Ilarion Kartveli

Ilarion Kartveli ( 822–875), Religious figure, born in the family of a nobleman in Kakheti (East Georgia). He greatly contributed to the promotion of cloistral life and building of monasteries in Georgia. Ilarion Kartveli’s activities in the capacity of a churchwarden were connected with three religious institutions in Kakheti: Church of Transfiguration of Jesus Christ at David Gareja Laura, so called Chapter of Ilarion Kartveli at the same Laura and Convent of Mamadaviti in Akuri. He spent most of his life in foreign countries. He toured Palestine (Jerusalem, Tabor, Golgotha, Bethlehem, Jordanian desert, Laura of St. Sabbas), Bithynia (Olympus), Rome, Byzantium (Constantinople, Thessalonica), where he got acquainted with renowned centers of Christian culture, literary monuments, monastic way of life and routine. Christian annalists have created a cycle of compositions that contain the stories and psalms dedicated to Ilarion Kartveli who is depicted as the builder of monasteries, Father Superior and the person who laid down rules for convents and monasteries in Kakheti.

Ilarion Kartveli was buried at Hroman Georgian Monastery near Constantinople.