Melchizedek I of Georgia
first Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia
d. 1033
64th Catholicos of Iberia
Offices
- Catholicos of Iberia № 64
Melchizedek I was the first Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, serving from c. 1010 to 1033, and was based in Ani. He is venerated as a saint by the Eastern Orthodox Church. Prior to his tenure, the heads of the Georgian Church bore the title of Catholicos of Kartli. The unification of Georgia into a single kingdom under Bagrat III contributed to the adoption of the combined title of Catholicos-Patriarch.
Commemorated
How we know
Recorded as a historical figure.
- Histoire de la Géorgie depuis l'antiquité jusqu'au XIXe siècle 1 claim — Histoire de la Géorgie, Introduction, pp. LI-LIII — 'Noms omis par l'historien géorgien', no. 9