Court sentences civil activist to 5-day detention for pouring paint on St. Matrona icon with Stalin
Civil activist Nata Peradze poured paint on an icon showing Saint Matrona of Moscow and Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin at the Holy Trinity Cathedral earlier last month. Photo: RFE/RL
Tweet 
Share
The Tbilisi City Court on Friday sentenced civil activist Nata Peradze to five-day administrative detention for pouring paint on an icon showing Saint Matrona of Moscow and Soviet Dictator Joseph Stalin at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi earlier last month.
The ruling comes after the Ministry of Internal Affairs initiated proceedings into the case on January 9 on the charge of “petty hooliganism”, an article that outlines a fine or administrative imprisonment for up to 15 days.
Peradze’s action followed controversy over the icon, which was donated to the Cathedral by the Alliance of Patriots, a domestic opposition group that has been accused of ties with Russia on the backdrop of the country’s occupation of Georgian territories, with the depiction of the Soviet ruler on the icon at the centre of the controversy.
A photograph of the icon was posted on social media by cleric Ilia Chigladze on January 6 and led to an outrage by a part of the public, with the icon later defaced.
The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Christian Church on January 11 asked the donor group - led by politician Irma Inashvili - to modify its visuals.
In comments looking to clarify details about the depictions in the icon, the religious organisation said the alleged meeting between Stalin and the saint - represented in the icon - was “not supported by sufficient [historical] evidence”, not included in the canonical text of the latter’s life, and was not recognised by the Russian Church, which canonised her.
The Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Christian Church on Thursday asked donors of an icon seen at Tbilisi’s Holy Trinity Cathedral to modify its visuals showing St. Matrona of Moscow, a saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, alongside Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, after a photograph of the icon sparked controversy on social media and led to its defacement.
The world has always been contradictory, but today's conflicts and wars pose “a real danger of turning into a global catastrophe and destroying all of humanity”. That is why we should all care for peace, the Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II said in his annual Christmas epistle ahead of Christmas mass last night.
Georgian Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili on Tuesday slammed an alleged “coordinated campaign” by the “radical wing” of the domestic opposition against the Christian Orthodox Church of the country, which he claimed was aimed at “demeaning” the “symbols and values around which Georgians have rallied historically”.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday hailed the “exemplary leadership” of Patriarch Ilia II of the domestic Orthodox Christian Church on the 46th anniversary of his enthronement, personally conveying his “warmest wishes” to the religious leader at the Patriarchate in Tbilisi while accompanied by his family.