John-Zosimos: Homecoming

John-Zosimos, a Georgian monk living in Saint Catherine’s Monastery on the Sinai Mountain, was the writer of the most mystic Georgian text. “The Praise and Glory of the Georgian Language” an eschatological anthem written around year 1000 is a remarkable yet foreign piece in old Georgian literature. Writer, scribe, publisher, maker of manuscripts, John-Zosimos, who was gifted in many aspects, was an author of 20 old Georgian manuscripts, who had a hazy life. The manuscripts of his kept at St. Catherine’s Monastery are a Georgian heritage treasure. Towards the end of the 19th century, along with the other manuscripts which disappeared from Mount Sinai, was found the work of Zohn-Zosimos and had changed owners many times. This film, in the context of the Georgian savanna on Mount Sinai and the history of its manuscripts, speaks on the journey the lost exemplar had to go through to come back to Georgia, after being bought by a Georgian philanthropist at the Christie’s auction.