Also known as Pimen of Salosi · Pimen the Fool-for-Christ · Anton Meskhi · Anton of Meskheti
Georgian ascetics who labored as missionaries among the peoples of the North Caucasus during the period of Mongol domination, Pimen taking on the podvig of folly for Christ.
Feast Day
March 16
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Our Venerable Fathers Pimen of Salos, Fool-for-Christ, and Anton Meskhi, Enlighteners of Dagestan and the North Caucasus
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Missionary Work
Life
Saints Pimen of Salos and Anton Meskhi were two Georgian ascetics of the thirteenth century who are commemorated together as enlighteners of Dagestan and the peoples of the North Caucasus. They lived during the period of Mongol domination, when Georgia was subject to repeated invasions, and are remembered both for their monastic labors and for their missionary preaching beyond the kingdom's northeastern borders.
Pimen took on the ascetic feat of folly for Christ. According to the synaxarion, his ancestral roots lay in the Kakheti region of eastern Georgia, and he pursued his ascetic life in the Davit-Gareji Wilderness. His companion, the monk Anton Meskhi, came from Meskheti in southern Georgia and labored together with him. The Georgian Church honors both for their struggles on behalf of purity of life, the Christian faith, and the spread of the Gospel.
Timeline 2 moments
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13th centuryAscetic life in the Davit-Gareji WildernessPimen, a monk of Kakheti origin, took up the podvig of folly for Christ and labored in the Davit-Gareji Wilderness; the monk Anton Meskhi, of Meskheti in southern Georgia, labored together with him.
13th centuryMission among the DagestaniDuring the period of Mongol invasions of Georgia, the two monks preached Christianity among the Dagestani people, in the region to the northeast of Georgia bordering the Caspian Sea, and came to be honored as enlighteners of Dagestan and the North Caucasus.
Contributions & Legacy
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Historical Context
The two saints lived in the thirteenth century, a period when the Mongols were regularly invading Georgia. Their lives unfolded against this background of political upheaval, and their work as preachers extended Georgian Christian witness into Dagestan, the region northeast of Georgia along the Caspian Sea.
The synaxarion relates that Pimen, in his folly for Christ, rebuked kings and condemned the unjust and immoral acts of the nobility. In Georgian calendar tradition Anton Meskhi is correspondingly styled "the Censurer of Kings," reflecting the same outspoken witness against the powerful.
Veneration
The Georgian Church recognized both saints for their spiritual achievements and their struggles on behalf of godly purity, the Christian faith, and the spread of the Gospel. They are commemorated together on March 16. The hymnography for the feast praises them as ascetics whose tears made the desert fertile and whose miracles illumined the region, invoking them together as the holy fathers Pimen and Anton.
