Saint John (Okropiri, “the Golden-mouthed”), Catholicos (+1049)

Saint John — the Catholicos Okropiri (“Golden-mouthed”) — was born around the 920s. The saint governed the Apostolic Church of Georgia from about 980 to 1001.

In the work of Catholicos Basil III (1065–1080), “The Account of the Miracles of the Holy and God-bearing Father Shio”, it is told that Saint John’s parents had long had no child, and they entreated the intercession of Saint Shio of Mghvime (commemorated 9 May). When they had been granted a son, the God-fearing parents gave him to be brought up in the monastery of Shiomghvime. It was in the monastery that Saint John acquired the holiness and wisdom for which the people called him the Catholicos Okropiri, and so he entered the history of the Apostolic Church of Georgia. Of the holy Catholicos John Okropiri we read that he “became in all things equal to John Chrysostom, and if anyone wishes to know his virtues and deeds, let him take in hand the book written about him” (which unhappily is lost and no longer survives).

In the history of the Church of Georgia a second Catholicos John Okropiri is also known, who from 1033 to 1049 held the throne of the head of the Church of Georgia. He was the pupil and successor of the holy Catholicos-Patriarch Melkisedek (commemorated 1 October), and his life was as holy as those of his predecessors and of the catholicos-patriarchs who came after; for this reason Saints John IV and John V are often identified with each other.