MOUNT SINAI AND VILLAGE MEGVREKISI

Abstract

Georgian monasteries abroad had their own lands in Liakhvi Gorge. Among them was Saint Catherine`s Monastery. It had a rival, particularly in Tbilisi, Georgia. The village Megvrekisi belonged to the Sinai`s Saint Catherine Monastery in Didi (Big) Liakhvi Gorge. It is unknown to us when the village Megvrekisi was handed to the temple in Palestine. In the XVII century, according to the request of Sinai Archbishop Anania, who visited Georgia, King of Kartli Vakhtang V Shahnavaz repurchased the village for the Sinai Monastery, as there was a period when Megvrekisi land hadn`t belonged to the Monastery. In the XVIII century, according to the documents, twelve peasant households of Megvrekisi belonged to the Sinai Monastery. The Sinai Monastery sold the Megvrekisi land for 32 000 rubles in 1911, and the reason was that it was hard for them to take care of it.