Tamar Marjanishvili (Schema-hegumene Famar) (1868 – 1936), was born in Kvareli village, Kakheti, Georgia. She was sister of Kote Marjanishvili, Georgian theater director.
After she graduated from the Women’s Institute of Caucasus, she intended to enter the Petersburg Conservatoire but death of her parents upset her plans. Tamar returned from Petersburg to Kvareli to take care of her family. However, in 1889, unexpectedly for the people around her, she took the veil under the name of Iuvenalia at Bodbe Convent. In 1902 she was promoted to the position of Mother Superior of the Nunnery. Bodbe Convent belonged to the firstclass cloisters of Russian Empire.
In 1906 the members of the Sacred Synod of Russia, who were well aware of Mother Tamar’s patriotic viewpoint, had in mind to transfer her to the Novgorod Eparchy, but their attempt failed. Eventually, in 1907, by the decision of the Sacred Synod, hegumene Iuvenalia (Mother Tamar) was transferred to Moscow against her will and appointed Mother Superior of Pokrov religious community. Mother Tamar initiated to found a new nunnery – Serafim-Znamenski Skete, which was consecrated by Metropolitan of Moscow Vladimir in 1912. The Skete existed for 12 years until the Bolsheviks closed it in 1924. In 1916 Mother Tamar took the vows of great schema and thereafter she was referred to as schema-hegumene Famar (Russificated ‘Tamar’).
In 1931 Mother Tamar was arrested, charged with the ties with the leaders of Georgian August uprising of 1924 and taken to Butirka prison. 60 years old Mother Superior Tamar was tried and sentenced to the exile to Siberia for five years.
Kote Marjanishvili did his best to rescue his sister. He appealed to the highranking officials of the Kremlin but to no avail. On April 4, 1933, after getting the next “polite” refusal, Kote Marjanishvili died of a heart attack. His friends – writer Maxim Gorky and painter Pavel Korin succeeded in squaring the circle: in 1934, Mother Tamar was returned from exile but she was denied the permission to live in Georgia. Mother Tamar, who was ailing from tuberculosis, settled near Pionerskaya, a railway station in Byelorussia.
Mother Tamar died in 1936. Archbishop of Serpukhov Arseniy (Zhadanovski) performed the last offices for her. She was buried at Vedeno Monastery in Moscow. Her grave bears the inscription: “Be blessed evermore the one who accepted Christ”.