“Speak Georgian freely”: an implementation of the call of Mother of God in the life and asceticism of Georgian Athonites

“Just now some magnificent queen stood before me, and said in Georgian language: “... Be not afraid, and speak Georgian freely”

Priest-monk Giorgi (George, of Holy Mountain).
Life of blessed our fathers Iovane (John) and Ephtyme (Euthymius), VIII.

While the founders and first inhabitants of the Iviron monastery on Mount Athos have not represented during their times any unique phenomenon - because by that time the activities of the Georgian monks and priests outside Georgia, creating monasteries in strange land, translation works, which primarily characterizes the figures of the Iviron, was a routine, - yet they occupied for some reason, a special place in history, culture and consciousness of our people. In their whole personality, life and activities they do not only constitute a significant part of the foundation of our national existence and identity, but with that represent a kind of teaching that, I dare say, to a large extent still were not understood.

It is even more surprising that this doctrine of Athos Georgian fathers is no some secret, encrypted message, which requires disclosure with relevant methods and contains some earlier or later unheard thoughts. It only offers a unique approach, a look at the place and mission of one separate, namely, Georgian nation in the space of the Christian world, church and culture. The teaching of Athos fathers is based on historical experience of the people and Church of Georgia, but at the same time, due to clarity, distinctness and expressiveness represents the top of this experience.

Their teaching is backed by their greatest authority in the eyes of not only Georgians, but also strangers, among whom they spent most of their life, authority, who witnessed the closeness of the first Georgian Athonites to Athanasius of Athos, their high estimation of this saint, the announcement by Athanasius of Athos Iovane Holy Mountain, and after him his son Ephtyme his heirs at the rank of general managers and the spiritual fathers of Mount Athos, also a respectful attitude of the Byzantine and Georgian kings and nobles, not only because of their noble origin, but more due to spiritual height. Finally, by the fact that Iovane, Ephtyme and Giorgi Holy Mountains look in general as outstanding representatives of the Byzantine and Georgian civilization of its time.

But their teaching is covered with a higher sanction, or blessing. The history of the founders of the Iviron monastery is marked by two direct intervention of the Virgin. It is surprising that the biographer of first Athonites Giorgi Holy Mountain tells nothing about the first intervention - a miraculous appearance in the monastery of the icon of Our Lady later named of Georgians (ton iberon), whereby Georgian Athos monastery became famous, and he limited himself by the following message about this icon:

“When entering the church, first father Ephtyme and then all the brethren, until they genuflected and worshiped the Holy Mother of God, which is at the gates – did not enter”.¹

The second intervention of the Mother of God occurred in the form of her personal appearance, when the Immaculate healed the dying lad Ephtyme and “in Georgian language” gave him such obedience: “You do not have any disease, get up, do not be afraid, and speak Georgian freely”. Blessed Jovane, the father of Ephtyme, added to this: “Until now, he spoke in Georgian hardly, and I was very sad because of this, but since then without interruption, as from source, flows purer than any Georgian can speak”.²

This amazing appearance, the healing doomed Ephtyme and granting him nonstop and pure Georgian speech, according to Jovane, the father of Ephtyme, and their biographer Giorgi Holy Mountain foresaw the future translation works of Ephtyme, whereby he “enlightened the Georgian language and the country”.³ It does mean by itself, but it is also outlined by the following encouragement of Jovane: “My Son, the country Kartli [Georgia] is in the great lack of books and many books are missing and I can see what God has granted you. Now, do endeavor, so you multiply your reward from God”.⁴ And through a long list of works translated by Ephtyme, which is placed immediately.⁵

The same list we find in the Life of Giorgi the Holy Mountain, which also represents this ascetic to us, first of all as inheritor of Ephtyme calling for translation and blessing received by him.⁶

But at the same time, personalities, acts and thoughts of the great Georgian Athonites do not fit into the frame, supposedly outlined by dictum of the Virgin. Due to this non-correspondence there arise the feeling that the main words of this statement do not fit into the framework of its direct meaning, and require expansion. And "Georgian" in the errand of the Holy Mother points out not only on the language of definite nation, but also on his experience, on characteristic consciousness of this nation, original view on world, the peculiar rules of his relationship with this world; but "speaking freely", except adroit handling of the word, an awareness of all this, and clearly, fearlessly ("be not afraid") announcement.

