Saint Zosimas, Bishop of Kumurdo (XVI)

Saint Zosimas II, Bishop of Kumurdo, lived and laboured from the end of the fifteenth to the middle of the sixteenth century. His name in the world was Zebedee. He was brought up by Ketevan, the daughter of George VIII, king of Kartli (1446–1466).

In 1515 Zebedee was tonsured a monk. It is thought that he was consecrated bishop in the same year. This is confirmed by the inscription on the annexe of the church of Kumurdo: “May God forgive Zosimas of Kumurdo, amen.”

Besides his labours as hierarch, teacher and builder in his diocese, Saint Zosimas’s very great service in the Holy Land of Jerusalem deserves special mention. As is known, at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the struggle over Golgotha grew especially bitter; history tells how great a toil the Georgians had to bear to defend the rights they had won in the Holy Land of Jerusalem. It was at this very time that Saint Zosimas came to Jerusalem and played his part in freeing Golgotha from the Catholics, for which two ever-burning lamps were hung in his name on Golgotha and in the church of the Cross.

It is worth noting that from the fifteenth century the names of the hierarchs of Kumurdo are commemorated in the Book of Fidelity. The episcopal see of Kumurdo was always a defender of the idea of the unity of the Apostolic Church of Georgia and a cornerstone of religious and national awareness in the country.

Saint Zosimas of Kumurdo was canonised on 17 October 2002, together with the restoration of the most ancient episcopal see of Kumurdo.