The Conversion of Georgia recounts the conversion of Kartli/Iberia/Georgia and its royal family by *Nino (S00072), accompanying miracles, and her death and posthumous miracles. Written in Georgian, in the Holy Land or at Mtskheta, possibly in the 7th c.
E01138
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Mokcevay Kartlisay (Conversion of Georgia)
The Conversion of Georgia
In the year 310 after the ascension of Christ, the emperor Constantine, son of Costas was fighting his enemies, when a man from Ephesus appeared to him saying that all the people, Romans and Hindu, everyone who accepts Christ, will defeat their enemies through the power of his Cross. And so the emperor brought bishops from Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome and Alexandria and received baptism together with his mother.
Ten years later, Constantine's mother Helena went to Jerusalem to seek out the True Cross. And in the fourteenth year, a certain nun called *Hrip'simē [S00071] left Rome together with her family, for some unknown reason. She was accompanied by a woman called Nino, whose deeds had become known to Helena. She was a holy woman, a Roman aristocrat and she performed various healings. She arrived in Greece and taught Hrip'simē.
Nino fled together with Hrip'sime and Gayanē, and arrived with them in Armenia, where Hripsimē and other women were martyred by King Trdat. Nino, however, continued her way and arrived in the 'northern land' in Iberia, in the city of Mtskheta.
She made a cross out of vine twigs and stayed outside the city walls in prayer, hiding in a blackberry bush. Four years later, she began preaching the Gospel and six years later, she converted the king's wife Nana, by healing her, and in the seventh year she converted the king through other miracles. She built the Lower Church and its column was miraculously erected by itself. After this, she sent a messenger to Constantine asking for priests.
[The following paragraph is in the Chelishi redaction only]: And the emperor joyfully received the ambassadors and offered thanks to Christ. Then the emperor Constantine personally wrote letters, and Helena also wrote two letters: one for queen Nana and another for Nino, And she called Nana blessed and called Nino 'a queen' and 'equal to the apostles'.
The first bishop sent by Constantine was John and two other priests and a deacon accompanied him. They also brought a letter from Queen Helena, an icon of Christ and a fragment of the True Cross.
Upon their arrival, King Mirian and Queen Nana were baptised. Then the king decided to erect a cross. the carpenters found a beautiful evergreen tree standing on an inaccessible cliff. The king sent his son and the deacon to investigate the tree. And then the king ordered his carpenters to cut the tree down and to make a cross. They made three crosses out of that tree, and erected one in Mtskheta, another on Mt Tkhoti and the third near the True Cross.
The king requested stone masons and carpenters from Constantinople. They arrived first in Erusheti and built the foundation for a church and left Christ's footrest on the Cross there, and then they came to Manglisi and built the foundation of a church and left there the Holy Nails.
Meanwhile the king began building a church, and when he heard that two of the holiest relics were deposited in Erusheti and Manglisi, he was deeply saddened and wished to retrieve the holy relics. But the bishop stopped him and said:
"შენ თანა არს ამ[ა]ს ქალაქსა შინასამოს[ე]ლი ქრისტესი ყოლად ზეგარდ[ა]მო ქსოვილი, რომელი ჯუარის მცუმელთა მათგანიყვეს, და კუართი იგი ამათ იხუედრეს, ჩრდილოსა ამ[ა]ს ქალაქსა შინა დაფარეს, დააწ შვილნი მათნი არიან, ვინ უწყის, თუ ადგილი-ცა იცოდენ. ხოლო ჟამი მისი მერმეარს, ოდეს გამოჩნდეს დიდებით ქუეყანასა ზედა. ეგრ[ე]თვე ხალენი ელია[ჲ]სი აქ-ვედამარხულ არს."
'With you, here, is Christ's cloth, which the crucifiers divided between them, and the tunic fell to these people, who hid it in this northern city, and now their children know its location, but the time has not yet come for it to appear with full glory. And Elijah's sheepskin is also buried here'.
The king was filled with joy and asked the local Jews if this was true. They neither confirmed nor denied it, and said that earlier Longinoz or Karsani and Elioz of Mtskheta had visited Jerusalem to witness Christ's martyrdom and had brought the Lord's tunic to Mtskheta. The king thanked the Lord for the grace bestowed upon his city and people.
Then Nino prayed and, having taken with her the priest Jacob who had arrived from Constantinople, she travelled in Georgia's mountainous peripheries, converting the local tribes (Mtiuletians, Chartalians, Pkhovians and Tsilkanians) as well as other eastern Georgians in Kakheti, along with their rulers. Most of these tribes gladly accepted her teaching, some, however, refused and left, so Nino had to use force against them, and they were forcibly converted and their idols were annihilated.
