EURASIA INSIGHT

GEORGIA: A LOOK AT LIFE AT ONE OF GEORGIA’S OLDEST MONASTERIES
Jonathan Alpeyrie 1/29/10
A EurasiaNet Slideshow

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The Kintsvisi monastery is a place where the past manages to keep the present at bay. The monks who reside at this sanctuary, situated in the heavily wooded mountains of Georgia’s Shida Kartli region, live according to the same basic guidelines that were in place at the time of its founding more than a millennium ago.

Every Sunday, the monks rise at 3am for four hours of prayer in the monastery’s main building. Surrounded by murals dating from the early 13th century, the monks pray with uncommon devotion.

The monastery has three churches that were constructed between the 10th and 13th centuries. The oldest structure, St. Mary’s, is in need of a thorough reconstruction. Even so, the Patriarchate of the Georgian Orthodox Church describes the monastery as "one of the most significant and valuable architectural monument[s] [dating from] the Middle Ages in Georgia."

To preserve an atmosphere of piety, the monks strive to maintain a firm, figurative wall separating the grounds from the outside, secularized world. But on some occasions, the outside intrudes upon the monastery’s austere routine. The monastery is located not far from the separatist region of South Ossetia, and during the summer of 2008, hundreds of Georgian troops and civilians alike fled to the monastery in search of a safe haven from invading Russian troops. The area survived the fighting unscathed.

Posted January 29, 2010 © Eurasianet
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