Mtatsmideli (Atoneli) Giorgi

Mtatsmideli (Atoneli) Giorgi (1009-1065), Clergyman and public figure, writer, translator and notable representative of old Georgian literature. He was Father Superior of Iberian Monastery on Mount Athos (Modern Greece) and an inspiration to the scientific and literary activity of Georgians who lived and worked in foreign countries. According to Giorgi Mtsire, his biographer, he was born in Trialeti, Georgia into the family of Yakob, influential statesman. He studied at Tadzrisi and Khakhuli Monasteries. In 1022, his uncle took him to Constantinople, where he spent 12 years. There he mastered the Greek language and got access to the Byzantine culture. In 1036, he settled on Black mountain in Syria. In 1040, on the advice of his spiritual leader Giorgi the Hermit, he departed for Mt. Athos.

In 1044 he became Father Superior of Iberian Monastery on Mt. Athos. Giorgi Mtatsmideli turned the Monastery into a potent breeding ground of Georgian spiritual culture. Gradually, his activities acquired wide public significance. He defended Georgian Church and Georgian culture from the assault of foreign powers and protected the autocephaly of Georgian Church, since he believed them to be the proof of national dignity and identity. Giorgi Mtatsmindeli’s input into the Georgian literature is invaluable. He contributed to all spheres of ecclesiastic writing as a translator, a writer and an editor. The new, so called Giorgian version of the Bible’ is well known in Georgia; he himself translated several books of the Bible: The New Testament, the Book of Epistles and the Book of Psalms. He enriched Georgian literature with translated works as well as original compositions. He wrote a significant hagiographic work The Vitae of our Blessed Fathers John and Euthymius, which is the belles-lettres version of the history of the Iberian Monastery on Mt. Athos. Giorgi Mtatsmideli’s diverse activities contributed to the development of Georgian culture in the successive centuries.