During her travels, Nino fell ill and upon reaching a town called Bodini (Bode) in Kakheti, she was no more able to walk. The king's son Rev came from Ujarma along with his wife Salome to take care of her. The king sent Archbishop John for her to bring her back to Mtskheta but she refused and told the priest Jacob to take the archbishop's throne after John.
Nino gave Helena's letter to Salome of Ujarma, while the True Cross was handed over to Nana. And the archbishop celebrated a liturgy. Nino took the last communion and died thirty-five years after her arrival in Kartli, and three hundred and thirty-eight years after Christ's ascension, and five thousand eight hundred and thirty eight years since the creation.
მაშინ შეიძრნეს ორნი-ვე ესე ქალაქნი: მცხეთაჲ და უჟარმოიჲ, და ერთობილი ქართლი სიკუდილისა მისისათჳს, მოვიდეს და დაჰკრძალეს ძლევით შემოსილი გუამი მისი ადგილსა-ვე თჳსსა ბოდს, სოფელსა კუხეთისასა, და ვითარ შესაძლებელ არს თქუმად, თუ რაოდენთა ცრემლთა ანუ რაოდენთა გოდებათა სალმობიერთა აღმოიტყოდეს მეფე და დედოფალი?!
ხოლო მეფე არა განეშორა საფლავსა მისსა წმიდასა ვიდრე ბანაკითურთ მისით, ვიდრე შჳდ დღემდის. და იყო კრებაჲ დიდძალი, რამეთუ კურნებანი მრავალნი აღესრულებოდეს მადლითა ქრისტესითა. და ნეტარ არიან, რომელნი აღასრულებდნენ ჴსენებასა მისსა, რამეთუ დიდსა მადლსა ღირს იქმნებიან. ხოლო მეშჳდესა დღესა შეწირეს ჟამი საფლავსა ზედა მის წმიდისასა.
'Then both of these cities, Mtskheta and Ujarma, and the entire Kartli [Georgia] were shaken by her death. Multitudes came and buried her invincible body in Bod, a village in Kuxeti. How shall we narrate the amount of tears shed and painful mourning pronounced by the King and Queen?!
But the king had not left the grave of the saintly one, neither did his army, for seven days. A great multitude assembled, for numerous healings were performed through Christ's grace. Blessed are those who commemorate her, for they shall be worthy of great grace. On the seventh day they performed a liturgy on the grave of the holy one.'
Text: Abuladze 1963, 90-91.
Translation and summary: N. Aleksidze.
Cult building - independent (church)
Place associated with saint's life
Burial site of a saint - tomb/grave
Non Liturgical ActivityVisiting/veneration of living saint
Transmission, copying and reading saint-related texts
MiraclesMiracle during lifetime
Miracles causing conversion
RelicsContact relic - saint’s possession and clothes
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - bishops
Ecclesiastics - lesser clergy
Pagans
Monarchs and their family
Jews and Samaritans
Crowds
Women
Source
The Conversion of Georgia (Mok'cevay K'art'lisay) is considered one of the earliest pieces of Georgian historical writing, composed, most probably, in the 7th century. There exist four relatively independent and early redactions of the Conversion: Shatberdi, copied in the 970s, Chelishi (in a 14th-century manuscript) and two Sinatic versions: N/Sin48 და N/Sin50, all of which are dated to the tenth or late ninth centuries.The Mok'cevay corpus consists of two identifiable parts: a) a short historical chronicle of Iberia's history from Alexander the Great until the seventh century; and b) a short Life of Nino, inserted in the middle of the narrative. The seventh-century laconic version of the Enlightener's mission in Georgia was later, probably in the ninth century or earlier, expanded into a lengthier narrative known as the Life of Nino, and both texts edited together as a single Conversion of Georgia. This extended Life of Nino was added to the Conversion of Georgia corpus after the end of the chronicle. Although recently some scholars have tried to argue that the Life of Nino, which is supposedly narrated by witnesses of the conversion, is indeed a fourth-century composition, this claim remains unconvincing and, therefore, the extended Life of Nino is not incorporated in the present database.
