Venturing Into Georgian Literature Part 2 - Ilia Chavchavadze

 

Ilia Chavchavadze (1838-1907)

As we continue to talk about Georgian literature, the second writer I want to talk about is Ilia Chavchavadze.  Unlike Constantin Gamsakhurdia, Chavchavadze was more religiously-oriented, so much so that he was later canonized a saint in the Georgian Church.  His most noted work is a poem called The Hermit, that was originally written around the year 1895.  This is a poem rich with religious symbolism, as it exalts the ascetic life as ideal to separate from the noise of the surrounding world.  In Chapter V of the poem, there is the conviction that the nobility of the soul transcends earthly ambition, and it also preserves eternal youth, even as the physical body ages.  The youth is seen as an example of what Jesus said in the Gospels when he admonishes his disciples to have a childlike faith.  The road to this eternal youthfulness, he writes, is through the disciplines of fasting and other ascetic acts. In Chapter VII, he compares this ascetism as a form of worship, the walk of the pilgrimage of life toward the greater reality, the eternal hope.  In this, he is similar in his tone to works such as the Philokalia and the Russian classic Way of a Pilgrim.  It is completely an Eastern Christian concept that emphasizes mystical union with God over physical adversity, and that the latter is the way to the former - he shares that with many Latin Church writers and ascetics too, including St. Francis and St. Ignatius of Loyola, and indeed, the Ignatian Examen's one petition "to labor and not seek for rest," mirrors what Chavchavadze expresses in this poetry.  But there are some other interesting profundities as well.

In Chapter VIII, there is an interesting reference in the last part of the verse that talks about Our Lady, especially that in coming conflict and adversity - war and genocide, as we will see only 8 years after his passing - in that it is not only to be prepared for, but is inevitable.  He talks about the judgment of God being poured upon a disobedient world, and while there is an eschatological dimension to this, later readers would understand he possibly had some sort of insight into the decades of turmoil that came during the 20th century. Ironically, at around the same time Chavchavadze was composing this in Georgia, a continent away in Portugal a similar event about to happen ten years after his repose that we now know as Our Lady of Fatima's apparition - as a person myself who believes in the supernatural, could it be that perhaps he had some prophetic insights into what was coming, and then Fatima more or less confirmed it a continent and ten years away from his death?  This, I believe, also led to his codification of the "secular trinity" he proposed of "Homeland, Language, and Faith" in which, much like Fatima noted, if those three things fell, his nation would also.  He saw the possibility of a godless totalitarianism rising that would threaten many, and this would lead to his martyrdom by a band of Bolshevik agitators in 1907 because he became more vocal about this in poems like The Hermit, which called people back to a godly foundation upon which "Homeland, Language, and Faith" rested - in many ways, he shared that fundamental conviction with Gamsakhurdia also, although the latter was more of a political activist. 

In reading more of the poem, we see that Chavchavadze considered a stand for the truth a form of asceticism, requiring the same vows and commitments a monk or nun makes, and it potentially could lead to martyrdom.  He dressed a deep nationalist sentiment in the holy vestments of true faith, and to him, they were inseparable.  This is why his message may be something we might want to pay attention to in our time, especially in recent years with the rise of Islamic radicalism and Marxist ideology.  These were forces that Chavchavadze's generation fought against as well, as the genocidal rhetoric of the Turks to the west of Georgia, and the rise of Marxism to the north in Russia, would become a twin threat to the distinctively Christian civilization of the Georgians. While it is not established that the Georgians were as targeted later as were the Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks, it is fairly certain that the Genocide of 1915 also claimed Georgian Orthodox martyrs as well. The Bolsheviks, and later the Nazis, would also target Georgian Christians too - the martyrdom of St. Gregor Peradze at Auschwitz in the early 1940s is a perfect example.  Now that we have analyzed this, let us look at what we can apply from his writings today. 

When Chavchavadze talks about the the "secular trilogy" of Homeland, Language, and Faith, it is not the same as the "Christian Nationalism" we often see in some segments of the Right in our politics in the US today. It is in a similar vein as what Komitas Vartabed did for the Armenians, and later Said Akl would do for Lebanon - in that regard, there is a basic anti-colonialist dimension to it that resists both the secularizing forces of Western leftism and the Islamized Arabization of the Middle East.  Many people fail to understand that both of these are probably the most blatant example of negative colonialism, but Chavchavadze understood that, and it was carried forward by his fellow Georgian writer Gamsakhurdia. While a deep and rich Christian faith informs and shapes homeland, language, and faith, it does not try to sanitize secularism as somehow "Christian" like some in the West tend to do at times.  I believe personally that Chavchavadze was talking about a society where Christianity influences culture, instead of assimilating the wrong aspects of culture. The triad of Chavchavadze suggests that faith is a key factor in a civilization's survival, and because of that, with literacy and geographical connection it forms the essential skeleton of a civilization.  The thing he feared was that if one of these were compromised, it could endanger the future of a culture. Only later would this be realized on a tremendous scale, when dictators such as Mao and Hoxha tried to do exactly that and it created a vacuum.  

