Domentius I ( ka, დომენტი I, ''Domenti I'') was a Georgian churchman and the Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia who presided over the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonl ...

in the latter half of the 16th century. Surviving documents testify to Domentius' efforts to aggrandize the church's land properties and restore those holdings that had earlier been lost to secular noble landlords. According to the early-18th-century royal historian

Prince Vakhushti Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი; 1696 – 1757) was a Georgians, Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, ''Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and ...

, Domentius "was installed" as catholicos by King Simon I immediately after his accession to the throne of

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial rol ...

in eastern Georgia in 1556. Domentius' rule was limited to the eastern Georgian territories, with his see at

Mtskheta Mtskheta ( ka, მცხეთა} ) is a city in the Mkhare, region of Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Georgia (country), Georgia. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is locat ...

; the west was under the jurisdiction of the breakaway

Catholicate of Abkhazia The Catholicate of Abkhazia ( ka, აფხაზეთის საკათალიკოსო, tr) was a subdivision of the Georgian Orthodox Church that existed as an independent entity in western Georgia from the 1470s to 1814. It was headed ...

. Even in the east, the

Kingdom of Kakheti The Kingdom of Kakheti ( ka, კახეთის სამეფო, tr; also spelled ''Kaxet'i'' or ''Kakhetia'') was a late medieval and early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at ...

, run by a

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

vying with their royal cousins in Kartli, tried to establish its own church. This attempt failed and Domentius was able to obtain pledges of loyalty from the Kakhetian bishops between 1556 and 1560. Further, in 1560, George, Crown Prince of Kakheti, restored to the see of Mtskheta a number of estates earlier lost by the church to that kingdom. There is no consensus as to the duration of Domentius' tenure. The catholicos named Domentius is known from two chronological groups of documents from the late 16th century. The church historian Michel Tamarati identifies two catholicoi with this name from that period, Domentius I (1557–1560) and Domentius II (1595–1602). The Georgian Orthodox Church also follows this numbering, assigning the years 1556–1560 to Domentius I and 1595–1610 to Domentius II. In contrast, some historians, such as Kalistrate Salia, consider these two Domentius to have been one person, with two tenures (1557–1562, 1599–1603) with a gap of nearly four decades.

References

, - {{authority control Catholicoses and Patriarchs of Georgia (country) 16th-century people from Georgia (country)