At the same time fathers of Mount Athos are the children and dedicated servants of the Church of Christ, and for them the same way as for the first ideologue of "georgianity" Iovane Sabanisdze, Kartli, Georgia is a "Mother of saints", country-Church, nation-Church, moreover, not only "Mother" of Georgians ("of some local residents"), but also of strangers ("of some alien and who came from outside to us”),⁷ so the entire Georgian is connected for them with the teaching of Christ and His Church, cleansed of ethnicity, groundnity, of narrow, limited and egoistic nationalism.

Based on the Lives of Mount Athos fathers, we can trace the embodiment of instruction of the Holy Mother on the example of five or six generations, among them, George Holy Mountain and his disciple George Mtsire (the Little). Those latter not only made the story of Iviron monastery creation and its famous devotees, but also summed up and recorded above-mentioned teaching of Athos Georgians. By thinking of these two great writers, not only the translation works of Ephtyme, George and their staff, but all of their activities can and should be considered as a response to the appeal of the Blessed Virgin.

For example, we know that Ephtyme did not limit himself (not limited himself) to the translations from Greek into Georgian, but created several Greek works, which were based on pre-existing texts in Georgian language. On this occasion George of Holy Mountain enthusiastically and proudly notes that Ephtyme "enlightened language and the country of the Georgians" and his "creations delight the distant and the near, and the sweetness of the translated books, like the sonorous golden horn, sounds over the whole country, not only Georgian, but also Greek, for Bolavari and Abakura and some other writings he translated from the Georgian into Greek".⁸ It did not even occur George to separate, to distinguish within the meaning, the value, or at least syntactically between these two activities of Ephtyme, between two "gladness", Greek-Georgian and Georgian-Greek translations. For him they both contribute to the enlightening the Georgian country and language. The act of Ephtyme and appreciative feedback from Giorgi on it shows that they understood the assignment of glorious Lady, not in the narrow sense, not in the narrow framework; that speak freely in georgian means not only creative work in the Georgian language, not only the enrichment and improvement of the Georgian language, culture and consciousness, but the message to other languages, to other nations fruits of creativity and talent, which had grown up on Georgian soil, the historical experience of Georgians.

For this purpose, in particular, it is needed to understand this experience, these fruits. In this sense, the activities of Giorgi the Holy Mountain was the crowning of work of the first Athonites not only in the immediate sense that Giorgi was the heir and successor of the translation work Ephtyme, but in the sense that he comprehended their experience - even more advanced the frontiers of free-speaking in Georgian, in word and deed outlined its framework. Then, Giorgi Mtsire (George the Little), a true disciple of Giorgi, was his heir and successor who brought the matter to the end, described the life and asceticism of Giorgi Holy Mountain, and presented him not only as the successor of work of the first Athonites, but as true keeper of their worldview, their mentality.

One of the heights which reached the expansion of the Georgian speech is that at a certain level of spiritual purification and ascent native speech becomes a meta-speech and the holy stranger can understand it, as native language, without translation, as well as equal in the spirit Georgian saint understand the speech (Italian) of this holy.

"That aforementioned venerable priest, Gabriel Georgian, and this holy man, a great Roman Leon, had the great spiritual love... And besides their own language neither of them knew the other. And when it became dark, they went out of their cells, and prayed, and sat down, and before the morning bell spoke on divine ... And our fathers said: ... "For their sanctity everything was possible and probably, because they were great before God and perfect".⁹

