October 3

Gregory Peradze, a priest of the Georgian church and a world-renowned scholar and ecumenist, died in the concentration camp of Auschwitz in 1944.
Greogory was born in 1899 in Sakascethi, near Gori in eastern Georgia. He graduated from the seminary of Tbilisi, was ordained a priest and enrolled at his country's philosophical academy. Later, he transferred to Bonn, where he earned his degree in 1925.
When the Soviet regime annexed Georgia, Gregory was forced to remain in exile. He pursued his research in England, Germany, France, and Poland, and discovered the emerging ecumenical movement, of which he became and informed and convinced spokesperson. In Europe he taught Georgian history and literature, and became a professor of Patrology at the University of Warsaw. His contribution to the study of the Georgian Church fathers was especially noteworthy.
When Nazi troops occupied Poland and the Second World War began, Gregory, who in the meantime had become archimandrite, was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. He ended his last voyage voluntarily by entering the gas chamber in place of a Jewish father with a large family, whose life was spared.
Gregory Peradze was officially canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church in 1995.