Иоанн, сын его Евфимий афонский и Георгий Святогорец

John, his son Euthymius of Athos and George of Svyatogorets, the main figures of the Georgian monasteries on Mount Athos. – John came from a noble family, before being tonsured as a monk, he occupied a high position under David Kuropalat and was a close person of the king. The biographer does not provide details about his government activities before becoming a monk. For unknown reasons, John left his service and secretly fled to the monastery, the Lavra of four churches, where he was tonsured a monk at the hands of the then-famous fathers Moses and Gelasius. After John's whereabouts became known to everyone, he went to Byzantium, to Mount Olympus. Some time later, for the Georgian provinces ceded by Byzantium to David Kuropalat, which had previously been in the hands of the emperor, the latter demanded hostages from the children of noble nobles, and among others was John’s young son Euthymius. Having learned about this, John was forced to open up and go to Constantinople. Here he managed to get permission to take his son, with whom he returned to the monastery on Olympus; but since the fame of him began to spread among the Georgians and Greeks, John soon retired from there to Athos, to the Lavra of Athanasius the Great. A relative of John, the famous Georgian commander Torniky, also arrived there and became a monk; They were followed by other Georgians to Athos. Then, as many of them gathered, and with the blessing of Athanasius, John and Torniky with all the Georgian monks left the Lavra and founded a nearby monastery and church in the name of John the Theologian. Thanks to the victorious campaign of Tornikius, who, at the request of the empress, the mother of the young Vasily and Constantine, had to temporarily leave the monastery and become in 976 at the head of 12,000 Georgian troops against Varda Sklir, the monastery acquired great wealth, received by Tornikius as a reward for the defeat inflicted on the indignant dignitary. With these funds, Torniky, together with John, were able to begin the construction of the famous Iveron Lavra in the name of the Most Holy Theotokos and John the Baptist. The monastery was equipped with all the buildings and land necessary for farming. The patrons of this famous Georgian monastery, John and Torniky, decided to limit access to the monastery only to their compatriots, and the Greeks were not to be admitted there; an exception was made for the Greek monks who knew ship and maritime affairs, since the Georgian monks themselves were little knowledgeable in this. All the attention of the famous patrons of the Lavra was turned to the educational and translation activities of the brethren. Whoever was capable of this work was involved in friendly teamwork. Many outstanding Georgian spiritual writers and scientists came out of this Iveron Lavra and labored in it. They were led by John's son Euthymius, whom his father diligently prepared for translation work from an early age. The soul and initiator of such a cultural mission of the Athos monastery was John. His records have come down to us in many manuscripts, from which it is clear how well he felt the urgent need for all modern exemplary works, as well as those of the classical works of the church fathers, which were not yet available in Georgian translation, to become available to Georgian society in their native language. John followed Byzantine church literature and constantly gave instructions to his son; Many of Euthymius’s translation works were inspired by his father and were completed during his lifetime. Euthymius himself was completely absorbed in translation work and devoted all his free time from monastic work to it. His passion reached the point of self-forgetfulness, so that he performed some of his works on the road or at night, due to the fact that during the day and the rest of the time he had to devote himself to administrative concerns for the monastery. Euthymy himself more than once points out this circumstance in his notes, and his biographer confirms it. The list of his works extends to 60 titles, most of which have reached us. In addition to translations of new works, it is of great importance for Georgian spiritual literature; and the churches had the editorial works of Euthymius. He compared all the most important books of the Old and New Testaments, as well as patriotic writings of the ancient period with contemporary Greek originals, and wherever, in his opinion, it was necessary, Euthymius made corrections accordingly to the Greek text. This achieved a rapprochement between the ancient Georgian liturgical tradition and the Byzantine one - and, since such work fully met the desires of Georgian theological circles, the corrected texts were immediately accepted into the church and forced the ancient Georgian texts out of use; why the study of the ancient liturgical practice of the Iveron Church is now significantly difficult. Thus, Euthymius begins a strictly orthodox movement in Georgian church literature and practice. He himself was not distinguished by formalism and narrow-mindedness, but later this trend led to an excessive enthusiasm for leveling. The Iveron Lavra on Athos, thanks to its patrons and most important devotees, stood out for its clearly expressed nationalist direction. Even Tornikius, having returned from the victorious campaign against Varda Skler, as soon as he and John began building the monastery, decreed that no one else would be accepted into the monastery except Georgians. Some time later, it was necessary to make a small deviation from this categorical decision in view of the fact that the monastery needed monks who knew maritime affairs well to manage the barges, and these were considered mainly Greeks. Since this was necessary for this purpose, it was necessary to open access to the Greek monks. Soon the Athos Iveron Monastery grew greatly and its management presented considerable difficulties. Since the first abbot of the monastery, John, soon after its construction was completed, was paralyzed and had to lie in bed, the management of the monastery passed to his son Euthymius, who held the position of housekeeper. The