Venerable (Monastic) 18th century

Symeon of Gareji

died 1773

Also known as Symeon the Wonderworker of David Gareja

Abbot and wonderworker of the David Gareja monastery in Georgia (1773)

Feast Day

September 4

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Commemorated as

Our Venerable Father Symeon the Wonderworker of Davit-Gareji

Life

Symeon the Wonderworker was an eighteenth-century monk and abbot of the Davit-Gareji Monastery in the wilderness of eastern Georgia. By the account of the synaxarion he was raised at Gareji and labored there as a simple monk into an advanced age, and is remembered as among the last of the monastic fathers to sanctify the Gareji desert in that century. He is commemorated on September 4.

According to the tradition, Symeon was distinguished by his virtue and especially his humility, and in his old age the brotherhood deemed him worthy to serve as their abbot. The sources relate that the Lord granted him the gift of working miracles. His life is recorded only briefly, in close connection with the wider community of wonderworking fathers who lived in the Gareji wilderness in the same period.

The episode most associated with Symeon is told of the end of his life: he was struck with a grave illness and lay lifeless for more than an hour before, by divine providence, he arose again. After this recovery he distributed all his possessions among the fathers of the monastery, settled his affairs, and reposed in peace in 1773, by tradition exactly one week after he had risen.

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1773 Illness, recovery, and repose Symeon falls deathly ill, lies lifeless for over an hour, then rises; he distributes his possessions and reposes in peace one week later.

Contributions & Legacy

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Death and Resurrection

The defining incident in the accounts of Symeon's life is his temporary death. The synaxarion relates that he fell into a deadly illness and lay without life for more than an hour, and then by the providence of God arose. Treating the reprieve as a foretaste of his coming repose, he gave away all that he owned to his brotherhood and put his affairs in order.

By tradition he reposed exactly seven days after rising, dying in peace in the year 1773. The narrative frames the week between his recovery and his death as a time of farewell, in which he commended his community to God before his final departure.

Sources: Synaxarion