Shio of Mgvime

Shio of Mgvime (Georgian: შიო მღვიმელი, romanized: shio mghvimeli; lit.'Shio of the Cave'^[1]), sometimes known as Simeon of Mgvime,^[2][3] was a 6th century anchorite, desert father, thaumaturgus and one of the thirteen Assyrian apostles of the Georgian kingdom of Iberia. He is venerated as a saint who introduced the notion of a strict ascetic life to the Georgian Church.^[4]

Life

He was born in Antioch. At the age of 20, he became a disciple of the famous hermit John of Zedazeni,^[5] distributed his property to peasants and monasteries, and became a monk himself.^[6] In the middle of the 6th century, he lived in Mtskheta. Monk Shio separated from his brethren and founded the Shio-Mgvime monastery on Sarkine mountain.^[7][8] Initially, Shio lived in a small cave, which was converted into a church around the 9th century, the monastery became a large organization during the time of Shio.^[9] On his own initiative, the first church named after John the Baptist was built here. Shio performed an extraordinary feats of endurance,^[10] by spending the last years of his life in total seclusion, in a 12 metre deep cave,^[11] he was buried there.^[12] His feast day is on May 22.