Christodoulos the Philosopher

Venerable Christodoulos the Philosopher was a Georgian monk of the twelfth century, remembered for his knowledge of Holy Scripture and for the way he defended the Christian faith before foreign rulers.

According to Georgian tradition he came from a noble family and was a native of the village of Sakara in the region of Imereti. He knew the Scriptures well and spoke several languages, among them Arabic and Persian. So that he could speak with people of other faiths, he had also studied the Koran and knew it by heart.

When a Persian king named Iamame entered Georgia and was admitted to Tbilisi without a fight, he gathered the Georgians and the Saracens one day for a debate on faith. The king himself argued first with the old Christodoulos and was defeated. A pagan astrologer was brought in his place and fared no better, and then a renowned scholar was called to overthrow the monk. They spoke about the meaning of monastic life, about the divinity and incarnation of Christ, and about the claim that Muhammad was a true prophet. Christodoulos brought his proofs from Holy Scripture and from the Koran alike and overcame his opponents, who were left ashamed. A later Georgian source calls him "Christodoulos called the Ossetian".

Metropolitan Timothy Gabashvili, a nineteenth-⁠century Georgian historian, wrote in his account of a journey to Mount Athos that a Christodoulos of Sakara had lived among the monks of Iviron Monastery. On the island of Patmos he saw the intact body of a holy Christodoulos. For this reason church historians think that the saint struggled first in Georgia, then at Athos in the Georgian monastery, and that he reposed on Patmos.

The Georgian Church commemorates him on 18 August by the old style (31 August by the new style).