Venerable Venerable David of Gareja

Venerable David of Gareja was one of the Thirteen Syrian Fathers who came from Mesopotamia to Georgia in the mid-6th century together with St. John of Zedazeni to strengthen the young Georgian Church and its monastic life. Preaching in Tbilisi, he miraculously refuted a slander against him.

He then withdrew to the Gareji desert, where — sharing the wilderness with wild deer — he founded the renowned David Gareja monastic complex, later one of the great centers of Georgian monasticism. Intending to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he judged himself unworthy to enter the Holy City upon reaching a nearby hill, and instead took three stones from the Holy Land as a blessing before returning to his desert.

He reposed, having received Holy Communion, on 7 May 604, and was buried in the Church of the Transfiguration at the monastery he founded. He is venerated as one of the great founding fathers of Georgian monasticism.