Background
He was the fourth son of Alexander I, King of Georgia (r 1412–1442), by his second wife Tamar of Imereti.
He was the fourth son of Alexander I, King of Georgia (r 1412–1442), by his second wife Tamar of Imereti.
Others, especially Cyril Toumanoff, see in these three names one and the same person, a son of Alexander I. The confusion arises from the three chronological groups of documents, while the inconsistency in the numerals after the catholical names is because some historians, like Tamarati, omit the catholicos David of 859–861. According to Toumanoff, David, born c. 1417, was destined by his father for the church career at a young age and became, or was designated to become, a catholicos in 1426.
In the view of Toumanoff, his tenure lasted until his death c.
1457, while the two other contemporary catholicoi, Theodore and Shio, mentioned in the years 1427–1434 and 1440–1446, respectively, were his locum tenentes with the title of catholicos while David was still very young and before he himself acceded to the primacy of the Georgian church c.