Prochorus of Georgia

Venerable Prochorus of Georgia, a descendant of the noble Shavteli family, was born at the end of the tenth century and grew up in a monastery. As a man he was ordained hieromonk and labored one year at the Lavra of Saint Sabbas in Jerusalem. Then, with the blessing of his spiritual father Ekvtime Grdzeli, he began the reconstruction of the Georgian Holy Cross Monastery near Jerusalem.

According to tradition, at that spot Lot, Abraham's nephew, planted three trees, a cypress, a pine and a cedar, which grew miraculously into one large tree. When the Temple of Solomon was being built, the tree was cut down but left unused, and it is said that the Cross on which the Savior was crucified was made from its wood. In the fourth century the land where the tree had grown was given to the holy King Mirian, the first Christian king of Georgia, and in the fifth century, in the reign of King Vakhtang Gorgasali, the Holy Cross Monastery was founded there. It was destroyed several times between the seventh and ninth centuries.

In the eleventh century King Bagrat Kuropalates gave Father Prochorus much of his wealth for the restoration of the monastery. Prochorus beautified it, gathered eighty monks and set the typicon of the community after that of the Saint Sabbas Lavra. After long labors, at an advanced age, he chose his disciple Giorgi as the next abbot, went into the wilderness with two disciples and, after some time, gave up his spirit to God. According to Georgian scholars he was born between 985 and 990, was in Jerusalem from 1010 to 1015, labored at the Saint Sabbas Lavra until 1025, and fell asleep in 1066, aged between 76 and 81. He is commemorated on 12 February (new style; 25 February on the old calendar).