Lomisa church
ლომისა | |
42°24′43″N 44°29′58″E / 42.411935°N 44.499539°E | |
Location | Mount Lomisa, Dusheti Municipality, Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Georgia |
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Type | Hall church |
The Lomisa church (
Location and architecture
The Lomisa shrine tops a high mountainous pass in the Dusheti Municipality, some 7 km south of the village of Kvemo Mleta and 18 km northwest of the small town of Pasanauri as the crow flies. The Lomisi or Alevi mountain, on which the church is located, overlooks the Aragvi valley in the historical district of Mtiuleti, now administratively part of Georgia's Mtskheta-Mtianeti region, to the north and a portion of the Ksani valley to the south, which fell under the control of breakaway South Ossetia during the Russo-Georgian War of August 2008.[2]
Lomisa is a simple hall church, measuring 14.5 × 7.8 m, built of undressed stone. The original edifice dates to the 9th or 10th century. There are two annexes which were constructed later, to the south and to the north. Parts of the church have fallen to ruin, making the building partly buried in the soil and debris. The interior has been remodeled several times in the course of history. In the extant church, the
History
Lomisa features in many local legends and folktales. It is said that the church was built here to commemorate the deliverance of 7,000 Georgians from the Chorasmian captivity through the miraculous intervention of the icon of Saint George which was mounted on an ox called Loma ("a lion"). Another legend has it that a captain of a royal detachment incurred the wrath of the icon when he chopped the church door for firewood: the soldiers were blinded and their eyesight would not return until the captain promised to donate an iron door to the church. An ironclad oakwood door—with the 16th–17th-century Georgian inscriptions—is still kept inside the church. The church also features an old massive iron chain which believers put around the neck and walk round the shrine three times counterclockwise to make a promise or a wish.[4][5]
Lomisa has historically been the most sacred Christian shrine for the eastern Georgian mountaineers and their most binding oath was by Saint George of Lomisa.[6] It was the place where the locals would gather and deliberate on the matters of war and peace. The church enjoyed patronage from the Georgian royalty and nobility.[4] It also appears to have owned serfs. In the 1320s, King George V of Georgia stopped at Lomisa to pray before St. George on his way back from a journey to the Darial Gorge. This king specially issued a set of laws to regulate conditions in the mountain valleys; one of the clauses had it that a murderer of a peasant of Lomisa presented thereto by the king or by anyone was to be fined with 1,500 pieces of silver.[6][7]
The Lomisa shrine preserved many church items, such icons, crosses, banners, and various utensils.
Lomisoba
The Lomisa church hosts an annual festival, known as Lomisoba (literally, "of/related to Lomisa"), probably a remnant of an ancient pre-Christian cult superimposed by the veneration of St. George. Every year, on the Wednesday after Pentecost,[9] thousands of people from various regions of Georgia, especially Mtiuleti, Khevi, and Khevsureti, make a pilgrimage up to the Lomisa church. There are specific rituals for healing the sick and for seeking fertility for childless women. There is a round dance performed, with a song that describes the legend of the heavy chain that hangs in the church and is worn by pilgrims.[9] The festival also features a large-scale ritual animal sacrifice, in which hundreds of livestock, especially sheep, are slaughtered down in the valley, not far from the church. In the 2010s, the tradition has been increasingly criticized by animal rights activists, but the locals have rejected the calls to abandon it. The Georgian Orthodox clergy have stated that the Church "prefers unbloody sacrifice" but does not forbid the tradition of animal killing and concomitant supra (feast).[10][11]
References
- ^ "List of Immovable Cultural Monuments" (PDF) (in Georgian). National Agency for Cultural Heritage Preservation of Georgia. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
- ^ "Lomisoba celebration — the door on one side and the key on the other side of the ABL". EUMM in Geoorgia. 12 June 2012. Retrieved 8 August 2019.
- ISBN 978-99928-20-43-8.
- ^ a b c Makalatia, Sergi (1930). მთიულეთი [Mtiuleti] (in Georgian). Tiflis. pp. 167–176.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ISBN 9781845112066.
- ^ JSTOR 25189201.
- ISBN 9782600033480.
- Wakhoucht, Tsarévitch (1842). Brosset, Marie-Félicité (ed.). ღეოღრაჶიული აღწერა საქართველოჲსა. Description géographique de la Géorgie [Description of the Kingdom of Georgia] (in Georgian and French). S.-Pétersbourg: A la typographie de l'Academie Impériale des Sciences. pp. 222–223.
- ^ a b Ghambashidze, Nino (December 2020). "One Traditional Ritual: Lomisoba" (PDF). International Research Center for Traditional Polyphony Bulletin. No. 29. Tbilisi State Conservatoire. pp. 23–24.
- ^ Topuria, Tea; Gogua, Giorgi (5 June 2015). "ლომისობა – მსხვერპლშეწირვის ტრადიცია" [Lomisoba — the tradition of sacrifice] (in Georgian). Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (Georgian service). Retrieved 7 August 2019.
- ^ Lomidze, Eka (19 June 2014). "Lomisoba – Religious Fervor OR Mindless Slaughter of Animals?". Retrieved 8 August 2019.