writers and scribes. After the annexation of Georgia by the Russian Empire (1801), the Bodbe monastery continued to flourish under Metropolitan John Maqashvili and enjoyed the patronage of Tsar Alexander I of Russia. In 1823, the monastery was repaired and adorned with murals. Upon John’s death in 1837, the Russian Orthodox exarchate active in Georgia since 1810 abolished the convent and converted it into a parish church. In the following decades, the monastery went into disrepair, but, in the 1860s, Archimandrite Macarius (Batatashvili) began to restore the monastery and established a chanting school. The chapel housing St. Nino’s relics were refurbished by Mikhail Sabinin in the 1880s. In 1889, Bodbe was visited by Tsar Alexander III of Russia who decreed to open a nunnery there. The resurrected convent also operated a school where needlework and painting was taught. In 1924, the Soviet government closed down the monastery and converted it into a hospital. In 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Bodbe monastery was resumed as a convent. Restoration works were carried out between 1990 and 2000 and resumed in 2003. External links Bodbe. Parliament of Georgia website. Sighnaghi cultural heritage. Official website of Sighnaghi. Peter Nasmyth (1997) Bodbe Monastery: A Beacon of Georgia’s Religious Revival. ONE (the official publication of CNEWA), Vol. 23, No. 1. John Graham (March 14, 2006). Bodbe Monastery: Keepers of the Chant. Assyrian International News Agency. Bodbe Monastery. Unofficial website of Georgian Orthodox Church. Georgian Orthodox monasteries Christian monasteries established in the 9th century 9th-century establishments in Georgia (country)