Domentius I ( ka, დომენტი I, ''Domenti I'') was a Georgian churchman and the

Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia ''Catholicos-Patriarch'' has been the title of the heads of the Georgian Orthodox Church since 1010. The first Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia was Melkisedek I (1010–1033). In the 15th century the Georgian Orthodox Church was divided into th ...

who presided over the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...

in the latter half of the 16th century. Surviving documents testify to Domentius' efforts to aggrandize the church's land properties and restore those holdings that had earlier been lost to secular noble landlords. According to the early-18th-century royal historian

Prince Vakhushti Vakhushti ( ka, ვახუშტი, tr) (1696–1757) was a Georgian royal prince (''batonishvili''), geographer, historian and cartographer. His principal historical and geographic works, ''Description of the Kingdom of Georgia'' and the ''Geo ...

, Domentius "was installed" as catholicos by King

Simon I Simon I may refer to: * Simon I (High Priest) (310–291 or 300–270 BCE) * Simon I de Montfort (1025–1087) * Simon I de Senlis, Earl of Huntingdon-Northampton (died c. 1111) * Simon I, Duke of Lorraine (1076–1138) * Simon I, Count of Saarbrü ...

immediately after his accession to the throne of

Kartli Kartli ( ka, ქართლი ) is a historical region in central-to-eastern Georgia traversed by the river Mtkvari (Kura), on which Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, is situated. Known to the Classical authors as Iberia, Kartli played a crucial role ...

in eastern Georgia in 1556. Domentius' rule was limited to the eastern Georgian territories, with his see at

Mtskheta Mtskheta ( ka, მცხეთა, tr ) is a city in Mtskheta-Mtianeti province of Georgia. It is one of the oldest cities in Georgia as well as one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the World. Itis located approximately north of T ...

; the west was under the jurisdiction of the breakaway Catholicate of Abkhazia. Even in the east, the

Kingdom of Kakheti The Second Kingdom of Kakheti ( ka, კახეთის სამეფო, tr; also spelled Kaxet'i or Kakhetia) was a late medieval/ early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Grem ...

, run by a

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A ...

vying with their royal cousins in Kartli, tried to establish its own church. This attempt failed and Domentius was able to obtain pledges of loyalty from the Kakhetian bishops between 1556 to 1560. Further, in 1560,

George, Crown Prince of Kakheti George ( ka, გიორგი, ''Giorgi'') (ca. 1570 – 12 March 1605), of the Bagrationi Dynasty, was a crown prince (batonishvili) of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. George was a son of Alexander II, king of Kakheti (1574–1605), who ...

, restored to the see of Mtskheta a number of estates earlier lost by the church to that kingdom. There is no consensus as to the duration of Domentius' tenure. The catholicos named Domentius is known from two chronological groups of documents from the late 16th century. The church historian

Michel Tamarati Michel Tamarati, born Mikhail Tamarashvili ( ka, მიხეილ თამარაშვილი), (September 1858 – September 16, 1911) was a Georgian Roman Catholic priest and historian, known for his oft-cited French-language history of ...

identifies two catholicoi with this name from that period, Domentius I (1557–1560) and Domentius II (1595–1602). The Georgian Orthodox Church also follows this numbering, assigning the years 1556–1560 to Domentius I and 1595–1610 to Domentius II. In contrast, some historians, such as

Kalistrate Salia Kalistrate Salia ( ka, კალისტრატე სალია) (1901–1986) was a Georgian émigré historian and philologist active in France. Salia was born on July 18, 1901, in Mingrelia, western Georgia. He studied at Zugdidi and K ...

, consider these two Domentius to have been one person, with two tenures (1557–1562, 1599–1603) with a gap of nearly four decades.

References

, - {{authority control Catholicoses and Patriarchs of Georgia (country) 16th-century people from Georgia (country)