Shiomgvime Monastery, Tbilisi

Shiomgvime Monastery, Tbilisi (Georgia)

The Shio-Mgvime Monastery is a medieval monastic complex in Georgia near the town of Mtskheta. It is located in a narrow limestone canyon on the northern bank of the Kura River some 30 km from Tbilisi Georgias capital. According to a historic tradition the first monastic community at this place was founded by the 6th-century monk Shio one of the Thirteen Assyrian Fathers who came to Georgia as Christian missionaries. St. Shio is said to have spent his last years as a hermit in a deep cave near Mtskheta subsequently named Shiomghvime after him. The earliest building - the Monastery of St. John the Baptist - a cruciform church very plain and strict in its design indeed dates to that time c.560s580s and the caves curved by monks are still visible around the monastery and along the road leading to the complex.