Abo of Tiflis

The holy martyr Abo of Tiflis was an Arab by birth, converted to Christianity, a martyr at Tbilisi and heavenly patron of the city, killed in 786. He is commemorated on 8 January in the Georgian Orthodox Church.

His life

Abo was born around 756, at Baghdad, in a Muslim family. He worked as a perfumer, making fine perfumes and ointments. At seventeen or eighteen he came to Tbilisi, following the Georgian prince Nerses, ruler of Kartli. Nerses, denounced to the caliph, had spent three years in prison; freed by a new caliph, he took Abo with him. In Kartli, Abo came to believe in Christ, not at once, but after a hard search, with heated quarrels even with Christian priests and bishops on matters of faith; the quarrels only strengthened his conviction that the truth was in Christianity. At first he was afraid to declare himself a Christian openly, since eastern Georgia was under Arab rule; he only gave up the custom of praying five times a day and began to pray in the Christian way.

Khazaria and Abkhazia

For political reasons, Prince Nerses had to seek shelter in Khazaria, north of the Caspian Sea, where the Muslims did not rule; Abo accompanied him and was baptized there. From Khazaria Nerses moved to Abkhazia, also free of Arab rule, taking Abo with him, who lived there in prayer and ascetic struggle, preparing for a future mission. In 782 the prince and his party returned to Tbilisi, and Abo, although he had been warned that it was not safe, followed him.

His witness

For almost three years Abo confessed his faith openly in the streets of Tbilisi, strengthening by his example the Christians who tried to escape Arab rule and seeking to bring to the faith the Arabs of his own people. Threats and warnings did not quench his zeal. In 785 he was denounced as a Christian to the Arab officials at Tbilisi and was arrested. The judge tried to turn him back to the faith of his ancestors, but he confessed his faith before the court, was imprisoned and was put to death, cut down with the sword, on 6 January 786. According to the Life, his body was burned and the ashes, in a sheepskin, thrown into the river Kura. At that place, it is told, pillars of light were seen.

The account of his martyrdom

His Life, the Martyrdom of Saint Abo, was written by Ioane Sabanisdze, a Georgian writer of the same time, who was a witness of what Abo did. It is one of the oldest Georgian writings. On the site where his body was burned, on the bank of the Kura, the church of Metekhi was built in the thirteenth century.