Gregory Pakourianos Gregory Pakourianos ( Latinized as Gregorius Pacurianus ) ( ; , " Grigor Bakurian " ; , " Grigol Bakurianis - dze " ; ; ( died 1086 ) was a politician and military commander in the Byzantine service . He was the founder of the Monastery of the Mother of God Petritzonitissa in Bachkovo and author of its " typikon " . The monks of this Orthodox monastery ( today , the Bachkovo Monastery ) in Bulgaria were Iberians . Life . Origin and physical characteristics . Gregory ' s origins are a matter for scholarly dispute . He is believed to have hailed from the region of Tao or Tayk , which had been annexed by the Byzantines to the theme of Iberia in 1001 . According to the contemporary historian Anna Comnena , who knew Pakourianos personally , Gregory was " descended from a noble Armenian family , " while the Armenian chronicler Matthew of Edessa , from the 12th century , saying Pakourianos was of " Vrats ' " origin had in mind the religious affiliation of Pakourianos . Gregory himself proclaimed that he belonged to " the glorious people of the Iberians " and insisted his monks to know the Georgian language . In her study on Byzantine administration over the provinces of Armenia , historian Viada Arutjunova - Fidanjan concludes that Pakourianos was born into a Chalcedonian Armenian family . Taking into account all the evidence available on Pakourianos , the scholar Nina G . Garsoïan proposed that " the most likely explanation is that [ the Pakourian family ] belonged to the mixed Armeno - Iberian Chalcedonian aristocracy , which dwelt in the border district of Tayk ' / Tao . " According Anna Comnena , Pakourianos was tiny of body but a mighty warrior . Byzantine service . In 1064 , he participated in the unsuccessful defense of Ani against the Seljuk leader Alp Arslan and his allies : the Caucasian Georgians headed by King Bagrat IV of Georgia and Albanians headed by King Goridzhan . He served afterwards under Michael VII Doukas ( 1071 – 78 ) and Nikephoros III Botaneiates ( 1078 – 81 ) in various responsible positions on both the eastern and the western frontiers of the empire . Since 1071 he was a governor of the Theme of Iberia . As the Seljuk advance forced the Byzantines to evacuate the eastern Anatolian fortresses and the Theme of Iberia , he ceded control over Kars to King George II of Georgia in 1072 - 1073 but this did not prevent the invaders from capturing the city . Later he was involved in a coup that removed Nikephoros III . The new Emperor , Alexios I Komnenos , appointed him " " megas domestikos " of All the West " and gave him many more properties in the Balkans . He possessed numerous estates in various parts of the Byzantine Empire and was afforded a variety of privileges by the emperor , including exemption from certain taxes . In 1081 , he commanded the left flank against the Normans at the Battle of Dyrrachium . A year later he evicted the Normans from Moglena , the present day Greece . He died in 1086 fighting the Pechenegs at the battle of Beliatoba , charging so vigorously he crashed into a tree . He was also known as a noted patron and promoter of Christian culture . He together with his brother Abas ( Apasios ) made , in 1074 , a significant donation to the Eastern Orthodox Holy Monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos . He signed the official Greek version of the Typikon in Armenian . He also signed his name in Georgian and Armenian characters rather than Greek . It is assumed that Pakourianos did not know Greek . Gregory Pakourianos and his brother Abas were buried in a bone - vault house near the Bachkovo Monastery . The portraits of the two brothers are painted on the north wall of the bone - vault house .