Holy Catholicos Sarmean — August 21 / September 3 (Julian Calendar)

On this day, August 21 according to the Julian Calendar (September 3 civil calendar), the Georgian Orthodox Church commemorates Holy Catholicos Sarmean, who guided the Church of Georgia in the years 767–779.

His primacy coincided with the Arab domination of Georgia. The Arabs cruelly persecuted Christians, oppressed the clergy, and strove everywhere to establish Islam; yet in spite of this, during the years Sarmean led the Church, many churches remained active even in Tbilisi itself, the city that served as the seat of the emir.

Sarmean was a steadfast defender of Orthodoxy. Once, however, on the Thursday of Cheesefare Week at the Shio-Mgvime Monastery, he gave Holy Communion “without inquiry” to strangers who had come to him bearing gifts, and who, it turned out, were followers of the Jacobite heresy. That very night, in his sleep, it was revealed to Sarmean from above how imprudent he had been and how unworthily he had dishonoured his rank. On waking, the Catholicos gathered the bishops, told them what had happened, burned before them the gifts the Jacobites had brought, and “wept with tears over his error.”

The all-merciful God soon made known to Saint Sarmean that this sin was forgiven, and a letter came from the bishops at Mtskheta: “To the great patriarch, our master Sarmean, rejoice! We, your children and all the bishops who trust in your holiness, make known to you that you should no longer wear down your aged body, for mercy has been shown through the intercession of the glorious Saint Shio, who appeared to five of his unworthy servants and commanded each of them: ‘God has forgiven Catholicos Sarmean his faults; now bring back your shepherd without hesitation.’ Let your holiness therefore command us all to come and give thanks to the wonder-working father Shio.”

Adorned with such fear of God, humility, faith, and love, the hierarch governed his flock with wisdom: churches and monasteries were built, precious spiritual literature was created, and, through the safeguarding of the purity of the Church’s teaching and deliverance from the captivity of sin, concrete steps toward liberation from bodily captivity were gradually being prepared.

In the chronologies of the Catholicoi of Kartli, his tenure is recorded as lasting from 767 (or, by some estimates, 760) until 774.