Bishopric of Ancha

[1][2] Ancha's diocesan territory covered much of Klarjeti, including the Artanuji area, the entirety of the Nigali valley and extended up to Gonio in what is now Adjara, Georgia.

The bishopric’s rise in prominence was closely related to the activities of the Twelve Lavras of Klarjeti, supervised by the archimandrite Gregory of Khandzta (759 –861), and later taken over by the bishop of Ancha himself.

Thus, the 9th-century Tskiri, succeeding the first known bishop of Ancha Zachary, is known from the Vitae of St. Gregory of Khandzta to have been installed with the help of the Arab emir of Tbilisi and, hence, overwhelmingly opposed and excommunicated by the Georgian monks of Klarjeti.

In 1028, the bishop of Ancha and hymnist Ezra was among the fewest of the nobles of Tao-Klarjeti who maintained loyalty to the Georgian king Bagrat IV, whose realm was threatened by an invasion from the neighboring Byzantine Empire.

However, a document from the latter half of the 15th century – in which the bishop Kerobin Abelisdze takes an oath of fealty to the Georgian catholicos David IV – testifies to the return of the bishopric of Ancha to the allegiance of the see of Mtskheta.