Saint George of Matskveri (IX–X)
Saint George of Matskveri was bishop of Atskuri. The famous writer and churchman was well known to the Georgia of his time, though his literary legacy has not come down to us.
Information about Saint George of Matskveri has been preserved for us by the works of Giorgi Merchule and Basil of Zarzma (commemorated 5 October).
Giorgi Merchule writes in “The Life of Grigol of Khandzta”: “I thought this life would be written by the wise and perfect fathers who were in our times”, and then lists the names of well-known church writers from whom his contemporaries expected an account of the life of the Venerable Grigol of Khandzta, and among them he names the Venerable George of Matskveri. According to Basil of Zarzma, George of Matskveri, the head of the church life of Samtskhe, “sprang up from the gorge of Shuartkali, of parents noble and God-fearing; and he was brought up in that renowned desert of Opiza”.
The chief information about the Venerable Serapion of Zarzma (commemorated 29 October) was supplied to Basil by George of Matskveri: “All these miracles and deeds, which he had seen before his episcopate and afterwards, were told me by a mouth that does not lie — I mean George of Matskveri.”
The Venerable George of Matskveri was very close to Saint Serapion of Zarzma (commemorated 29 October), was present at his burial, and greatly helped with the writing of his life as well.
The Venerable George took the see of Atskuri in the fourth year after the death of Giorgi Chorchaneli, the great lord of Samtskhe, when in the family and household of the Chorchanelis, and indeed throughout Samtskhe, great unrest, enmity and fratricide had flared up over his inheritance. In this time of lawlessness the Venerable George of Matskveri “took into his hands the governance of Samtskhe” and “brought peace to all his domain, as was fitting, and took possession of all the estates and churches of those former troublers”.
The Venerable George of Matskveri reposed in peace in the first quarter of the tenth century.
