John the Iberian and the founding of Iveron
John the Iberian came from a noble and wealthy family of the Georgian lands. After renouncing the world he became a monk and eventually settled on Mount Athos, where he was associated with the circle of Saint Athanasius the Athonite and the Great Lavra. With his kinsman Tornike Eristavi and others, John established the Georgian monastery of Iviron, traditionally dated to the years around 980-983. He served as its first abbot and laid the foundation for the community's long Georgian character.
Euthymius the Athonite, translator
Euthymius, the son of John, was born in the Georgian province of Tao. As a boy he had been taken to Constantinople, by some accounts as a political hostage, before being reunited with his father; the synaxarion relates that when given the choice he ran at once into his father's arms. Joining his father on Athos, he studied the monastic life, was ordained priest, and in time led the Iveron community.
Fluent in Georgian and Greek, Euthymius translated the Holy Scriptures and, by the traditional account, more than fifty further works into Georgian. Among his renderings was the spiritual romance known in the West as the story of Barlaam and Josaphat. He is said to have cared for both Saint Athanasius and his father John over many years and to have rebuilt churches and hospices on the Holy Mountain. By tradition he died at Constantinople in the early eleventh century after being thrown from a startled mule, and his relics were brought back to Iveron.
George the Hagiorite and the later fathers
George the Hagiorite, also called George of the Holy Mountain, was born in southern Georgia about the year 1009 into an aristocratic family. Becoming a monk at Iveron, he was made abbot in the mid-eleventh century and reorganized and refurbished the cloister. He continued the translation work of his predecessors, rendering into Georgian the Fathers of the Church, the Psalter, exegetical writings, and synaxaria, and composing an account of the lives of John and Euthymius. He also defended the standing of the Georgian Church before the Patriarch of Antioch. He reposed in 1065.
Gabriel of Iveron is remembered in connection with the Portaitissa, the icon of the Mother of God recovered from the sea and set at the gate of the monastery, from which it takes its name, "She of the Gate."
