Tornike Eristavi

Saint Tornike Eristavi
Hermit
Born	Kingdom of Iberia
Died	985
Venerated in	Georgian Orthodox Church

Prince Tornike Eristavi (Georgian: თორნიკე ერისთავი) also known as John Tornikios or Tornikios (Greek: Τορνίκιος, died in 985) was a retired Georgian general and monk who came to be better known as a founder of the formerly Georgian Orthodox Iviron Monastery on Mt Athos in the modern-day northeastern Greece.

Tornike came from a notable Georgian noble family and was in the immediate circles of the ruling dynasty of the Bagrationi. His father, Chordvaneli, had been in the suite of the Georgian prince Ashot II Kuropalates who had paid a visit to the Byzantine emperor Constantine Porphyrogennetos in Constantinople in c. 950. Three of his nephews had military careers and one of them, Varazvache, held a post of katepano (military governor) of the significant Byzantine eastern outpost Edessa in 1037-8.

Tornike served a very successful military and court career (specifically he was eristavi, a Georgian equivalent to strategos) under the Georgian Bagratid dynasty and also gained the of patrikios. He resigned his position as a general of the Georgian prince David III of Tao in c. 963 and, under the name of Ioane (Ioannis, or John), retired to Athanasius’ Lavra on Mount Athos. He was joined, in the early 970s, by another retired Georgian officer Ioane and his son Ek'vt'ime.

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