John the Iberian

Founder of Iviron on Mount Athos

died around 1002

John the Iberian came from a noble Georgian family of Tao-Klarjeti. He was married and served as a military commander, but in the early 960s he left the world and took monastic vows at the lavra of the Four Churches in Tao. Seeking spiritual guidance, he went to Mount Olympus in Bithynia, one of the main centres of Byzantine monasticism, and then to Constantinople to free his son Euthymius, who was being held hostage at the imperial court.

With his son he settled on Mount Athos, at the lavra of Saint Athanasius, and Georgian monks soon gathered around them. When John's brother-in-law, the former general Tornike, now a monk, returned victorious over the rebel Bardas Skleros and generously rewarded by the emperor, together they founded Iviron around 980, the monastery of the Georgians on the Holy Mountain. John became its first abbot.

Under him Iviron became a centre of Georgian art, manuscript copying and liturgical learning, a living bridge between the Georgian and the Byzantine Church. John was revered as a saint even in his lifetime, by Georgians and Greeks alike, and Athanasius of Athos himself spoke of him with deep respect. Later George the Hagiorite wrote his life together with that of Euthymius, and two hymns in his honour, composed in the first half of the twelfth century, survive to this day. John died on Athos around 1002; his feast is 12 July in the old calendar.