imperial center.