“The Lenten Triodion”
of Saint Giorgi the Athonite’s Edition
Recently, a book in two volumes, “The Lenten Triodion” has been published. It contains texts translated from Greek by Saint Giorgi Athnite. The book is dedicated to the 90th birthday of His Holiness and Beatitude, Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.
For the first time, an academically approved text of the unique liturgical and hymnographical collection “The Lenten Triodion” is offered to readers. It was translated and edited by the greatest representative of the Apostolic Church of Georgia and Georgian culture, Saint Giorgi the Athonite, and was academically authenticated according to the seven most important Georgian manuscripts of the 11th-15th centuries.
The collection preserves Georgian translations of numerous hymns dedicated by prominent representatives and great saints of the Christian Church to the Great Lent. They were translated from Greek and edited by Saint Giorgi the Athonite.
At present, no collection of similar completeness can be found in the Greek books of “Lenten Triodion”. It contains more than 100 hymns of the great Georgian author of hymns of the 10th century, Ioane Minchkhi.
“The Lenten Triodion”, edited by Saint Giorgi the Athonite, represents a rich collection of Christian poetry.
This magnificent creation has left a lasting imprint on the history of Christian literature. The hymns included in it are perfect examples of theology, liturgy and spirituality, at large. The lawgiver of our Church Saint Giorgi the Athonite remarks – “Nothing equal to it can be found, either among the Greek writings or among the Georgian ones.”
It has been more than four decades since the Head of the Department of Georgian Language and Literature of the Theological Academy, Professor Lela Khachidze, started studying this unique collection and published a number of researches done on it.
In 2017-2020, a team of scholars were involved in the preparation of the academic text - E. Kochlamazashvili, L. Akhobadze and E. Kvirkvelia. This collection, an important acquisition of the “Golden Fund” of Georgian culture, is the result of their joint work.
The book was published with the assistance of the Research Center of Kartvelology working under the aegis of the Patriarchate of Georgia. The support rendered by Protopresbyter Giorgi Zviadadze, Doctor of Theology and Philology, was of great importance for the team. The authors of the book express their deep gratitude to these persons.