Venerable Anthony, Metropolitan of Chqondidi (+1815), and His Disciple Jacob the Hieromonk
The Venerable Anthony of Chqondidi, one of the eminent figures of the Church of Georgia, was born into the large family of Otia Dadiani, prince of Mingrelia. His mother, Gulkan, was the daughter of Shoshita III, eristavi of Racha. Five sons and one daughter, Mariam (afterwards queen of Imereti and wife of Solomon the Great), grew up in the family. The mother gave the children their first education. She was a woman who carried on the traditions of the mothers of old, whose living faith and good works were an example to all. After his father’s death the young Anthony (his name in the world is unknown) was brought up at the court of his brother, Katsia Dadiani. He was being prepared for a secular career, and so he was taught secular letters, poetry, philosophy and art more deeply than the Holy Scriptures and the works of the fathers. Anthony also knew the Tatar language, which was very prestigious and necessary at that time; but it came about that Anthony resolved to become a monk, and he was soon tonsured.
Having become a monk, Anthony felt all the more keenly his thirst for church learning. He turned to the monks of Martvili, under whose guidance he came to know the writings of the holy fathers. To complete his education French missionaries were brought to him, who were to teach him scholastic philosophy. Anthony liked neither the Frenchmen’s conduct nor their teaching: he learned that the French monks were mixing the tares of heresy into Orthodox teaching. Once, at dinner, Anthony said to the Latin monk: “Can you pour wine into this glass of water so that they do not mix?” The Latin teacher answered that it was impossible. Then Anthony said: “Just as water and wine cannot be poured into one glass without mixing, so one man’s mind cannot hold the Orthodox and the heretical teachings without the one mixing with the other” — and from that day he dismissed the Latin monk.
The desire to learn gave Anthony no rest. “I had the sickness of learning and was seeking a physician,” he writes himself. At this time it became known in Mingrelia that a school of philosophy had opened in eastern Georgia, and around 1757 Anthony set out for Tbilisi, to the court of King Erekle II, whose wife was his aunt Darejan.
After his return to Mingrelia, in 1761, the Venerable Anthony was consecrated bishop of Tsageri. In 1765 Anthony of Tsageri had to go to Tbilisi: Erekle’s sister Elisabed was marrying Anthony’s brother, Katsia Dadiani. During the Liturgy the young Anthony was handed a blank sheet of paper. By the custom of that time this meant that he was to preach a sermon. This happened on the day of Pentecost. Anthony preached so beautifully and wisely that the delighted catholicos kissed him on the ambo.
In 1777 Grigol of Chqondidi, son of Bezhan Dadiani, died. In the same year Anthony of Tsageri ascended the throne of Chqondidi, while the see of Tsageri went to his kinsman Sophronius.
The preaching of Anthony of Chqondidi had an immeasurable influence on his hearers. An angelic virtue was imprinted on his face, worn thin by fasting. By order of this wonderfully kind hierarch a dinner for the poor and needy was prepared every day in the residence of Chqondidi. All the bishops of Chqondidi kept this custom afterwards.
In the eighteenth century some nobles in Mingrelia introduced the most terrible custom of selling captives. Anthony firmly set himself against this evil custom. He anathematised those who bought captives. He would not let a priest into their house. He would lock the church in their village. In 1792 and 1794, with Anthony presiding, a local council was held which passed a severe sentence on the buyers of captives. The severe measures achieved their purpose: the guilty asked forgiveness, bore their penance, and ransomed the captive who had been sold.
In 1789 Metropolitan Anthony left the see of Chqondidi, took up the labour of a simple monk and withdrew into the monastery of Nakharebau, which he himself had built. He enriched this monastery with holy things, old icons, great estates and peasants. The year before he stepped down from the see of Chqondidi (1788), he had the prince Katsia Dadiani free all church estates from secular taxes. His closest friend and helper, the hieromonk Jacob, of whom we have no biographical information, always stood beside Saint Anthony.
The Venerable Anthony died in deep old age in 1815 in the monastery he himself had built, and he is buried there.
