Saint Samoel I, Catholicos (V–VI)

The holy Catholicos Samoel ascended the throne of the primate of the Georgian Church after the holy Catholicos Peter, at the beginning of the sixth century. Saint Samoel, like the holy Catholicos Peter, came from Byzantium. Saint Samoel came to Georgia at the wish of King Vakhtang, with the blessing of the Patriarch of Constantinople, after being consecrated bishop by the Patriarch of Antioch. Saint Samoel came to Kartli with the other bishops in the company of Saint Peter, who had been appointed catholicos. At that time the see and residence of the catholicos was “the church of the Apostles, the Living Pillar”, and Saint Samoel was appointed bishop there too, in Mtskheta.

After the death of the holy Catholicos Peter, “Samoel sat” on the throne of the catholicos of Kartli, “and the king (Dachi) entrusted Mtskheta to him, for so King Vakhtang had commanded”. The holy Catholicos Samoel governed the Apostolic Autocephalous Church of Georgia in the time of King Dachi and of his heir Bakur. In the time of the holy Catholicos Samoel the church of Tsqarostavi in Javakheti was built.

In Saint Samoel’s work one sees clearly a far-sighted catholicos and a father who cared for every single person; the saint knew well the holy martyr Shushanik (commemorated 28 August).

The holy Catholicos Samoel served faithfully to the end of his life the renewal of the Apostolic Church of Georgia and the strengthening of the Christian faith in the land.