Giorgi Merchule

Who is Giorgi Merchule?

Giorgi Merchule was a 10th-century Georgian monk, calligrapher and writer who authored "The Vita of Grigol Khandzteli", a hagiographic novel dealing with the life of the prominent Georgian churchman St. Grigol Khandzteli.

Giorgi was a monk at the Georgian Orthodox monastery of Khandzta in Tao in what is now north-east Turkey. "Merchule" is not the surname of the author but rather an epithet loosely translated as "specialist in canon law" or perhaps "theologian" as posited by the Georgian literary scholar Pavle Ingoroqva. Giorgi's wide knowledge of contemporary canon and patristic literature is indeed evidenced by his work.

"The Vita of Grigol Khandzteli" was composed by Merchule in 951, ninety years after the death of its subject, and was somewhat expanded by the Bagratid prince Bagrat between 958 and 966. The work fell into oblivion until 1845 when the Georgian scholar Niko Chubinashvili came across an 11th-century copy of Merchule’s text at the library of the Jerusalem Patriarchate. Nicholas Marr examined the manuscript in 1902 and published a scholarly edition in 1911.