Georgian monk Maxim Kavtaradze has been living on a forty-meter limestone monolith in Imereti for a quarter of a century.
On the border of heaven and earth, the monastery complex Katskhis Sveti was built, which in translation from Georgian means the Pillar of Katskhi. In turn, the word "Katskhi" in translation from Svan means - the top.
It is symbolically believed that the monastery is a place where heaven and earth unite.
The Katskhi Pillar has been revered by local residents since pre-Christian times as a place where a person can approach God. The church at the top of the rock formation was built between the 6th and 8th centuries.
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According to archaeologists and historians, this place has long been used for the administration of pagan cults to the deity of fertility (apparently due to its clearly phallic form), and later on the top of the Katskhi pillar a small church was built by the followers of the famous Georgian Orthodox priest Simeon the Stylite.
Surely the creator of the current church at the top of the Katskhi pillar, Father Maxim Kavtaradze, when creating his unusual monastery was inspired by the examples of the Greek Meteora and the life of Simeon the Stylite, who lived on the pillar for 25 years.
It takes him 20 minutes to get down from the Katskhi Pillar, and even more to climb the steep stairs.