the georgian historical tradition makes manglisi, along with mtskheta and erusheti, one of the earliest church establishments in kartli (iberia) following king mirian's conversion to christianity in the 330s. according to the 11th-century historian leonti mroveli, manglisi was the first place which the bishop john of kartli, returning from his mission to constantinople with a group of byzantine priests and masons, chose to build a christian church. there, the chronicle continues, he left the relics brought from constantinople as presents of the emperor constantine the great, to the disappointment of king mirian who wanted to have the relics at his capital, mtskheta.