The Venerable Shio of Mghvime (6th century)
St Shio of Mghvime
Troparion: Made winged from thy youth, thou didst guide all thy life by virtue, O God-clad one, and with the miracles given thee by God didst labour for the Georgian people; therefore, beholding in thee the gifts of the Spirit, we glorify the Creator, O venerable Shio. And now thy bare bones rise up from the cave beneath the earth on the wings of thanksgiving to the heights, as an intercessor for the faithful and a healing for our souls.
Kontakion: Thou didst guide thy life by the service of God and, taking up the cross, didst leave all that is of the world, O beauty of the desert, Shio; wherefore the Georgian people call upon thee as one living, and we delight with longing in thy relics that rise up from the cave. O father, cease not to intercede for us.
The Venerable Shio of Mghvime (6th century) · The long version of the Life of St Shio of Mghvime ● Catholicos-Patriarch Leonid (Okropiridze), a word on the day of the bringing up of the holy relics of the venerable father Shio of Mghvime · The miracles of Father Shio
The Venerable Shio of Mghvime, one of the Thirteen Syrian Fathers, was from Antioch. His parents, devout gentlefolk, gave their only child a fine education. Humble, kind and God-loving, Shio especially loved reading Holy Scripture. At twenty Shio heard of the great ascetic John (commemorated 7 May), who lived in the wilderness with his disciples, and went secretly from his parents to see him. St John, who had been granted the gift of foresight, received Shio with joy and blessed him, and said to his disciples: “This youth shall be a son of God and a father of many monks, for God has chosen him”; and to Shio he promised a place among his disciples on condition that he return home and obtain his parents' leave.
Time passed. Shio's parents went into a monastery to labour for God. Shio sold the house, set free all the slaves, and went to Father John.
The Venerable John received Shio with joy, tonsured him a monk and allowed him to remain in the wilderness.
The Venerable Shio spent twenty years in the wilderness with Father John. For his selfless labour and obedience he received the gift of healing.
Then the Venerable John saw a vision from on high, telling him to choose disciples and go to Iberia to strengthen the faith of the Georgians. Among the twelve fellow-strugglers the holy father took with him was Shio.
The fathers, having come to Georgia, settled on the mountain of Zedazeni; then, with the blessing of Catholicos Evlavios and on Father John's counsel, they went out to preach in various parts of the land.
Shio, who loved solitude, asked his spiritual father's leave to go into the wilderness. Near Mtskheta, in the rock of Sarkineti, he found a cave and began his ascetic labour. At that time the place was inaccessible, waterless and full of wild beasts. Father Shio suffered many privations and fears here, but he endured all and overcame every temptation. Like St Elijah the Tishbite (commemorated 20 July), the venerable father was brought his food by birds.
The Monastery of Shiomghvime
Once, after a whole night of fervent prayer, at dawn, a wondrous light spread over the whole ravine, and the All-holy Mother of God appeared to St Shio together with St John the Baptist. The All-holy Virgin promised the holy monk strength in his trials and gave him something like snow for food. After this the Venerable Shio laboured in that ravine alone with still greater zeal.
Once the commander of King Parsman's army, Evagre, prince of Tsikhedidi (commemorated 4 February), went hunting in the mountains of Sarkineti; here he came to know the venerable father and stayed with him to labour for God.
The whole land soon learned that the famous commander had gone into the wilderness. Many pilgrims came to the Venerable Shio and to Evagre. Many of them followed the Venerable Evagre's example and began to labour for God in the wilderness.
Once the Venerable Shio stood in prayer and besought God to show him a place to build a church. Instead of a censer the saint offered incense in the palm of his hand. The fire did not burn his hand. The saint followed the trail of the incense, and where the smoke rose straight up to heaven he marked out the place of the church with his staff. So the Lord showed St Shio where he was to build the church.
When King Parsman learned that Evagre had become a monk he was greatly displeased, and went himself to Shio's wilderness. The king saw such wondrous grace in St Shio's face that he took off his crown and knelt before him. Father Shio blessed the king reverently, raised him up and set the royal crown on his head with his own hand. The king's attendants too bowed down before Father Shio and received his blessing. Among them was a nobleman whose right eye had been injured by an arrow. He knelt before Shio, touched his eye to his foot, and was healed.
King Parsman asked the venerable father what the wilderness needed. St Shio answered: “Lord King! The hearts of kings are in the hands of God; do as seems good to thee.” For the building of a church in the wilderness the king gave a great sum of money, four villages, a chalice and paten, a golden cross, and a beautifully adorned Gospel book that had belonged to King Vakhtang Gorgasali (commemorated 30 November).
