Venerable Shio of Mgvime

Shio of Mgvime (Georgian: შიო მღვიმელი, romanized: shio mghvimeli; lit. 'Shio the caveman' or 'Shio of the Cave') (fl. 6th century) was an anchorite, desert father, thaumaturgus and one of the thirteen Assyrian apostles of the Georgian kingdom of Iberia. He is venerated as a saint who introduced the notion of a strict ascetic life to the Georgian Church. He was born in Antioch. At the age of 20, he became a disciple of the famous hermit John of Zedazeni, distributed his property to peasants and monasteries, and became a monk himself. In the middle of the 6th century, he lived in Mtskheta. Monk Shio separated from his brethren and founded the Shio-Mgvime monastery on Sarkine mountain. Initially, Shio lived in a small cave, which was converted into a church around the 9th century, the monastery became a large organization during the time of Shio. On his own initiative, the first church named after John the Baptist was built here. Shio performed an extraordinary feats of endurance, by spending the last years of his life in total seclusion, in a 12 metre deep cave, he was buried there. His feast day is on May 22.