Shio Batmanishvili (in

Georgian Georgian may refer to: Common meanings * Anything related to, or originating from Georgia (country) ** Georgians, an indigenous Caucasian ethnic group ** Georgian language, a Kartvelian language spoken by Georgians **Georgian scripts, three scrip ...

: შიო ბათმანიშვილი, born in 1885 in Akhaltsikhe,

Tiflis Governorate The Tiflis Governorate was a province ('' guberniya'') of the Caucasus Viceroyalty of the Russian Empire with its administrative center in Tiflis (present-day Tbilisi). In 1897, it constituted 44,607 sq. kilometres in area and had a population ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

– November 1, 1937, Sandarmokh, Karelia,

Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

) was a Georgian Greek Catholic, both a hieromonk and the superior of the Servites of the Immaculate Conception, a survivor of the

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

at Solovki prison camp, and a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

during

Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secret ...

Biography

Batmanishvili was born in 1885 in Akhaltsikhe, in the

of the

(today in Georgia).Dzwonkowski, Roman (1998). Losy duchowieństwa katolickiego w ZSSR 1917-1939: martyrologium (in Polish). Towarzystwo Naukowe Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego. pp. 153, 579. .Чаплицкий, Бронислав; Осипова, Ирина Ивановна (2000). Книга памяти: мартиролог Католической церкви в СССР (Kniga pamiati: martirolog Katolicheskoi tserkvi v SSSR) (in Russian). Серебряные нити (Serebrianye niti). p. 19). He studied at the Seminary of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

and later

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, being ordained a priest in 1912. He initially exercised his ministry at Kutaisi and Akhaltsikhe, and from 1922 he was superior of the Servites of the Immaculate Conception's monastery at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in

. In 1925, Batmanishvili was received by Pope Pius XI, along with a group of Eastern Catholic priests, and was appointed

Apostolic Administrator An Apostolic administration in the Catholic Church is administrated by a prelate appointed by the pope to serve as the ordinary for a specific area. Either the area is not yet a diocese (a stable 'pre-diocesan', usually missionary apostolic adm ...

(other sources indicate that he was also appointed Exarch) for the Georgian Greek Catholic Church. On 16 October 1927, Batmanishvili was arrested in Tbilisi and on 16 January 1928 he was sentenced to ten years of hard labor without the possibility of amnesty, under Articles 58-6 and 58-12 of the penal code of the RSFSR, and was sent to the Solovki prison camp, where he arrived on February 12. In July 1932, he was accused of anti-Soviet agitation, participating in secret liturgies and religious rituals, and transmitting information abroad on the persecution of Catholics in the USSR. As a result he was isolated from the rest of the prisoners. In May 1935, Batmanishvili was transferred to work on the Kirov railroad, and in June 1936, he returned to Solovki. On 14 October 1937, he was sentenced to death by the Directorate of the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

and executed on November 1, 1937 in

Medvezhegorsk Medvezhyegorsk (russian: Медвежьего́рск; krl, Karhumägi; fi, Karhumäki) is a town and the administrative center of Medvezhyegorsky District of the Republic of Karelia, Russia. Population: 15,800 (1959). History A village i ...

and buried at Sandormokh.Riccardi, Andrea (2000). The secular of martyrdom (in Italian). A. Mondadori. p. 52. .

References

External links

Book of Remembrance: Biographies of Catholic Clergy and Laity Repressed in the Soviet Union - Biography of Father Shio Batmanishvili
{{DEFAULTSORT:Batmanishvili, Shio 1885 births 1937 deaths 20th-century Eastern Catholic martyrs Catholic people executed by the Soviet Union Catholic priests from Georgia (country) Eastern Catholic monks Eastern Catholic priests Georgian Byzantine-Rite Catholics Inmates of Solovki prison camp People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm People who died in the Gulag