Therefore, what we learn from writers like Chavchavadze and Gamsakhurdia is the importance of the central narrative convictions - when the younger generation is inevitably curious about where it comes from, where it's going, and what could be improved upon without compromising the legacy, there will be a foundation for them to build upon.  Continuity and consistency is the core idea at the heart of the writings of Chavchavadze, Akl, and Komitas, and in many instances the survival of their nations depended upon it. In the West we have some writers who are trying to emphasize that - Catholic thinkers such as Nicolas Gomez Davila and Plineo Correa de Oliviera do this, and to a lesser degree it is emphasized by individuals such as Rod Dreher, Anthony Esolen, Charles Coulombe, and others in their books.  And, that leads to a couple of conclusions based on my reading of Chavchavadze.

In order for a culture to survive, Chavchavadze points out three important foundational things - homeland, language, and faith. When putting this into context with other writers from different cultural expressions, this task has a two-pronged plan of action.  The first requires ideologues, writers, and theorists - they are the ones who articulate the ideas.  The second requires the militant activists - these are the vanguard that defend, uphold, and propagate the vision. While at times these two classes of individuals tend to be at odds, in reality they share a complimentary view of the preservation of their society. One drafts the manifesto, and the other turns it into a plan of action.  The success of one depends on a concordant mission with the other, in other words. This works the other way as well, as negative and evil movements are also structured this way as well - Stalin was essentially Marx's activist, and Hitler acted on the ideas of individuals like Dietrich Eckhart, Guido von List, and Houston Stewart Chamberlain. The mechanics remain the same even with polar oppositional ideologies, and an evil system such as Nazism or Communism evolves the same way as a more noble system does, but with different fruits, outlook, and motivation. So what does that mean for America too in the wake of the 2026 midterms?  Let's make practical application of that now.

For the most part, what differentiates a movement like Chavchavadze or Said Akl from figures such as Stalin, Hitler, and Mao is quite simple - the inspiration and motivation.  Tyrants such as Hitlar and Stalin drank from poisoned wells that didn't recognize the "secular trinity" of Chavchavadze - they sought conformity of all of society in their vision, and often the ulterior good of their own societies meant little to them. This is why on the Left in particular you have this iconoclastic, quasi-Gnostic view of reality; for them, what cannot be controlled must be destroyed.  Taking that from a more Christian-based perspective however, the approach is radically different - Christian culture seeks to preserve what is good, reform what is deficient, and eject what is bad from society. While eternal truths and deep faith never change, a certain degree of reasonable adaptability is essential for survival. For instance, new technologies - they can be embraced. The stipulation in this case however is that what is to be adapted or embraced must not be in conflict with fundamental convictions. This has a Thomistic dimension too in that it recognizes the role of grace - its directive to heal, elevate, and perfect nature.  This is why a denial of basic reality and a destruction of the past are why the ideological Left has such a bad and blood-stained track record wherever its "vision" has been imposed - if you destroy a good foundation, in time the whole system crumbles. This is what I believe was at the core of Chavchavadze's convictions too, as can be gleaned from his writings.  He wrote with the eloquence of an ancient sage or prophet, but he also wrote with the authority of someone who knows truth and how to utilize it properly to renew his own society.  And that leaves some closing thoughts for our society today.

When a society tries to even mess with biological fact - that a man is a man and a woman is a woman - it means that it has accepted a neo-Gnostic iconoclasm that is destructive.  This is where most of the West is today. However, the void of secularism does not remain empty for long, as that faith dimension requires a focus, and unfortunately it is esoteric occultists and radical Islamists that are contributing to that. The rise of radical Islamism such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, as well as the parallel rise of neo-paganism and non-theistic Satanism, indicate that there are people who want to destroy the paradigm Western civilization was based upon and instead create their own "new order," and in order to do that, they have to destroy things. This is why many of them are trying to dumb down the language and they are obsessed with destroying historic monuments and statuary.  In real time, they are dismantling the ideas that Chavchavadze saw as integral to the survival of a culture - homeland, language, and faith. By destroying the foundation and creating an entirely new one based on less-reliable ideology, it spells doom for a civilization.  That is what Chavchavadze was trying to warn his own nation of Georgia in particular about, but it also applies to the rest of humankind too. The lessons then from Chavchavadze we should take away are that you don't destroy the good, but first preserve it and then build upon its foundation. This in turn assures national survival.

Thanks again for muddling through this with me, and will see you next time.