Abibus of Nekresi (also Abibos) was a sixth-century missionary bishop in eastern Georgia and one of the Thirteen Syrian (Assyrian) Fathers, the company of monks who, according to Georgian tradition, came from Syria under the leadership of Saint John of Zedazeni to strengthen the Christian faith and plant monastic life throughout the land. He is venerated as a hieromartyr for his death at the hands of the Zoroastrian Persian authorities then dominant in eastern Georgia.
Sent out from the common monastic foundation of the Syrian Fathers, Abibus undertook apostolic labors at Nekresi, a settlement in the mountainous country of eastern Kakheti, and on account of his virtuous life he was consecrated bishop of that diocese. The tradition records that his preaching reached beyond the Georgians to the mountain tribes of the region, including the peoples identified as the Dagestani or Didoians, many of whom he brought to the Christian faith.
His episcopate fell during a period of Persian control, when the authorities sought to impose the worship of fire and set up altars on which a flame was kept perpetually burning. Finding fire-worshippers compelling the faithful to venerate the flame at Rekhi, Abibus extinguished the fire by pouring water on it. For this he was seized, beaten, and brought before the marzban, the Persian provincial governor; refusing to recant, he was put to death. The Georgian accounts relate that he was stoned, his skull crushed with stones, and his body afterward cast out unburied.
His remains were recovered by local clergy and monks and buried at the Samtavisi Monastery in defiance of the prohibition against it. In a later age his relics were translated to the Samtavro Monastery at Mtskheta, the ancient ecclesiastical center of Georgia, and laid beneath the altar, where his grave became a site of veneration. He is commemorated on November 29, and together with the whole company of the Thirteen Syrian Fathers on May 7.
