Search

[German Version] I. History – II. The Present – III. Orthodox Church – IV. The Study of Canon Law and Church Law – V. Practical Theology – VI. Oriental Orthodox Canon Law…

[German Version] is the title borne by the heads of the Oriental Orthodox National Churches lying outside the boundaries of the former R…

[German Version] Because of the ascetic ideal of homelessness, many monks lived outside Georgia. The first are evidenced in Palestine, where they lived primarily in the Mar Saba monastery. Peter the Iberian (5th cent.) is considered the founder of his own Georgian monastery in the Holy Land. Monasticism is supposed to have been established as indigenous in Georgia at the end of the 5th (?) century by 13 “fathers” from Syia who founded the Gareǧa and Šio-Mġvime monasteries, among others. After the …

[German Version] Gelati Monastery, a monastery in western Georgia, on a mountainside with a splendid view into the distance. It was founded in 1106 by King David “the Builder” (David IV of Georgia…

[German Version] At the end of the 5th century and throughout the 6th century, monks from Syria organized monasticism in East Georgia and strengthened the faith of the Georgians, who had been converted only shortly before; the monks included John of Zedazeni, Shio of Mġvime, David of Gareja, and the martyr Abibos of Nekresi. Their Georgian vitae describe the lives of hermits and cenobites, recount their miracles, and also mention theological issues. In the absence of precise information, only limited historical placement is possible. The …

[German Version] of Nisibis (‘Abdīšō’ bar Brīkā; mid- 13th cent. – early Nov 1318), was the last significant Nestorian (Syria) author of the Middle Ages. He is attested as bishop of Sīgār and Bēt ‘Ar…

[German Version] (5th cent.). A collection that originated in the 11th century attributes 60 Syriac metrical poems to “Isaac, the Syrian teacher”; he is supposed to have been a student of Zenobios, who in turn was a student of Ephraem the Syrian. Many (additional) Syriac poems have been transmitted separately under the names Isaac, “teacher (of the church),” “bishop and teacher” (ms. British Library 14666) or “the Syrian.” They stem f…

…

[German Version] I. Byzantine Chronicles – II. Eastern Christian Chronicles – III. Russian Chronicles – IV. Western Chronicles I. Byzantine Chronicles Recent scholarship rightly sees world histories and contemporary historical works as a literary unity. In conformity with the terminology used here, in this article “chronicles” encompasses only world histories and annals. The Byzantine world produced far fewer kinds of chronicles than did the West, the Slavic world, and the Christian East. There are virtually no chronicles and annals o…

[German Version] (Oct 17, 1720 – Mar 1, 1788, Tbilisi), the son of the Georgian king Iese, was installed as Catholicus of the Georgian church in 1744. He was deposed in 1755 for exhibiting Catholic sympathies; in 1757 he became Metropolitan of the Russian church in Vladimir. Under King Irakli II (Georgia), he was allowed to return to his homeland in 1763. There he reformed the church and the liturgy, promoted education, and wrote many theological, historical, and philosophical works. Hubert Kaufhold Bibliography M. Tarchnišvili & J. Assfalg, Geschichte …

[German Version] Syrian cenobites and their monasteries appeared in the 4th century, especially in north-¶ ern Syria and northern Iraq. Ap…

[German Version] I. An independent republic in Transcaucasia. The Georgian name is Saḳarṭvelo, from “Ḳartveli” = Georgian (after the mythical ancestor Kartlos). The Greeks called the inhabitants ‘Ἱβήροι/ Ibēḗroi (Iberians). The Russian “Gruzija” stems from the Arabic and Persian names for Georgia, “al-Kurǧ” or “Gurǧ,” and the western European “Georgia” from St. George, the national saint of Georgia. Modern-day Georgia, surrounded by Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Turkey, has an area of 69,500 km2 (similar to Bavaria) and around 5.2 million inhabitants. The capital…

[German Version] was the “Jacobite” patriarch of Antioch from 594 to 631 (Syria). In 615/16 he ended a schism with the Coptic church that had lasted for decades. In …

[German Version] I. Literature in the Georgian language first becomes tangible with the invention of the Georgian script, epigraphically attested since the second half of the 5th cen-¶ tury ce. Georgian scholars think that there was a Georgian literary language already in pre-Christian times. The Georgian script with 38 letters read left to right probably developed under Greek influence. On into the 11th century, the “priestly script” ( Ḫuc̣uri) continued in use, initially as a majuscule, and after the 9th century in a starkly divergent square minuscule form. Th…

[German Version] I. Geography Greek Συρία/ Syría is an abbreviated form of ’Ασσυρία/ Assyría (“Assyria”); Greek and Latin manuscripts often use the two terms indiscriminately. Initially Syría, corresponding to the Persian satrapy of ʿEbar-naharā, denoted the region between Egypt and Asia Minor, including the area east of the Euphrates, which was called Mesopotamia after Alexander’s campaign. After the time of the Seleucids, Syria, with the Euphrates now marking its eastern border, was divided into northern …

[German Version] (Feb 18, 1605, Ḥāqil – Jul 15, 1664, Rome). The name is …

[German Version] The Pedalion (“Rudder”) is a collection of canons of the Greek church in widespread use. It was compiled at the end of the 18th cent…

[German Version] (Kotbacc̣i; 5th cent.) was a student of Mesrop Maštoç, the creator of the Armenian alphabet. Eznik traveled to Edessa around 430 to translate religious writings from Syriac into Armenian; later he was active in Constantinople as a translator from Greek. After his return he improved available translations. He is probably identical with “Eznik, bishop of Bagrevand,” who participated in the Synod of Artašat in 450. He wrote …

[German Version] ( Corneli; Apr 30, 1879, Tobanieri, Western Georgia – Jun 7, 1962, Tbilisi), studied at the Seminary and the Theological Academy of Kiev, was ordained priest in 1906, and became rector of the seminary in Tbilisi from 1916 to1918. Enjoying a high degree of international reputation, he held the first chair for the history of early Georgian literature at the University of Tbilisi, which he had cofounded in 1918. He contributed considerably to increasing knowledge of early Georgian lit…