Antefix Inscription from Chitakhevi Church and Kviriketsmida Monastery, Georgia.

Abstract

1.6.1.1.3. Antefix Inscription from Chitakhevi Church and Kviriketsmida Monastery, Georgia. /T. Gogoladze/. Bulletin of the Georgian National Academy of Sciences (Moambe). – 2019. – v. 13. – #1. – pp. 182-187. – eng.; abs.: geo., eng.

Until recently, location of the Kviriketsminda Monastery founded by Christopher, one of the disciples of St. Gregory of Khantsta, which is mentioned in the life of the above saint, was disputed as either being in the vicinity of the village of Sakuneti (a site of the village of Kvirike) or nearby the village of Akhaldaba (the Potoleti church). It was also identified with the well-known Chitakhevi church or the Kviriketsminda monastery opposite the village of Kvabiskhevi. We have studied an antefix inscription from Chitakhevi church and graffiti from Potoleti church and arrived at the conclusion that the Chitakhevi and Potoleti churches are not the same as the Kviriketsminda Monastery founded by Christopher. We have studied Georgian narrative sources concerning the Monastery complex of Kviriketsminda, compared them with the results of epigraphical study and resolved the problem related to the location of Kviriketsminda mentioned in the “Life of St. Gregory of Khantsta”: based on convincing arguments we hold that Kviriketsminda mentioned in the  “Life of St. Gregory of Khantsta” and the monastery complex of Sakvirike opposite Kvabiskhevi are the same.
Correspondingly, we date the monastery complex to the 840s. Fig. 1, Ref. 15.

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