Shio-Mgvime monastery
The Shio-Mgvime Monastery (
The Shio-Mgvime complex
According to a historic tradition, the first monastic community at this place was founded by the 6th-century monk Shio, one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers who came to Georgia as Christian missionaries. St. Shio is said to have spent his last years as a hermit in a deep cave near Mtskheta subsequently named Shiomghvime ("the Cave of Shio") after him. The earliest building – the Monastery of St. John the Baptist – a cruciform church, very plain and strict in its design, indeed dates to that time, c. 560s–580s, and the caves carved by monks are still visible around the monastery and along the road leading to the complex. The church has an octagonal dome covered with a conic floor and once housed a masterfully ornate stone iconostasis which is now on display at the Art Museum of Georgia in Tbilisi. The monastery was somewhat altered in the 11th and 18th centuries, but has largely retained its original architecture.
The Upper Church (zemo eklesia) named after the
An archaeological expedition revealed, in 1937, a 2 km (1.2 mi) long
History
Shio-Mgvime quickly turned into the largest monastic community in Georgia and by the end of the 6th century it was populated by as many as 2,000 monks. It became a vibrant center of cultural and religious activities and remained under the personal patronage of Catholicoi of Georgia. David IV "the Builder" (1089–1125) made it a royal domain and dictated regulations (typicon) for the monastery (1123). The downfall of the medieval Georgian kingdom and incessant foreign invasions resulted in the decline of the monastery. It saw a relative revival when the Georgian king George VIII (r. 1446–1465) granted Shio-Mgvime and its lands to the noble family of Zevdginidze-Amilakhvari to whom the monastery served as a familial burial ground up to the 1810s.
The monastery was ravaged by the invading Persian troops sent by Shah
See also
References
- K'artuli Sabch'ota Entsiklopedia (Encyclopaedia Georgiana), Vol. 11, p. 6, Tb., 1987.
- Parliament of Georgia website.
- (in Georgian) შიომღვიმის მამათა მონასტერი (Shiomgvime Monastery).
External links
