Eudemus I Diasamidze ( ka, ევდემოზ I დიასამიძე, ''Evdemoz I Diasamidze''; died 1642) was a Georgian churchman serving as

Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia ''Catholicos-Patriarch'' has been the title of the heads of the Georgian Orthodox Church since 1010. The first Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia was Melkisedek I (1010–1033). In the 15th century the Georgian Orthodox Church was divided into th ...

from 1632 until his death in 1642. His demise was occasioned by his involvement in a plot against the Muslim king of Kartli, Rostom-Khan, who had him arrested and put to death in prison. He was buried in the

Anchiskhati church The Anchiskhati Basilica of St Mary () is the oldest surviving church in Tbilisi, Georgia. It belongs to the Georgian Orthodox Church and dates from the sixth century. History According to the old Georgian annals, the church was built by the King ...

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

. Eudemus was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church as a "holy

hieromartyr In the Eastern Orthodox tradition, a hieromartyr is a martyr (one who dies for his beliefs) who was a bishop or priest. Analogously, a monk who is a priest is known as a hieromonk. See also *New Martyr The title of New Martyr or Neomartyr ( el ...

", his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

marked on .

Biography

Eudemus (Evdemoz) came of the

princely family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papa ...

of Diasamidze. Prior to his installment as the catholicos patriarch in 1632, he is known to have served as Archbishop of Bodbe from 1617 to 1619. Eudemus's patriarchal tenure coincided with a major upheaval in the Georgian lands; in eastern Georgia—Kartli and

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

—King Teimuraz I waged a decades-long struggle against the

Iranian Iranian may refer to: * Iran, a sovereign state * Iranian peoples, the speakers of the Iranian languages. The term Iranic peoples is also used for this term to distinguish the pan ethnic term from Iranian, used for the people of Iran * Iranian lan ...

hegemony, while western Georgian territories had been politically and ecclesiastically separated from the east. Eudemus was allied with and related by kinship to Teimuraz: his brotherly niece was married to Teimuraz's son and heir, Prince David. In 1633, Teimuraz was ousted from Kartli by the Muslim Georgian prince Rostom, who declared himself king and was confirmed by the shah of Iran as a ''

wali A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...

''. Teimuraz did not cease his opposition to the new regime and was still able to maintain foothold in his native Kakheti. After Rostom's accession to the throne of Kartli and his strategically calculated marriage to

Mariam Dadiani Mariam Dadiani ( ka, მარიამ დადიანი; born between 1599 and 1609; died 1682) was a daughter of Manuchar I Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia, by his second wife, Tamar Jaqeli. Thrice married, successively to Simon I Gurieli, P ...

, a devout Christian princess from

Mingrelia Mingrelia ( ka, სამეგრელო, tr; xmf, სამარგალო, samargalo; ab, Агырны, Agirni) is a historic province in the western part of Georgia, formerly known as Odishi. It is primarily inhabited by the Mingrelian ...

, Eudemus found in her an influential protector of the Christian church, but he remained in opposition to Rostom, accusing him of transplanting Iranian and Muslim customs into Georgia. In 1642, Eudemus joined the noblemen— Zaal, Duke of Aragvi, Nodar

Tsitsishvili The Tsitsishvili ( ka, ციციშვილი) is a Georgian noble family, with several notable members from the 15th century through the 20th. The Tsitsishvili family was a continuation of the medieval house of Panaskerteli, known in the pr ...

, and Giorgi Gochashvili—in a plot to assassinate Rostom and restore Teimuraz in Kartli. The plot was betrayed; its numbers either fled or were rounded up by Rostom's loyal forces. Teimuraz's courage fell and, in spite of Eudemus's urgings, he withdrew with his army back to Kakheti. Rostom had the catholicos arrested and imprisoned at the citadel of Tbilisi, where he was then strangled to death. His body was cast off a tower, retrieved by a group of Christians and buried in the northwest corner of Anchiskhati church in Tbilisi.

References

{{authority control Date of birth unknown 1642 deaths 17th-century people from Georgia (country) Catholicoses and Patriarchs of Georgia (country) Christian saints killed by Muslims People executed by ligature strangulation Saints of Georgia (country)