“LOVE OF THE GREEKS” AND ”THE HOUSE OF THE KING OF THE GREEKS”

Abstract

According to Ivane Javakhishvili, the integrity of the royal power and the indivisibility of the supreme spiritual hierarchy were necessary conditions for the preservation of medieval Georgian statehood. He attached equal importance to the steadiness of these two pillars. Moreover, importantly, the researcher evaluated the expansion of the borders of the Mtskheta Catholicosate and its extension to Likhi Imereti region in the early 7th century as a prerequisite for the unification of the whole Georgia:
“... thus the political unification of Eastern and Western Georgia was preceded and given the ground by a much earlier process of ecclesiastical unity and integrity”. The researcher, therefore, called the gravediggers of Georgia all those who tried to get detached from the Mtskheta Catholicosate and create an in dependent, separate flock (of Meskheti, Western Georgia). This analysis shows that Ivane Javakhishvili considered unacceptable the “long-term” development of the Georgian nation without the Georgian Orthodox Apostolic Church. The kings of united Georgia realized that Orthodoxy was the foundation on which the spiritual ity of the Georgian nation rested and viewed the concept of religious faith in the rank of ideological policy of the state. This ideology inspired them both at home - to ensure the security of the country, and in the international arena - to strengthen
the defense of the state.