THE GEORGIAN MONASTERY OF ST. PHOCAS IN TREBIZOND (Information about it. The Request for the Monastery by the Byzantines. The Reasons for the Request)
Abstract
The article is devoted to a Georgian monastery that functioned in Trebizond in the 10th century. It was dedicated to St. Phocas and was under the ownership of the distinguished Georgian noble family of the Chordvaneli from Tao. Information concerning the monastery is preserved in a chrysobull (imperial gold-sealed charter) issued in 980 by the Byzantine emperor Basil II Porphyrogenitus. Later, in the 11th century, the information from this imperial chrysobull was repeated in an act of Leon the Judge.
In 980, an agreement was concluded between the Imperial Court and the Chordvanelis, the proprietors of this monastery in Trebizond as well as of another Georgian monastery of Iberises active in Constantinople. The emperor requested these two Georgian monasteries from the Georgians and, in exchange, granted them three others.
The Monastery of St. Phocas in Trebizond has not yet been identified, and its precise location remains unknown. Several related issues also continue to await clarification. The Georgian scholarly community has not yet addressed these questions, nor consequently the reasons for the monastery’s request by the Byzantines. This is despite the fact that information regarding this 10th-century Georgian monastery in Trebizond has been accessible to the wider public since at least the 1870s.
The monastery has received limited attention in foreign scholarship–specifically, in two studies devoted to the churches of St. Phocas in Trebizond. It is worth noting that in one of these works the Georgian context is treated only superficially, one might even say in passing, while in the other it is not mentioned at all. These specific matters will be addressed in detail elsewhere. Accordingly, it should be observed that the question why and for what purpose Basil II requested the Monastery of St. Phocas from the Georgians (together with the Monastery of Iberises) has not, until now, been raised. The present study therefore aims, alongside renewing scholarly attention to the available evidence concerning this Georgian monastery in Trebizond, to examine, discuss, and present to the interested academic public the reasons behind its request by the imperial court of Constantinople. It is my view that the issue of the monastery’s request – namely, the reason for this request – should be considered within the broader context of the complex political and ecclesiastical processes taking place at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries.
Keywords: St. Phocas Monastery; Trebizond; Chaldia; Tao; Tornike Chordvaneli; David III Curopalates; Basil II.
