Venerable Father Christodoulos the Philosopher (XII)
The Venerable Father Christodoulos the Philosopher belongs to the number of those holy fathers of the twelfth century whose life and labours left an indelible mark on the history of the Church and the nation.
In the “Dogmatikon” of the famous church writer and philosopher Arsen Vachesdze there is an anti-Muslim polemical work with this title: “A Record of the Disputation and Judgement concerning the Law of the Christians and the Saracens”. What is told there is supplemented by Prince Ioane’s “Kalmasoba”, which contains information “about Father Christodoulos, called the Ossetian”.
According to this information, Father Christodoulos was a monk sprung from distinguished and noble roots. Christodoulos was a philosopher, deeply versed in the Holy Scriptures, learned in the Arabic and Persian languages, and knowing the Qur’an.
When Iamame, sovereign of the Persians, invaded Georgia, he was let into Tbilisi without a fight, for which the lawless king treated the people kindly and “bestowed gifts on many”.
Once Iamame gathered Georgians and Saracens. Among them was the Georgian monk Christodoulos. At this gathering a disputation took place between him and the Saracens. First the sovereign Iamame himself disputed with the monk and was defeated; then a certain magus, an astrologer, took his place. When he too could do nothing, they called “a certain man, a teacher, reputed learned in speech”, who was supposedly better prepared for disputation. The dispute turned on the following questions: the meaning and significance of Christian monasticism; the divinity and incarnation of Jesus Christ; and whether Muhammad was a true prophet. The monk brought forward his arguments both from the Holy Scriptures and from the Qur’an. He overcame his opponents, who were left “confounded and ashamed”.
Metropolitan Timote (Gabashvili), in his “Pilgrimage”, describes his journey to the mountain of Athos, mentions the fathers labouring there and writes: “…And there was there the Georgian recluse Anthimus the Javakhian, living far from the cells; he would not come out of his cell because of his great nakedness and poverty. And there was another Georgian, German Atotseli Samarlanashvili, and also Gerasime Ptseli, and an Imeretian, Christodoulos Sakareli, and also the honourable recluse from Kakheti, Grigol Saalaverdelo, very honourable in the monastic life.”
Elsewhere Timote Gabashvili describes a journey to Patmos and says: “And the whole body of the holy Christodoulos was there.”
It is supposed that the monk who laboured in Georgia went on afterwards to Athos, to the monastery of the Georgians, and died on the island of Patmos.
