The Righteous Ilia Chavchavadze has been commemorated by the Church of Georgia today. St. Ilia was born on October 27, 1837, in the Kakheti village of Kvareli, in eastern Georgia, into a pious family. From a very early age, he was distinguished by his love for God. From 1857 to 1861, he studied at the Faculty of Law of St. Petersburg University, where he headed a circle of Georgian students influenced by revolutionary democratic ideas. He was expelled from the university for participating in student unrest and returned to Georgia. In 1863, he published the literary and socio-political magazine Sakartvelos Moambe (Bulletin of Georgia). St. Ilia opposed serfdom and actively participated in the local liberal movement. St. Ilia worked on the Peasant Reform Commission. He was a peace mediator (1864-1868) and a justice of the peace (1868-1874). Since 1873, he headed the noble land bank. From 1879 to 1885, St. Ilia was deputy chairman and, from 1885 to 1907, chairman of the Society for the Promotion of Literacy. From 1877 to 1902, he was the editor of the literary and political newspaper Iveria (Georgia), in which he defended the rights of the Georgian people to their national culture. Since 1884, secret political surveillance was established over Ilia. In 1906, he was elected a member of the State Council. He fought for the abolition of the death penalty in Russia and the implementation of broad agrarian and social reforms, for Georgia's independence and the restoration of the Georgian Church's autocephaly, and opposed the Russian ultra-nationalist movement (Black Hundreds). On August 30, 1907, he was killed by militant Social Democrats on the way to the village of Saguramo. He was buried in the Mtatsminda pantheon (Tbilisi). His killers were convicted and executed despite the petition of Ilia’s widow for their pardon. Ilia Chavchavadze was glorified by the Georgian Church in 1987 among the righteous. However, the Russian Church did add his name to the saints' list. | 
