Twenty years of freedom

Georgian monk Maxim (Kavtaradze) is already 20 years living on the forty-meter limestone monolith in Imereti. Katshiysky Pillar since pre-Christian times revered by locals as the place where a person can get closer to God. Church on the top of mountain formation was built between VI and VIII centuries. We found it in 1944, when the temple was only a foundation.




"The reigning here lets you experience the silence of God," - says Maxim.



The new church is built largely thanks to the devotion of a monk Maxim, and it was named in honor of Maximus the Confessor. Here, in the silence and solitude Maxim spends day after day. To descend from Pillar Katskhi it takes 20 minutes, and to climb the steep stairs more.





His solitude disturbed only by priests and troubled teens who come to the monastery, at the foot of the pillar Katshiyskogo.





Maxim became a monk after being released from prison. He wanted to change and decided to continue the work of Stylites, who lived here before the invasion of the Ottomans in the XV century.



Several centuries on Katshiysky Pillar no man has gone before in 1944 did not rise here the research team led by mountaineer and writer Alexander Japaridze, Levan Gotua. They discovered here ancient temple ruins.



"As a young man drank a lot and selling drugs. When it brought me to prison, I knew it was time to change. Previously, with friends, we drank wine in the hills outside Katshiyskim pillar. We knew that once the monks lived here, "- says Maxim.



In 1993, he rose to Katskhi pillar and spent the first two years to escape from the weather under a canvas awning.



Since then, the local Christian community built a church here, paved steps and built a small hermitage for Maxim.







Now people come to him in search of the board in difficult situations. Once or twice a week, down from the pillar of Maxim, to talk with them and give comfort.



Source: wisaev.livejournal.com