Interview with the priest and monk Dionise Gvimradze.

Few people know that in the lovely gorge of Ktsia- Khrami River in Dmanisi district is situated a Monastery restored from the ancient ruins. Its site is conducive for peoples’ communion with the God and development of their spiritual life. Everyone, who has ever visited the Monastery, wishes to come back here again, in order to abstract from daily fuss and look at oneself from spiritual viewpoint. Recently archaeological excavation works have been carried out at the monastery territory. To talk on this and lots of other spiritual problems we have met with the Father Superior of the Monastery, Priest Dionise Gvimradze.

Father, how did your life of a monk begin?

Having graduated from Tbilisi Technical University at the age of 22 I spent two years as a novice in Svetitskhoveli Monastery and afterwards with the blessing of Bishop Zenon I was transferred for religious service to Dmanisi district. In 2004 in Dmanisi Sioni I was consecrated monk and afterwards deacon and then priest. The same year I was transferred for religious service to Gomareti village and other adjacent villages.

Father, could you please tell a few words on the meaning of a monkshood?

A monk consecrates all his life, labor, energy and efforts to the spiritual development and to the God service. One can achieve spiritual development if living in the monastery one realizes as to how it is possible to pass all the steps of the development. It happens quite often that one strictly follows all the requirements and conditions of the monastery life without realizing and passing the steps of the spiritual development. We accentuate and focus on the cognition of spiritual life and enlightenment. For example, obedience is the greatest virtue and this is a means to achieve modesty and restraint. A monk should be characterized with the effort towards modesty, which is a major precondition for spiritual development. What is spiritual development and when it begins? It is possible to give several answers to this question. Some think that it begins with the realization of your sins, while others tend to think that even this condition is not enough for spiritual development. The question is: “What else is necessary for spiritual development? Holy Fathers teach us that along with recognition of your sins and the wish to struggle against them, it is very important to realize that a person cannot overcome his sins alone. He needs an assistant, since even if a person overcomes all his sins at most, still he cannot be justified. In Bible Prophet David says: “Every man is a liar” Having realized this, a person understands his weakness in struggling against his sins. That’s why he should turn to God as to the giving mercy Saviour and not as to the punisher and the judge; he should ask the God for assistance and mercy to struggle against his sins and not only to evade him from punishment. A person should hope to receive mercy. When this kind of an attitude towards the God exists, the spiritual development begins. The more we rely on God when struggling against our sins, the more we succeed. This said, realization of ones sins is not a sufficient precondition to achieve modesty, unless along with this a person seeks to Jesus Christ as his Saviour.

A monk should be a scholar in the issues of spiritual life. Along with the personal experience it is very important to be educated and enlightened in the issues of spiritual life.

What about your religious activities in Gomareti?

In the beginning we settled in Sarkineti village. At that time despite numerous churches and monasteries in the area there was not a single functioning church on Gomareti plateau and Ktsia-Khrami gorge located in the territory of Dmanisi Eparchy. In one year time with the God’s help it had become possible to rehabilitate and restore three churches: Saint George’s church in Gomareti, Basil the Great in Sarkineti and Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki in Ganakhleba. In 2005 with the blessing of Bishop Zenon, we started thinking of the revival of the monastery life. Preference was given to the monastery located in Ktsia-Khrami gorge. There was an inscription in ancient Georgian (asomtavruli) at the entrance of the monastery: “This is Ktsia village, which the enemy failed to destroy”. Proceeding from the name of the village and the river the monastery was called Ktsia Monastery of the Blessed Virgin’s Birth. Due to the remote location from the village as well as financial difficulties first years here proved to be very hard. The principal church of the monastery ensemble (they say it beard the name of the Blessed Virgin’s Birth) was half covered with trees and soil, the roof was brought down. Only insignificant part of the local population knew about the existence of this monastery.
The church was cleaned from layers of soil, covered with a new roof and decorated with icons. We received a gratuitous support from the local population, believers from Tbilisi and Mr. Ivanishvili’s Foundation. The restored church was dedicated on September 21, 2006.
When we settled in the Monastery there was only a single house here. We managed to install electricity and to lay on water supply, although the problem of drinking water still exists. Laboratory tests proved the water to be non-potable; we have to bring water from the neighboring villages. We possess a small scale farm, several bee families and cattle. In the monastery we make candles. Land here is fertile and yields rich harvests. So, there are certain living conditions in the monastery.
Presently there are two of us in the monastery: me and Father Khariton, who was consecrated monk in the monastery church on March 9, 2008.

