{{Short description|Georgian saint and bishop}} {{Infobox saint |name=George Chqondideli |birth_date= |death_date=1118 |feast_day= September 12 |image= |imagesize= |caption= |honorific prefix=Saint|birth_place=Kingdom of Georgia |death_place= |titles= |beatified_date= |beatified_place= |beatified_by= |canonized_date= June 27, 2005 |canonized_place= |canonized_by= Georgian Orthodox Church |attributes= |venerated_in=Eastern Orthodox Church |suppressed_date= |issues= |prayer= }} '''George of Chqondidi''' ({{lang-ka|გიორგი ჭყონდიდელი}}, '''''Giorgi Chqondideli''''') (died c. 1118) was a Georgian churchman and court minister best known as a tutor and the closest adviser of King David IV (r. 1089–1125).
He served as an archbishop of Chqondidi (Chqondideli) in west Georgia and possibly played a role in a palace coup in which George II was forced to cede power to his young and energetic son David IV, while himself was reduced to the status of a co-king. George was the tutor and spiritual father of David and was appointed by the new king as the Grand Chancellor of Georgia (''Mtsignobartukhutsesi'') following the ecclesiastic Council of Ruisi-Urbnisi of 1103. Henceforth this office, for a time the greatest at the Georgian court, was usually held by the incumbent archbishops of Chqondidi. George appeared as David’s key ally in his reforms of the church and state machinery.<ref name="Suny">{{cite book| author-link= Ronald Grigor Suny| last= Suny| first= Ronald Grigor| year= 1994| title= The Making of the Georgian Nation| page= 35| publisher= Indiana University Press| isbn=0-253-20915-3}}</ref> He personally supervised successful efforts at recapturing the strongholds of Samshvilde (1110) and Rustavi (1115) from the Seljuk Turks. In 1118, he accompanied the king in his travel to the Kipchak lands to negotiate a recruitment of these nomad tribesmen in the royal army of Georgia. He was never to return to Georgia though, as he died in Alania around that year.<ref>{{cite book| last= Lordkipanidze| first= Mariam <!-- "Lordkipanidze" is correct despite the spelling at the link. -->| year= 1987| title= Georgia in the XI-XII centuries| page= 84| publisher= Ganatleba| editor-first= George B.| editor-last= Hewitt| url= http://www.georgianweb.com/history/mariam/chapter2.html| via= georgianweb.com| archive-date= 2020-04-07| access-date= 2008-02-13| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20200407090001/http://www.georgianweb.com/history/mariam/chapter2.html| url-status= dead}}</ref> According to the ''Georgian Chronicles'', George "was mourned as a father, and even more deeply, by the whole kingdom, and by the king himself, who wore black for forty days". And he was buried at the Gelati cathedral. The art historian Guram Abramishvili identifies George with the figure depicted on a fresco from the Ateni Sioni Church as leading a row of royal donors, otherwise thought to represent George II after his retirement to monastery.<ref name="Eastmond">{{cite book| first= Antony |last= Eastmond |year= 1998| title= Royal Imagery in Medieval Georgia| page= 236| publisher= Penn State Press| isbn= 0-271-01628-0}}</ref>
On June 27, 2005, George of Chqondidi was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church which marks his feast day annually on September 12.<ref>{{cite web| url= http://www.eparchy-batumi.ge/?action=text/cm_giorgichkondideli | title= წმ. გიორგი ჭყონდიდელი |trans-title= St. Giorgi Chqondideli| publisher= The Georgian Orthodox Eparchy of Batumi| website= eparchy-batumi.ge | language= ka| access-date= February 13, 2008}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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Category:Bishops of the Georgian Orthodox Church Category:Christian saints from Georgia (country) Category:12th-century Christian saints Category:Eastern Orthodox saints Category:11th-century births Category:1118 deaths