On February 21, at Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary, within the framework of public lectures, Doctor of Historical Sciences and Academician of Gelati Academy of Sciences, Eldar Bubulashviligave a talk on the topic “Saint Ambrose the Confessor (Khelaia) Standing Trial by the Law Court ofthe Communist Justice”.
The speaker, discussed the issue of how the newly established Soviet government oppressed the Georgian Church and its foremost hierarch, Ambrose Khelaia. Professor Bubulashvili’s analysis wasbased on newly discovered sources.After the forced Sovietization of Georgia, on February 7, 1922, CatholicosPatriarch Ambrose addressed a memorandum to the Genoa International Conference.
The speaker analyzed the content of this memorandum - the facts of the atrocities committed by the Soviet regime against the Georgian Church and the citizens of Georgia, and the demands that the Catholicos had for the participants of the Genoa Conference.
Being angered by the boldness of Saint Ambrose the Confessor,the Soviet regime arrested him along with other members of the Council of the Catholicosate.
The press launched a campaign against the high-ranking Church hierarchy. Caricatures of them and offensive poems were published. A trial was held, at which the interests of the convicted patriarch were advocated by the famous lawyer Kirile Ninidze.The Soviet regime soughta heavy sentenceto be givento the Catholicos-Patriarch. However,KirilleNinidze’s speechat the trial and the reactions that followed the patriarch’s arrest in political and religious circles abroad saved the leader of the Georgian Church from the highest penalty. His sentence was first commuted, and then he was even granted an amnesty.
The lecture was attended by the professors and the students of
Tbilisi Theological Academy and Seminary.