Melchizedek III

His Holiness and Beatitude Melchizedek III (in the world Mikheil Pkhaladze, son of Giorgi; born 2 November 1872, Kandaura, Sighnaghi district — died 10 January 1960, Tbilisi) was a Georgian churchman and public figure, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia and Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi from 1952 to 1960.

Biography

He was born into the family of a psalm-reader. He studied at the Telavi Theological School, and while there lost both his parents. In 1890 he entered the Tbilisi Theological Seminary. After the seminary he went on to the Kazan Theological Academy. In 1900 he graduated from the Kazan Theological Academy as a candidate of theology and was appointed teacher of Russian at the Kutaisi Theological School. On 26 January 1902 he was transferred to the Kutaisi Theological Seminary as teacher of physics and mathematics. From 8 April 1904 he taught geography at the theological school in the town of Bely in Smolensk Governorate. From 15 May 1915 he was superintendent of the theological school at Tyvriv. On 31 May 1915 he was ordained priest. In July 1917 he returned to Georgia and was appointed superintendent of the Gori Theological School. On 21 November 1918 he was raised to the rank of archpriest. In 1921–1922 he was out of work and defrocked. On 5 April 1922 he returned to the Church and was appointed sacristan of the Patriarchal Cathedral of Sioni. In February 1925, with the blessing of Metropolitan Christophorus, provisional administrator of the Georgian Orthodox Church, he was appointed rector of the Anchiskhati church. In October 1925, with the blessing of His Holiness and Beatitude Ambrosius, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, he was tonsured a monk and given the name Melchizedek. On 14 October, the feast of Svetitskhovloba, he was consecrated bishop and entrusted with the Eparchy of Alaverdi. From 17 October 1927 he governed the Eparchy of Tskhum-Abkhazia. He was then transferred to be abbot of the Monastery of the Transfiguration in Tbilisi. On 2 January 1935, with the blessing of His Holiness and Beatitude Callistratus, he was raised to the rank of metropolitan and sent once more to the Eparchy of Tskhum-Abkhazia. In 1938 he was forced to return from Sukhumi to Tbilisi. On 1 April 1943 he was appointed an ordinary priest at the church in Kukia. From 30 April 1944 he was styled of Urbnisi and was rector of the Didube Church of the Mother of God in Tbilisi.

On 5 April 1952 the Ninth Council of the Georgian Orthodox Apostolic Church elected Metropolitan Melchizedek of Urbnisi Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia. Catholicos-Patriarch Melchizedek III was a man of great learning; he spoke more than once at various conferences in defence of peace, and translated from the Greek the “Histories” of Herodotus and Arrian's “Voyage round the Euxine Sea”. Constrained by the civil authorities, the Church and its head had no freedom of action. His Holiness Melchizedek III died on 10 January 1960, at the age of 88. He is buried in Tbilisi, in the Sioni Cathedral.