huge monastic farm with its large lands and arable lands, all kinds of workshops and services required, especially in view of the many Kelliots, tireless, intense work on the part of Euthymius. The monastery adopted a strictly democratic principle; monks were strictly forbidden to have private property in any form; neither buying nor selling, without the permission of the abbot each time, was allowed; Even the dress and vestments should not have been considered the property of one person, but other brothers could use them if necessary. Biographer Euthymius cites one case when this famous Georgian church leader, because some deacon of noble origin did not want another to wear his vestments during worship, ordered the vestments to be burned, saying to the culprit: “We are commanded to lay down our lives for our brothers, but you prefer this perishable thing to your brother!” All the brethren had to take part in various field, garden and other economic work; Euthymius himself was the first to set an example and, whenever time allowed, he was among the working brethren. This order seemed too harsh to some novices of noble birth, and this further complicated the already heavy burden of government; After a one-year trial, Euthymius usually refused tonsure to such persons. The whole burden of administrative worries for the monastery fell upon Euthymius when his father John died, who before his death transferred the power of abbot to Euthymius and even bequeathed who should be the latter's successor. The duties of the abbot took up so much of Euthymius’s time that it was very difficult for him to continue his literary activity: therefore, after 14 years of being abbess, he decided to leave all administrative affairs, transferred the abbess to the successor bequeathed by John, and he devoted himself entirely to his favorite activities. The new abbot was not up to the task; riots and squabbles began in the monastery; It was hard for Euthymius to see his native monastery in such a situation: both the charter and the established order were increasingly violated. A rumor about troubles in the Iveron Lavra reached the emperor, and he summoned Euthymius to explain this issue. In Constantinople, Euthymius settled all matters and was supposed to return to Athos, but he was thrown from the saddle by a mule while he was giving alms to a poor man, was seriously injured, and died on the same day, May 13, 1028. Euthymius' successor continued his activities in the same direction: he abolished almost the entire charter and order of Euthymius and opened access to the monastery to the Greeks; he enjoyed the love and favor of Emperor Roman, but was then accused of complicity in a conspiracy against the monarch, caught and sent into exile. The Iveron Athos Monastery fell into disgrace. The Greek monks took advantage of this, looking unfriendly and with envy at the Georgian monastery, subjected the entire monastery to plunder three times and achieved the confiscation of the monastery property. The antagonism between the Georgians and Greeks became extremely aggravated: the Greeks wanted to achieve the removal of the Georgians from Athos and, perhaps, would have succeeded in this if the intensified petitions of Arseniy, Chorchaneli and Parsman, as well as the intercession of the Georgian king on their behalf before the Byzantine emperor, would not have turned the matter in a direction favorable for the Athenian-Iveron monks. Emperor Michael ordered the case to be re-examined, but the investigation gave results favorable to the Georgians, which is why the monarch returned all the estates confiscated from the Lavra and confirmed his previous rights. This stubborn struggle greatly influenced the rise of national feeling among the Athonite Georgians: they gathered together and made an oath decree not to allow any of the Greek monks into the monastery under any pretext and not to lease plots to them; anyone who violates this decree is cursed as a traitor to Christ. In order for the memory of this struggle between Georgians and Greeks not to disappear, the entire brethren decided to commission the compilation of a biography of the ktitors of the Iveron Athos Lavra and the history of the persecution of Georgian monks by the Greeks. This work was entrusted to the famous Georgian scientist and reformer George Svyatogorets. This was also a man of a noble family, for George’s father Jacob was one of the closest dignitaries of King George I. Seven-year-old George, his father Jacob, in accordance with this vow, sent him to the Tadzrisi convent, where George’s elder sister was brought up; there the boy stayed for three years and studied as a priest. Scripture; then he was taken to the Khakhul monastery to be raised by two of his uncles, who gave the young nephew to the then famous Georgian theologian Hilarion Tualeli. A short time later, when one of the boy’s uncles went with the feudal lord, Feris, son of Dzhodzhik, to Byzantium, he took George with him. The latter stayed there for twelve years, mastered the Greek language perfectly and received a philosophical and scholastic education in Constantinople under the guidance of “sages and rhetoricians.” When George returned to his homeland, he no longer found his mother alive, saw his father and came to his second uncle at the Khakhul monastery, where he took monastic vows at the age of twenty-five. However, George did not stay here long: having secretly fled from the monastery, he arrived at Black Mountain and became a student of the famous Georgian ascetic George the Silent; he placed his student in the monastery of St. Roman, where Georgy spent three years. Soon, the teacher tonsured George as a schema monk and sent him to Palestine to venerate St. places. When he returned, Georgy Molchalnik advised him to take up translation work and finish what Evfimy did not have time to do. George had to give in to the insistent requests of his mentor and go to Mount Athos to the Iveron Lavra, where all the works of Euthymius were kept. Upon his arrival, he began to study all the monuments related to the history of the Iversky Monastery, and, following the example of Euthymius, he began to lead a strict ascetic and