Commemorated on April 1, June 9
The Monk John
Shauteli – was a distinguished Gruzinian (Georgian) poet, philosopher and
rhetorician of the XII (XIII) Century. In his youth he received an excellent
education at the Gelata academy (Western Gruzia), where he studied the works of
the holy fathers, ancient and Arabic history, philosophy and literature. The
saint later accepted monasticism and for many years he asceticised at the famed
Cave monastery of Bardzia (in South Gruzia), in a solitary cell. Here, adding
work upon work, the Monk John led the life of a strict ascetic, constantly
devoting himself to prayerful meditations about the Trinity, the
world-creation, the destiny of man and a deep insight into the meaning of the
Holy Scripture.
In his constant
effort he attained to an high degree of spiritual perfection and he received a
remarkable gift of words, revealed in his poetic creativity.
At the Bardzia
monastery during the years 1210-1214, the Monk John wrote a remarkable Ode,
"Abdul-Messiya" ("Servant of Christ"), in which he intoned
the image of the Christian, faithful to the canons of the Holy Orthodox Church.
In the ode the monk calls himself very much a "wanderer" and
"servant of Christ". Many a prayerful strophe is dedicated in it to
the holy Nobleborn Gruzian emperor Saint David III the Restorer (+ 1125,
Comm. 26 January) and to the holy Nobleborn Gruzian empress Saint Tamara the
Great (+ 1212, Comm. 1 May and on the Sunday of the Myrh-Bearing Women).
Shota Rustaveli, for
whom the Monk John Shauteli was a literary predecessor, exclaimed, "For
the Abdul-Messiya Shauteli did sing resounding poetic strophe, – he was a
master in the art!" The theological significance of the
"Abdul-Messiya" is particularly evident in those strophic verses,
where the poet offers up prayers in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, to give
thanks to the Trinity-Almighty and Divine Providence, for having vouchsafed
mankind salvation in Christ. Speaking about the array of the world-creation by
God, the Monk John writes, in concurrence with the works of Saint Dionysios the
Areopagite (+ 96, Comm. 3 October), about the Coelestial and Ecclesial
Hierarchies.
In another of his
works – "The Song to the Bardzian Mother of God" – the Monk John
Shauteli eulogised the historical Basian Battle (1204), in which the Gruzian
national military forces, proceeding forth from the Bardzian monastery, routed
a 400,000 strong Musselman army led by sultan Rukn-ed-din. Thanks to this victory,
Gruzia preserved its independence and remained an outpost of Orthodoxy in the
Middle East, and this undoubtedly contributed to the strengthening of the
oneness of the faith of Byzantium.
The Monk John
Shauteli reposed in extreme old age. His memory from of old is venerated by the
Gruzinian Church.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.
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