"Merchule" is not the surname of the author but rather an epithet loosely translated as "specialist in canon law" or perhaps "theologian" as posited by the Georgian literary scholar Pavle Ingoroqva.
The work fell into oblivion until 1845 when the Georgian scholar Niko Chubinashvili came across an 11th-century copy of Merchule’s text at the library of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Nicholas Marr examined the manuscript in 1902 and published a scholarly edition in 1911 (Тексты и разыскания по армяно-грузинской филологии, VII, СПб., 1911).
[3] Merchule widened the range of patristic Georgian narrative to cover intimate details, rhetorical pleas and historical facts.
In one of the most-quoted passages of medieval Georgian literature, Merchule advances a definition of Kartli (a core ethnic and political unit that formed a basis for Georgian unification) based upon religious and linguistic considerations: არამედ ქართლად ფრიადი ქუეყანაჲ აღირაცხების, რომელსაცა შინა ქართულითა ენითა ჟამი შეიწირვის და ლოცვაჲ ყოველი აღესრულების ხოლო კჳრიელეჲსონი ბერძნულად ითქუმის, რომელ არს ქართულად: "უფალო, წყალობა ყავ," გინა თუ "უფალო, შეგჳიწყალენ."