Chaldean Catholics in Georgia: A living legacy
ACN is offering assistance to the Chaldean Catholics in Georgia, who have suffered much over the years on account of their Catholic faith.
“Nobody talked about God at all,” says Ilona Bilianova as she remembers growing up in the USSR. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and the daughter of an officer in the Soviet Army, Ilona spent much of her childhood living in different Soviet Republics, as her father travelled to different postings. While speaking to representatives of the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Ilona explained that she only first learned about Jesus while studying at university in Moscow. “We were studying J.S. Bach’s ‘Passion of St. Matthew’. To understand this music, you should know what the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are.”
Ilona remained detached from Christianity until she realised that her family’s connection to the Faith was closer than she thought. “When my grandmother died, a priest came to visit us, and when my whole family sang and prayed with him.” Ilona asked her family what language they were singing in, and she found out that the family were Chaldean Catholics, an ancient Semitic Christian people originating from the Middle East.
The Chaldeans in Georgia
There are not many Chaldeans in the world. “Maybe even less than a million,” believes Father Benny Beth Yadgar, the pastor of the Assyrian – Chaldean Catholic Mission in Georgia. Facing persecution on account of their Christian faith in their homeland in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, many Chaldeans sought sanctuary in Georgia in the 19th and early 20th century, with thousands remaining there to this day.
Father Benny, too, had to flee his homeland of Iran to avoid being drafted to fight in the Iran-Iraq War. He went to Italy and was later ordained a Chaldean Catholic priest in the US. “After I was ordained, I was told that there are Chaldeans in Georgia,” he explains, and this was how he arrived in Georgia in 1995, and he has been there ever since.
The situation in Georgia was very different for the Chaldeans there than in other parts of the world. Some Chaldeans, like Ilona, had also grown-up detached from their cultural roots. For example, many Chaldeans are very proud of their Chaldean language, a dialect of Aramaic. Another Chaldean woman, Yulia Abramova, tells ACN that Chaldean children in school and university are proud to tell other students: “You know, we read in the language of Jesus Christ himself.” Despite this, Ilona had never learned any Aramaic growing up.
When Father Benny arrived in Georgia, he realised that the Chaldeans in the country needed somewhere to meet and gather as a focal point of their community. “So, I decided we have to build a church for them,” explains the priest.
Father Benny faced some challenges in constructing a new Chaldean church in Tbilisi. The majority Orthodox Church in Georgia is not very accommodating of the Catholic minority. “Up to this day when our children want to marry an Orthodox person, they have to be baptized again. That is why the Orthodox Church didn’t want us to build a church,” says Father Benny. For this reason, Father Benny said that he was building a cultural centre. When he was asked why he had built a church instead of a cultural centre, he said: “Christianity is our culture. Beyond Christianity we have no other culture.”
Indeed, the church’s centre does include many classrooms and offices. Yulia, for example, teaches Aramaic to the children at the church and has been involved in many different projects such as a sewing project to train young women to find jobs. Ilona too became the leader of the choir. Through all this Ilona become more connected to her faith and cultural background. The church and centre were even visited by Pope Francis during his trip to Georgia in 2016.
“They are like martyrs”
Tbilisi is the major centre of Chaldeans in Georgia, but there are Chaldeans living elsewhere in the country. This is the case with Gardabani, approximately 40 km from Tbilisi, with around 400 Chaldean Catholics living in the city. Many are descended from Chaldeans who fled persecution in Turkey and settled in Azerbaijan. In the 1930s, they were deported to Siberia, but were allowed to return home after Stalin’s death. “But they wanted a Christian land and therefore they were evicted to this area in Georgia.” The land in the area around Gardabani was very bad and the Chaldeans struggled to survive. “How many died to save their faith?” ponders Father Benny. “They are like martyrs.”
The living conditions for the Chaldeans in Gardabani are still very difficult. “Often electricity is cut off. All live together in one room in shabby or ruined houses. Poorest among the poor,” Father Benny tells ACN. In this context, it was impossible for many to travel to the closest Chaldean church in Tbilisi. Mass had been celebrated instead in a parishioner’s home in Gardabani.
Given these conditions, Father Benny sought as well to build an Assyrian – Chaldean Religious – Cultural Centre, including a church, in Gardabani. With the support of ACN, the centre was consecrated and opened on 10 July 2023.
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