When the building of the church was finished, King Parsman came down to the wilderness again, this time with the Catholicos and the bishops. St John of Zedazeni himself came too and consecrated the newly built church.
After this the number of the brethren of the wilderness reached two thousand. Many people came to the wilderness to see the wonder-working hermit and to receive his blessing and healing.
The grave of St Shio of Mghvime
St Shio worked many miracles. Once a wolf took to attacking the monastery's donkeys and tore many of them apart. When St Shio heard of it, he prayed and asked the Lord that this wolf might become the donkeys' shepherd; and so it came to pass — after this it faithfully herded the donkeys.
Once St John of Zedazeni called his disciples and bade them show what measure of the spiritual life they had reached. St Shio laid a live coal on his palm and sprinkled incense on it. The people who saw the miracle glorified the Lord in amazement.
At last St Shio, with the blessing of his spiritual father John of Zedazeni and of the Catholicos of Georgia, gathered his disciples, gave them a rule, appointed the Venerable Evagre their superior, and withdrew into a cave he himself had dug.
Buried alive for the love of Christ, the Venerable Shio lived fifteen years in the cave in fasting and prayer. At last, when God had revealed to him that his death was near, he received Holy Communion, lifted up his hands and peacefully gave his soul to the Lord with the words: “O Lord! Into Thy hands I commend my spirit.”
During one of the Persian invasions Shah Abbas's horsemen carried off the holy bones of Shio of Mghvime to Iran. That year a terrible plague struck Persia. The frightened Persians held that the cause was their disrespect towards the relics of St Shio, and returned them to the monastery.
Lives of the Saints, vol. II, Tbilisi, 2001
Photographs provided by Luarsab Togonidze
● Catholicos-Patriarch Leonid (Okropiridze), a word on the day of the commemoration of the venerable father Shio of Mghvime
As a sign that he is ever present with the brotherhood of the monastery and with the Georgians in general, every Thursday of Cheesefare Week, the day of his commemoration, Father Shio would show the people a miracle: his bones would rise up of themselves and come to rest in the church. Once Shah Abbas, to win the heart of his captive, the daughter of the Amilakhvari, had the bones of her beloved saint, the Venerable Shio, carried off to Persia. Because of this great calamity fell upon Persia — plague, famine, drought, barrenness of women and of cattle… After three years of wrath St Shio appeared to a mullah and commanded that his holy relics be returned. The frightened shah placed the saint's relics in a golden reliquary and sent them to Georgia together with the Amilakhvari's daughter, set free.
In 1735, on Shiooba, three relics of the venerable father are said to have risen in the church: the head and two arms. Never before had so many relics risen at once. The Georgians wondered… That year Catholicos Besarion died. That same year Nadir Shah sacked the monastery and destroyed the resting place of the holy father. After that this great miracle came to pass no more, though it is said that once, in 1917, on Shiooba, the head of the venerable father rose up. It seems Father Shio warned and strengthened the Georgians before a great trial.
In recent times, as the fathers of Shiomghvime say, the miracles of Father Shio have greatly increased.
Once a man hard pressed by people came up to Shiomghvime. It was evening, and the superior sent the suppliant to pray in St Shio's cave. The pilgrim went down into the cave alone, feeling his way, and fell to the ground to venerate the saint's grave (in the cave lies a stone marking Father Shio's grave, raised half a metre above the ground), but he could not find the stone. He lay on the floor and began to turn about to find the stone, but in vain. The man grew very frightened. Suddenly St Shio, clothed in light, rose up before him, calmed and comforted him, and called him to the life of the Church. The vision ended, and at once the man found the gravestone…
To a woman of Imereti, confined to her bed by illness, St Shio appeared in her sleep and said: come to me and you will be healed. The woman came up by taxi, sent the car away, prayed at the holy father's grave until evening, and at dusk, already healed, stood on her own feet on the Mtskheta road. When she came to the monastery a second time she said: Father Shio saw me off as far as the town and told me I would be ill no more…
A Jew learned of Father Shio's miracles; returning to America, he found someone close to him laid low by illness. He thought: if only St Shio would help him too. He had not even finished the thought when the sick man rose to his feet. This so moved the Jew that he turned to the faith of Christ.
The venerable father helps the childless especially. A husband and wife had had no child for seven years. They made pilgrimages all over Georgia and had a Liturgy offered in the Holy Land, in Jerusalem, but they were not granted a child. Then they visited St Shio's grave and prayed, and on the third day a little one was conceived…
A Georgian couple living in Russia had had no heir for fifteen years. Their relatives prayed for them in Father Shio's cave. A little while later they rang from Russia with the good news: we are expecting a baby. They did not even know who had begged their child from God.
