For such mediation and pacification of both warring kingdoms, Vakhtang received an expensive crown from both sides in recognition of his independence and many valuable gifts. "All this," as the chronicler put it, "was arranged by the prayers of the holy Martyr Razhden."

After this fatal event for the Persians, Vakhtang, wishing to preserve his friendship with the Persians for a long time, gave his sister, the beautiful Mirandukht, in marriage to Firuz, who returned home with a great loss for his kingdom. In order to compensate the highest Persian nobility for this loss, Firuz asked Vakhtang to help him against his inveterate enemies ravaging the eastern provinces of his kingdom, the Indians and the Turkestan peoples. Vakhtang agreed to the request of his son-in-law. After consulting with his military commanders, the tsar, in case of his death, crowned his five-year-old son Dacha and entrusted the entire administration of the kingdom to seven chief military commanders. The residence of the new king was assigned to the city of Ujarmo, where his very upbringing was appointed.

The Iveron Church, in spite of the cunning and intrigues of the Eutychian teachers, who did not recognize the Council of Chalcedon and tried by all possible means to impose on it its blasphemous teaching and then force it to reject the canons of the holy Council, in the person of its pastors rejected them and did not recognize the new teaching, which was not approved by the conciliar definition, and flatly rejected the innovation as heretical.

Peter Gnathius, an ardent champion of the new heresy, in spite of the decisive refusal of Georgia, compelled the fathers of the Georgian Church to include in the Trisagion the hymn introduced into church hymns by St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, as a hymn expressing the dogma of the persons of the Holy Trinity. Trinity, a new addition: "crucified for us." On this occasion, the Council of Mtskheta, having seriously considered the proposal of the heresy teacher at a general meeting and finding this teaching entirely heretical, rejected it as inconsistent with the teaching of the Universal Church. For this reason, the Iveron Church rejected the teaching that was not accepted by anyone and remained unshakable on the basis of the Orthodox confession of the Apostolic Church. At the same time, some provinces of the Armenian Church voluntarily accepted the new teaching, rejecting the teaching of the Catholic Church. And in spite of the various heresy teachers, the Acephalites, the Severians, and others, who imposed their errors on Iberia, this Church remained faithful to its founder and to the spirit of the Catholic Church.98

At the head of the Georgian clergy at that time stood a man who easily succumbed to various intrigues and was capable of inclining to the side of the enemies of the Church, as an Antiochian, moreover, very greedy and extremely proud, a Greek by birth and a son of the burning sands of Syria. Vakhtang, knowing the state of the Syrian Church at that time and the enmity of its heretical teachers against the teaching of his Church, and the very character of Archbishop Michael, gave him the most vicious command to keep the Georgian Church in the truth of the catholic confession. The more the tsar expressed his demands, the more he was aware of his moral superiority before the primate of the Church and treated him as a person dependent on him. According to the chronicle, the tsar did not like Michael very much for his bad qualities, and he involuntarily tolerated him, looking for an opportunity to somehow get rid of him.

Having thus arranged the affairs of his kingdom, the king with a huge army consisting of Greeks, Georgians and Persians, went through Syria to Persia. Being not far from Antioch, Vakhtang begged Firuz to let him go to Perusalim to worship the holy places. With him also went the queen - his mother, the glorious Sagdukht, and his sister, the bride of the Persian king, the beautiful Mirandukht. Vakhtang left Firuz in Antioch, where he was waiting for his return.

* * *

Believe in the dogmas preached by the Gospel, understand and confess them according to the exact teaching of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which alone contains the teaching of the Gospel in all its purity and correctness.

Orthodoxy is true knowledge of God and worship of God, Orthodoxy is worship of God in Spirit and Truth, Orthodoxy is the glorification of God by true knowledge of Him and worship of Him.

The revealed teaching of God is preserved in its inviolable integrity solely and exclusively in the bosom of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Whoever accepts Christianity with all sincerity of heart in the bosom of the Orthodox Church, in which alone true Christianity is preserved, will be saved.

The spiritual palace in which the spiritual treasure – the true faith – is preserved and from which the true faith – is preserved and from which it is not exhausted, is the one Holy Orthodox Church.

St. Ignatius of Stavropol

96. Peter Gnathius, while still a monk, formed a strong Monophysite party in Antioch, leading the anti-Chalcedonian opposition. In 468 he seized the Antiochian cathedra, from which he was deposed three times, was in exile, fled, and again occupied the cathedra.