Venerable John of Chqondidi (+1110)
The venerable John of Chqondidi was born in the first half of the tenth century. Information about him is found in the work of George the Priest-monk, “The Life of George the Hagiorite”.
It seems that Saint John came from a family of prominent Georgian nobles. John was one of the most learned theologians of his time and a very great patriot.
In 1050 Saint John, while still a layman, together with his brother Petrik accompanied King Bagrat VI of Georgia (+1072) and Queen Mariam to Constantinople, to the court of the Byzantine emperor Constantine Monomachos. There they met George the Hagiorite, who had come from Athos, and sent a great offering to Athos with him, for which an agape was appointed at Iviron for John and his brother.
In 1054 John, still a layman, took an active part in secular and church life. In 1059, on the commission of King Bagrat IV, Saint John brought George the Hagiorite to Georgia, and on his initiative John was consecrated Bishop of Chqondidi.
From 1061–65 John of Chqondidi governed, with the rank of archbishop, the see of Chqondidi, which had by then risen to considerable prominence. He actively supported George the Hagiorite in setting in order and regulating church affairs, which in Georgia had by that time fallen into considerable disorder.
In 1065 Saint John, together with his brother and Archbishop John of Bedia, accompanied Martha, the daughter of the King of Georgia, to Constantinople. After this, in 1066–67, John of Chqondidi went again to Constantinople to the Byzantine emperor, as the representative of King Bagrat and an outstanding hierarch of the Georgian Church. During this embassy John of Chqondidi seems to have asked George the Priest-monk to write the life of George the Hagiorite. George the Priest-monk names Saint John among those who commissioned his work: “And by the God-loving archbishop John, I say, of Chqondidi, the brother of the blessed Peter the patrikios... our unworthiness was greatly pressed... to recount without omission every manner of the end and departure of this holy father of ours.”
From 1085 John of Chqondidi was the assistant of His Holiness Dimitri, Catholicos-Patriarch of Georgia (1080–1090); he was honoured with the rank of synkellos.
According to a later note added to the Synaxarion compiled by George the Hagiorite, around 3 January 1110 “the archbishop of blessed soul John of Chqondidi passed away”.
