The Kamani Monastery ( ka, კამანის ეკლესია; ) is located at the village of Kamani in

Abkhazia Abkhazia, officially the Republic of Abkhazia, is a List of states with limited recognition, partially recognised state in the South Caucasus, on the eastern coast of the Black Sea, at the intersection of Eastern Europe and West Asia. It cover ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

, north of

Sokhumi Sukhumi or Sokhumi is a city in a wide bay on the Black Sea's eastern coast. It is both the Capital city, capital and largest city of Abkhazia, a partially recognised state that most countries consider a part of Georgia (country), Georgia. The ...

. The monastery building is a 1980s construction on the foundations of a medieval church.

History

The locale of Kamani, also known as Komani, is associated in the local Abkhaz-Georgian legends with Saint

John Chrysostom John Chrysostom (; ; – 14 September 407) was an important Church Father who served as archbishop of Constantinople. He is known for his preaching and public speaking, his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and p ...

, who allegedly died there after being exiled from

Constantinople Constantinople (#Names of Constantinople, see other names) was a historical city located on the Bosporus that served as the capital of the Roman Empire, Roman, Byzantine Empire, Byzantine, Latin Empire, Latin, and Ottoman Empire, Ottoman empire ...

to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

coast. In 1884, the Greek scholar Konstantinos Vrissis visited the area and conjectured that it was Kamani, not Comana Pontica, where John Chrysostom died and was initially buried. Only the foundation survived of a medieval stone monastic building, a hall church design without a protruding

apse In architecture, an apse (: apses; from Latin , 'arch, vault'; from Ancient Greek , , 'arch'; sometimes written apsis; : apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault (architecture), vault or semi-dome, also known as an ' ...

. In the 1880s, under the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

rule, a Christian convent was founded there, but it fell in disuse with the arrival of the Soviet power in the region. In the late 1980s, the church was rebuilt through the efforts of the Abkhaz Yuri Anua. In 1990,

Ilia II Ilia may refer to: Science and medicine *''Apatura ilia'' or lesser purple emperor, a butterfly *Ilium (bone) (plural: "ilia"), pelvic bone People * Ilia (name), numerous ** Ilia II, the current Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Places * Ili ...

, Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia, consecrated the church. In July 1993, during the

War in Abkhazia War in Abkhazia may refer to: *War in Abkhazia (1992–1993) The War in Abkhazia was fought between Georgian government and paramilitary forces, and a coalition of Abkhaz separatist forces and North Caucasian militants between 1992 and 1993 ...

, the monastery was stormed by the Abkhaz separatist forces; Yuri Anua and the Georgian priest Andria Kurashvili were killed. In 2001, a group of Abkhaz monks returned to the Kamani monastery, which was transferred by the Sokhumi government, in 2011, in possession of the self-proclaimed

Abkhazian Orthodox Church The Abkhazian Orthodox Church (, ) is an Eastern Orthodox church outside the official Eastern Orthodox ecclesiastical hierarchy. It came into existence when the ''Sukhumi-Abkhazian Eparchy'' declared on 15 September 2009 that it no longer consid ...

. Georgia has inscribed the church on the list of cultural heritage and reported, in 2015, the physical condition of the monument as poor.

References

{{Authority control Churches in Abkhazia Christian monasteries established in the 20th century