Saint Shio, receiving a blessing for a hermitage, went west from the city of Mtskheta. He entered a deep, desolate, deaf, waterless gorge, full of wild animals and poisonous snakes. On the north side, above the sheer rock of the steep bank of the Kura River, St. Shio found a narrow cave, sufficient to take refuge in. According to legend, he spent forty days there in fasting and prayer.

Once he saw a monk fall and break a jug of water he was carrying from afar, and wept bitterly. Saint Shio saw an Angel who poured water from the rock and said that God had given them water for the piety of the monk. Later, the brotherhood began to grow, and they asked Saint Shio for permission to build a church. They went to the mountain to pray, and Shio prayed to God for a long time, asking Him to show the place for the construction of the church. And after finishing the prayer, he asked for hot coals, put them on his palm, and ordered the monks to raise their hands to heaven and pray. The smoking incense rose high into the sky and went from east to west to the gorge where the monks' caves were, and then rose again. Saint Shio and the brotherhood came to this place. Saint Shio struck the ground three times with a pickaxe and ordered the construction of a church on this spot.