The same extended understanding of national doing, "speaking in Georgian," we see at the very base and construction of the Iviron monastery. Here, the Georgian monks are not satisfied with the creation of national spiritual focus, "for the repose of Georgians" in the words of Giorgi the Holy Mountain. The appearance of the Georgians in Mount Athos and the founding of the Iviron monastery is accompanied by generous gifts to all other monasteries of Mount Athos, which, according to the same George Holy Mountain, "in those days were still poor", from the loot, which Tornik, supporter of Athanasius and Jovane of Athos, took possession as a result of the victory over the rebellious Bardas Skleros.¹⁰ But Georgian fathers were not satisfied with such moderate charity. Into the monastery, which was founded and built specifically for the Georgians, from the outset were accepted the Greeks and other foreigners. Introduction to the monastery Greeks, according to Giorgi Holy Mountain, there was not without some hesitation, and at first glance, only because of economic needs, "because we, as you see, we have no maritime experience, .. and then without blacksmiths, masons and builders, and vine-growers, and seamen, and other similar such a large monastery there is no force to hold. And all this investigated the holy fathers of ours, and like it or not, as we have said, accepted them."¹¹

But it is difficult to imagine that the people such a high spirit would decide such an important matter only on the economic level. Children of that Church, which from its beginning appeared to the world as the common mother "local residents" and "who came from outside", should have been open for the stranger monastery gates, "like it or not" in the words of Giorgi the Holy Mountain, for household purposes or for any other.

If, however, a settlement of Greeks in Iviron was allowed not with an open heart, the invitation and reception at the monastery of the "Romans", the Italians, had been prompted by this fraternal sympathy. If the Georgians accepted Greeks after some hesitation and discussion, they "begged to be here" the Italians. And subsequently they provided support them in the construction of national convent, bought for it a place and provided with "all necessary".¹²

With that same extension of the georgianity we face in the purely spiritual area, when Jovane and Ephtyme were not limited to "edification of Georgians" in his monastery, and according to the testament of Athanasius took the guidance and caring of entire Athos.¹³

Athos fathers provided a broader understanding to Georgian speaking also to, so to speak, church-geographical dimension. In the era of the first Georgian Athonites particularly acute is the process of confrontation between the western and eastern parts of the Church, and generally between the eastern and the western Christians. This process began long before that era, and in the lifetime of Giorgi Athonite, an event happened, which is recognized as border of final and still uncured separation. Just in this age we see what can be considered as one of the manifestations of speaking in Georgian, - a warm and sincere attitude towards the representatives of the Christian West. The desire to come closer with the West was so great that the founder of Iviron intended to move to the West, precisely to Spain, but because of opposition from the Byzantine emperors was forced to abandon that intention.

For the first Athonites the West is not only Christian land, but even as if the land of Georgia, since, according to their information, many Georgian tribes dwelled at the extreme west of the world at that time, in Spain.¹⁴

But the explicit interest to the West did not testify about the neglect of the Eastern part of the Christian world. Athos ascetics and the whole Georgian spiritual leaders throughout the centuries have made it clear that their homeland is the entire Christian Church and all the space on which the Church resides. Such a broad geographical and ecclesiastical outlook of Georgian Athonites corresponded to free and impartial view on ecclesiastical matters.

This became apparent most clearly and vividly in activity of Giorgi the Holy Mountain. That's whom we see as a mentor in Georgia, Antioch and Constantinople. Not in vain that his disciple and biographer Giorgi Mtsire assigns him the title "common father" and "overall teacher".¹⁵

In this regard, the most emphatic is the answer of Giorgi the Holy Mountain to the question of Byzantine Emperor Constantine X Doukas on the legality of the teachings and practices of various local Churches, in particular, about the use of the Western Church in the liturgy of unleavened bread, which was recognized in the East and in some places now is recognized as one of serious violations.¹⁶

In this conversation, Giorgi Athonite stands in front of us as unfeigned and impartial expert who is willing to declare to any audience and to defend what he perceives as the truth, who is not afraid to express an opinion which is contrary to the entrenched and widespread views and protect the integrity of the Oecumenical Church from the internal strife and hostility.

While it goes without saying that the conversation with the emperor took place in Greek language, but this episode seems a shining example and a model of free, i.e. understandable, unambiguous and bold speaking in Georgian. In this episode, as it was, an epiphany about the future calling of Georgian language, which was expressed around the time, has found its preliminary implementation.

"The Georgian language is buried up to the second coming of it for testimony so that God exposes any language by this language".¹⁷

He also shows what spiritual, moral and intellectual heights requires this mission.

Archpriest Joseph Zeteishvili