Hilarion of Tvali

Saint Hilarion of Tvali (Tulashvili) was abbot of Khakhuli Monastery in southwestern Georgia at the beginning of the eleventh century. In The Life of George of the Holy Mountain, George the Lesser writes that the venerable Hilarion was outstanding in virtue and celebrated for his sermons and ascetic labors. Hilarion raised the young George of the Holy Mountain to be a brilliant writer, translator, theologian and patriot, and gave him a blessing to enter the monastic life. According to the chronicle Life of Kartli, Hilarion was a famous translator and writer and an eminent theologian.

Eventually Hilarion moved from Khakhuli to Tvali Monastery, not far from Antioch, where he remained for the rest of his life. According to the nineteenth-⁠century historian-⁠iconographer Michael Sabinin, he reposed in the year 1041. He is commemorated on 24 July (new style; 6 August on the old calendar).