Nikoloz Mnatobi

Venerable Nikoloz Mnatobi, called "the Luminary of the Georgians" and "the writer of akolouthiai", lived and laboured from the middle of the thirteenth century to the beginning of the fourteenth and died in 1308. The last years of his work coincide with the reign of King Vakhtang, son of Demetre the Self-⁠Sacrificing (1301 to 1308). Little news of him has been preserved.

He was one of the greatest hymnographers of his time and a well-⁠known churchman, but too little of his work has survived. Catholicos Anton (1720 to 1788) writes that Nikoloz was "an axon of the canons, with many akolouthiai", that is, a master of the liturgical rites and an author of services. He is commemorated on 3 November (new style; 16 November on the Julian calendar of Georgia).