working life. On Mount Athos, everyone paid attention to him: George was soon ordained as a priest, dean and choir director. From that moment on, Georgy began his translation work: from studying the works of Euthymius, he knew in what direction the work had begun, knew what had been done, and could clearly imagine what he had to do. As a result, George’s literary activity manifested itself in three forms: firstly, he completed the translations of those works that were begun by Euthymius, but for various reasons remained unfinished; secondly, he translated those from patristic works that were not previously available in Georgian; thirdly, he compared with Greek texts and edited New Testament monuments translated in ancient times from Armenian. In addition, he wrote a biography of the ktitors of the Iversky Monastery; this monument, both in its historical merits and the wealth of material collected in it about monastic life on Athos, and in its literary qualities, can do honor to any literature. George's literary and scientific works were appreciated by the brethren, and he was elected abbot of the Lavra. When taking over his duties, George first of all tried to restore Euthymius’s charter. George had to work a lot to introduce order and efficiency into the plundered monastery. Administrative activities took up a lot of his time: the economic affairs of the monastery, going to Constantinople to petition for property issues of the Lavra and to ask for chrisovuls, participation in the Protate distracted George from literary studies; therefore, after several years as abbot, he decided to leave this post and devote himself to literary work, which he carried out. Having received a letter of release from the emperor, George went to Black Mountain and there indulged in literary activity. The fame of his lofty exploits, outstanding erudition and translation works quickly spread across all Georgian monasteries located in Palestine, Syria and Georgia itself: his translations were distributed in many copies: students from various places in Georgia flocked to him, received an education and returned back to their homeland, where they devoted themselves to pastoral service. He also received an invitation from the Georgian king Bagrat IV to come to him and start distributing his translations. George accepted the invitation and set out on his journey in the fall of 1060. He was received brilliantly everywhere and was given great honor by everyone. There was a severe famine in Georgia at that time: by the time George arrived, the famine had already begun to subside, but the disasters that he had to see in his homeland had a tremendous impact; Meanwhile, he noticed that many archpastors treated the people's disaster with composure. Some of them, in boundless vanity, tried to perpetuate their names with precious contributions to monasteries, so that their names would appear in the monastery synodics and be passed on to posterity about their outstanding services to the holy monasteries, others simply accumulated wealth for personal pleasure, when the inhabitants - their flock were dying all around from hunger. This was due to the fact that many pastors received positions through simony, and not through personal ethical merit or sincere attraction; Some of these shepherds did not even go through the appropriate path to the episcopate. And so George the Svyatogorets began a bold accusatory sermon against the tsar who invited him, so that he would not sell the bishopric to people unworthy, but “choose worthy persons, saints, raised in monasticism and approved by God-inspired teachers,” in a word, so that the tsar would act in accordance with church canons: and against the bishops, so that they would not hoard gold and silver, but would most of all be merciful to the poor and infirm. He warned bishops against excessive expenses for decorating monasteries and cathedrals at a time when the people were in poverty: not this, but helping the sufferers should, in his opinion, be the ideal of spiritual shepherds. So, to one bishop, who at that time was engaged in decorating churches and making rich contributions to monasteries, so that his name would be remembered in the church, George the Svyatogorets said: “Vladyka, this is a temptation of the devil for the purpose of, under the pretext of decorating churches, to destroy you with your heartlessness towards the poor; After all, God does not tell us: “decorate the Church,” but that “I was hungry and you did not feed me,” as Chrysostom said.” George Svyatogorets did not limit himself, however, to the role of accuser of the clergy, but acted as an active figure and reformer and tried to implement his democratic ideals in the Georgian church environment: he decided to violate the aristocratic traditions of the Georgian clergy and was the first to tonsure people who came from among serfs and slaves as priests. This circumstance made an extraordinary impression in Georgia: even after the death of George, his biographer considers it necessary to explain the correctness of this bold step of the famous reformer of the Georgian church. With his bold act, he wanted to shake the traditional structure of his native church, based on class principles and feudal institutions; he brought forward the importance of personal, rather than class, merits and thereby recognized the right of members of all classes to receive holy orders; to put it briefly, he made an attempt to democratize the Georgian church hierarchy - a bold step for that time: after all, in Western Europe only St. Francis in the 13th century. George Svyatogorets spent five years in his homeland in such intensive work; his accusatory speeches had a strong influence: the king himself, even the Catholicos and many bishops confessed their sins to him and repented, the people flocked to him in droves to listen to instructions and receive blessings from him, so that he barely had time to eat food. After five years of intense activity, George the Svyatogorets said goodbye to the king, the clergy and the people, took with him eighty people whom he had sheltered during the famine, and went back to Athos, but died on the way in Constantinople on June 29, 1065.