Ioane of Manglisi

Saint Ioane of Manglisi (Saakadze), a hierarch, was born in 1668 and raised in the Davit-⁠Gareji wilderness, where he learned the monastic life. For his deeds he was soon ordained hieromonk and then bishop of Manglisi. In 1724 he left Gareji for Derbent, in Dagestan, built a wooden church and began to preach Christianity there, with eleven other pious men. His humble life and miracles drew the attention of the Dagestanis and of the authorities.

At that time King Vakhtang VI of Georgia and Tsar Peter the Great of Russia were corresponding about the evangelisation of the Caspian shores. Both understood the importance of John's work and helped him with gifts. With their help the saint built a church of the Nativity of the Mother of God and another of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine. In 1737 he left his disciples in Dagestan and went to Astrakhan, where he built a church of Saint John the Evangelist, made a monastery in 1746; his disciple, the Georgian monk German, was set over it as archimandrite.

At Astrakhan he learned that the Georgians of Kizlyar had no church and that in Ossetia Christianity was in difficulty. He went to Kizlyar, built a church there with the help of the Georgians and opened a school for training preachers. John reposed, at over eighty, on 28 March 1751 at Kizlyar, and was buried in the monastery he had built. Later, by order of King Teimuraz, his myrrh-⁠streaming relics were brought to Georgia. The saint's tomb is in the Sioni cathedral at Tbilisi, before the icon of the Mother of God of Manglisi. He is commemorated on 28 March (new style).