St. Nicholas V, also known as Nicholas VIII ( ka, ნიკოლოზ V/VIII, ''Nikoloz''; 1529 – 1591) was 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 ...

from 28 February 1584 to 1591. He was born into the

Bagrationi dynasty The Bagrationi dynasty (; ) is a royal dynasty which reigned in Georgia from the Middle Ages until the early 19th century, being among the oldest extant Christian ruling dynasties in the world. In modern usage, the name of the dynasty is sometim ...

Kakheti Kakheti ( ka, კახეთი ''K’akheti''; ) is a region (mkhare) formed in the 1990s in eastern Georgia from the historical province of Kakheti and the small, mountainous province of Tusheti. Telavi is its capital. The region comprises eigh ...

, a son of King Levan (r. 1520–1574). He was canonized by the

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

as the Holy Father Nicholas the Catholicos of Georgia, his

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

marked on 18 February ( N.S.: 2 March).

Biography

Nicholas was born as a younger son of King Levan of Kakheti either of his first marriage to the Gurian princess Tinatin or his second marriage to a daughter of the shamkhal of Tarku. Nicholas was, thus, a younger brother or half-brother of Alexander II, who won the bloody competition for the throne of Kakheti after Levan's death in 1574. Nicholas was enthroned as the Catholicos Patriarch of Georgia on 28 February 1584, succeeding on the death of Catholicos Nicholas IV. His tenure was during the turbulent period of Georgia's history; the once flourishing medieval kingdom had been divided into several competing polities and the Georgian church had been split into the eastern and

western Western may refer to: Places *Western, Nebraska, a village in the US *Western, New York, a town in the US *Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia *Western world, countries that id ...

counterparts, reflecting the country's political division, the eastern church being under the stewardship of Nicholas; his native Kakheti was threatened by the rival expansionism of the

Safavid Iran Safavid Iran or Safavid Persia (), also referred to as the Safavid Empire, '. was one of the greatest Iranian empires after the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia, which was ruled from 1501 to 1736 by the Safavid dynasty. It is often conside ...

and

Ottoman Turkey The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Nicholas corresponded with

Patriarch Job of Moscow Job (russian: Иов, ''Iov''), also known as Job of Moscow (d. 19 June 1607) was the first Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. He is venerated as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church. He was the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Rus' from 1587 to ...

, who died in 1607, and exchanged gifts with him. He also donated a leather-bound illuminated manuscript of the Gospels, copied in 1049, to the Metekhi church in

Tbilisi Tbilisi ( ; ka, თბილისი ), in some languages still known by its pre-1936 name Tiflis ( ), is the Capital city, capital and the List of cities and towns in Georgia (country), largest city of Georgia (country), Georgia, lying on the ...

. The 18th-century author

Timote Gabashvili Timote (Timothy) Gabashvili (Georgian: ტიმოთე გაბაშვილი) (1703–1764) was a Georgian travel writer, traveler, diplomat, cartographer, religious and public figure. He was the first to describe the Georgian antiquit ...

reports that there was an icon of Catholicos Nicholas in the

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...

at the

Iviron monastery The Monastery of Iviron ( ka, ქართველთა მონასტერი, tr; el, Μονή Ιβήρων, Monḗ Ivirōn) is an Eastern Orthodox monastery in the monastic community of Mount Athos in northern Greece. History The monas ...

Mount Athos Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...

. Gabashvili also conjectured that another refectory, built at the Iviron at the behest of the Georgian prince Ashotan of Mukhrani, might have been Nicholas's deathplace.

References

{{authority control 1520s births 1591 deaths Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Kakheti Georgian princes Catholicoses and Patriarchs of Georgia (country) 16th-century people from Georgia (country) Saints of Georgia (country)