As we know, recently archaeological excavation works have been carried out at the territory of the monastery. What are the outcomes of these works?

This year in April- May archaeological excavations were carried out, as a result of which we received rich information on the history of the monastery. The works were executed under the guidance of the archeologist Nodar Bakhtandze and with the financial support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). It was known earlier that the church dated back to the VIII-IX centuries, although the adjacent territory was not explored, thus it was impossible to affirm the existence of the monastery on this site. Archaeological excavations proved the existence of the monastery here. Materials found during excavations turned out to be of a rather high quality and valuable from the artistic point of view, which gives scientists the grounds to affirm that the monastery was on a rather high level of economic development throughout the period of its existence. The monastery reached the peak of its economic development in XI-XII centuries. Life in the monastery ceased all of a sudden in the XIV-XV centuries during Timur Leng’s invasions; he destroyed and ravaged Kvemo Kartli more than once. Destroyed residential and household constructions as well as egg-shaped Mongol type missile stones found during excavations serve as a vivid evidence of this. These types of stones were left in all towns, fortresses and monasteries ravaged by Timur Leng. For a long period following these events there was neither religious nor secular life near the monastery ensemble. After XV century the village was settled here, though the population did not assimilate the territory adjacent to the church. They only restored the church and arranged a cemetery around. They seem not to have noticed the remainders of the monastery. The trace of the village disappears in XVIII-XIX centuries.

Besides other frequent guests, former drug addicts, who wish to rid themselves of drug dependence, visit the monastery. What can you say apropos of this?

With God’s help lots of such problems were successfully solved. Each of such cases requires individual approach. These people are involved into devotion, labor, physical work; are forced to execute various obedience. Though we understand that blind execution of obedience and dependence on us will not bring the desired results. These people have to comprehend and realize their condition and ways to get out of the situation; this can be reached by frequent conversations with them.

A few words on the problems the monastery faces today.

The monastery has an exclusive location: it is situated in a quite place, surrounded by forests; the land is fertile and the river is flowing nearby, the nearest settlement is at the distance of five kilometers from the monastery. All this creates a particular atmosphere of the monastery life, though the problems typical for the newly established monastery still exist. We have frequent guests, but we are only two here, who live in the monastery; this hampers development processes. Though it should be mentioned that Father Khariton also visited the monastery as a guest, but later on he decided to stay here. The pilgrimage to our monastery is seldom, only our close relatives and friends as well as a part of parishioners manage to reach us. The main problem behind this is obviously bad road conditions as well as the fact that only a small part of religious people are sufficiently familiar with this district.

Besides the monastery, you conduct religious services in the neighboring villages. Could you please tell us apropos of this?

Every Saturday and Sunday as well as on religious feasts I conduct religious services in the St. George’s church of XIII-XIV centuries. Parishioners are very few here and those are mainly women. People from the neighboring villages also attend liturgies. The youth is leaving villages and this may serve as an explanation to the inconsiderable number of parishioners in the church. There are no permanent novices in the church and the women’s choir broke up. We try to involve the youth in the religious and social life. Established in 2006 community union “Gomareteli” (resident of Gomareti), serves this purpose. The village holiday “Gomaretoba” has been celebrated for 3 consequent years now. This is a revival of the old tradition. The story goes that St. George’s day in Gomareti was celebrated on Pentecost as a village holiday and as a feast of the St. George’s church there. On this day after feast’s liturgy in the church we organize cultural and sport events. Those, who left the village in the past, try their best to gather on this day here. We try to use their potential for the welfare of the village. Local authorities also contribute to the village celebrations.

In a few words about the future plans, please?

Currently old cells are being reconstructed in the monastery. We hope to restore the monastery site as far as possible in its original shape.
As to the long-term plans, we want to turn the monastery into spiritual, educational and cultural centre. It is very important to contribute to the social, economical and spiritual development of the region. In its turn, this will stop migration processes and keep the Georgian trace in this ancient land.

Thank you for the interesting conversation.

The interview was published in the newspaper “The Patriarchate Messenger” ¹ 22, January 19-25, 2008.

The interview was recorded by Salome Baghashvili.