Discussion
The narrative recounts the central episode of the chronicle, the conversion of the Georgian royal family by Nino. In this earliest version of Nino's life, Nino is presented as a companion of *Hrip'sime and other virgins, however the chronology is somewhat confused. Hrip'simē, in Armenian accounts of her life, had supposedly escaped Diocletian, whereas in this account all the events happened during the reign of Constantine, and the reason for her flight is said to be unknown. The authors must have been vaguely familiar with the Armenian tradition of Hrip'sime but perhaps not well enough. Arguably, this reference to Hrip'simē was then elaborated by the author of the Armenian short redaction of Socrates and then by Movsēs Xorenac'i.If the Conversion of Georgia is indeed a seventh-century composition, as suggested by internal evidence, it is the second earliest account of Iberia's conversion after Rufinus. Notably, however, some of the miracles mentioned by Rufinus and Socrates (the healing of a child, of the queen and the appearance of the crosses (Socrates)), are absent in the Georgian account. Even the miracle of the erection of the pillar is far more laconic here than in Rufinus' history (E01402). By contrast, here some of the basic elements of Nino's biography are present. Crucially, we learn that she was Cappadocian.
The Conversion, seems however, more interested in listing all the foundational relics of Christianity that have made their way to Georgia (the Holy Nails, Christ's footrest on the Cross, and crucially Christ's Tunic and Elijah's sheepskin both buried in Mtskheta). If this narrative was indeed composed at around the end of the sixth and the beginning of the seventh century, such claims make sense: by then the Holy Cross of Mtskheta was completed, the schism with the Armenian church finalised, and Mtskheta's prestige was being elevated.
The place of Nino's burial is mentioned in a number of sources, including the Conversion of Georgia, The Lives of the Georgian Kings, and an anonymous Life of Nino (12th c.). In oral traditions and contemporary ecclesiastical tradition, the village Bod, where Nino was buried, is usually identified with the modern village of Bodbe located in eastern Georgia's Kakheti region. The identification of Bod and Bodbe remains controversial. S. Kakabadze, for example argued that Nino must have died and been buried in a region west of contemporary Bodbe, in a village nowadays called Ninotsminda, literally 'St Nino'. The church of Ninotsminda is dated to the sixth century and was renovated multiple times, first in the 11th century and again in the 18th. There exists yet another toponym in eastern Georgia with a similar name: Bodavi, a small village in the eastern Georgian highlands. Several scholars have suggest that Nino was initially buried there and only in the 6th century were her relics translated to contemporary Bodbe, where in the same century an episcopal see was founded.
Bibliography
Edition:Abuladze, I., ძველი ქართული აგიოგრაფიული ლიტერატურული ძეგლები [Monuments of Old Georgian Hagiographic Literature] (Tbilisi, 1963).
Studies:
Akinean, N., Die Einführung des Christentums in Armenien und Georgien (Vienna: Mechitarist Press, 1949).
Aleksidze, Z., “Four Versions of the ‘Conversion of Georgia’.” in W. Seibt (ed.), Die Christianisierung des Kaukasus/The Christianisation of Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Albania). Referate des Internationalen Symposions (Wien, 9.-12. Dezember 1999) (Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2002), 9-16.
Aleksidze, Z., „წმინდა ნინოს ცხოვრებათა უძველესი ვერსიები, მათი თავდაპირველი სახელწოდება და სტრუქტურა“, [The Oldest Versions of the Life of St. Nino, their Initial Titles and Structure], in R. Siradze (ed.), Saint Nino (Tbilisi: Artanuǯi, 2008), 132-138.
Gippert J., “Marginalien zur Nino-Tradition, Stimme der Orthodoxie“, Festschrift für Fairy von Lilienfeld 3, 1997.
Horn, C., "St. Nino and the Christianization of Pagan Georgia,” Medieval Encounters 4:3 (1998), 243-264.
Kauchtschischvili, N., “Santa Nino e la donna nel mondo bizantino,” Santa Nino e la Georgia (Rome, 2000), 51-60.
Kiknadze, Z,. “Die folkloristischen Varianten der ‘Bekehrung Georgiens’”, Bedi Kartlisa 42 (1984), 222-231.
Lerner, C.B., The Wellspring of Georgian Historiography: The Early Medieval Historical Chronicle the Conversion of Kartli and the Life of St. Nino (London: Bennet and Bloom, 2004).
Mahé J.-P., "Die Bekehrung Transkaukasiens: eine Historiographie mit doppeltem Boden," in: W. Seibt (ed.), Die Christianisierung des Kaukasus/The Christianisation of Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Albania). Referate des Internationalen Symposions (Wien, 9.-12. Dezember 1999) (Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2002), 107-125.
Peeters, P. “Les débuts du christianisme en Géorgie d'après les sources hagiographiques,” Analecta Bollandiana 50 (1932), 5-58.
Nikoloz Aleksidze
30/11/2018
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00071 | Hripsimē, virgin and martyr of Armenia | Certain | S00072 | Nino, Enlightener of Georgia | ნინო | Certain |
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