Prochorus the Iberian ( ka, პროხორე ქართველი, tr) (c. 985–1066) was a Georgian monk and founder of the

Monastery of the Cross The Monastery of the Cross (; ; ; ka, ჯვრის მონასტერი, ''jvris monast'eri'') is an Eastern Orthodox monastery near the Nayot neighborhood of Jerusalem. It is located in the Valley of the Cross, below the Israel Mu ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

Life

According to the Georgian '' Vita'' of Prochorus, he was born in the

Kingdom of the Iberians The Kingdom of the Iberians ( ka, ქართველთა სამეფო, tr) was a medieval Georgia (country), Georgian monarchy under the Bagrationi dynasty which emerged circa 888 Anno Domini, AD, succeeding the Principality of Iberi ...

under the name of George of Shavsheti ( ka, გიორგი შავშელი, tr) and was raised in the local monastery, where he became a monk, and later a priest. Around 1010–1015, aged 30, Prochorus would leave for the

Holy Land The term "Holy Land" is used to collectively denote areas of the Southern Levant that hold great significance in the Abrahamic religions, primarily because of their association with people and events featured in the Bible. It is traditionall ...

. He would stay for number of years in the Lavra of Saint Sabas. Prochorus later would move to Jerusalem in an attempt to gather his Georgian compatriots who were scattered throughout the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

monasteries. Per ''Vita'', Prochorus would construct the monastery in 1064 by the order of the King

Bagrat IV of Georgia Bagrat IV ( ka, ბაგრატ IV; 101824 November 1072), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the king ('' mepe'') of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1027 to 1072. During his long and eventful reign, Bagrat sought to repress the great nobility and to ...

and his donations brought to the Holy Land by

George the Hagiorite George the Hagiorite ( ka, გიორგი მთაწმინდელი) (1009 – 27 June 1065) was a Georgian monk, calligrapher, religious writer, theologian, and translator, who spearheaded the activities of Georgian monastic communi ...

. Prochorus died in 1066. He is venerated as a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

and his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...

in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

is February 12.Charkiewicz, p. 103

References

Bibliography

* Charkiewicz, Jarosław (2005) Gruzińscy święci, Warszawa: Warszawska Metropolia Prawosławna, , * Salia, Kalistrat (1983) History of the Georgian Nation,

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

, Paris * Tchekhanovets, Yana (2018) The Caucasian Archaeology of the Holy Land, Armenian, Georgian and Albanian Communities Between the Fourth and Eleventh Centuries CE,

Brill Publishers Brill Academic Publishers () is a Dutch international academic publisher of books, academic journals, and Bibliographic database, databases founded in 1683, making it one of the oldest publishing houses in the Netherlands. Founded in the South ...

, {{ISBN, 978-90-04-36555-1 985 births 1066 deaths Christian saints from Georgia (country) Eastern Orthodox saints Christian monks from Georgia (country) 11th-century Christian saints 11th-century people from Georgia (country) Founders of Christian monasteries Calligraphers from Georgia (country)

Life

See also

References

Bibliography