Venerable
Venerable George the Hagiorite (of Iviron, of Athos), Venerable
ок. 1009 — †1065
Also known as: Георгий Мтацминдели
Venerable George the Hagiorite — a Georgian monk, abbot of the Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos in the 11th century, one of the greatest Georgian ecclesiastical translators and writers, who rendered about 50 Byzantine liturgical, patristic, and theological works into Georgian; he defended the autocephaly of the Georgian Church before the Patriarch of Antioch.
Venerable George was born around 1009 in the region of Trialeti in the Kingdom of Georgia. From age thirteen he was educated in Constantinople, where he was sent in 1022. He took monastic vows and labored on Mount Athos, at the Georgian Iviron Monastery, of which he became abbot in the 11th century. As one of the greatest Georgian church writers and translators of his time, he rendered about 50 Byzantine liturgical, patristic, and theological works into Georgian — including writings of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa — often copying the translations by his own hand. He reorganized monastic and manuscript life at Iviron Monastery and defended the autocephaly of the Georgian Church before the Patriarch of Antioch. He is regarded as one of the most important Georgian saints on Athos. He died in 1065. His memory is kept on June 27/July 10, and also May 13 (per some sources) and in the movable Synaxis of Athonite Venerables.
NOTE: the entry's original structured dates (275-303) and feast days (Apr 23/May 6/Nov 3/Nov 26) were an erroneous contamination with the dates of the Great Martyr George of Lydda — a completely different saint; corrected to the accurate c. 1009-†1065.