The Life of Saint Nino “relating the history of the conversion of Georgia to Christianity, the   triumph of the faith of Christ and especially the glorious deeds of the holy woman Nino” (Rapp 1999: 85) is known from tenth century manuscripts. In fact, the   text   consist of different accounts created by various authors at different times, edited and brought together in a single compilation. Here it is attempted to retrace some textual parallels and differences between the Georgian   and Latin accounts. The comparison will reveal an early stratum of the saint’s legend which can be found in the accounts ascribed to a certain Sidonia.

 

Constantine B. Lerner

PhD, Professor

Jerusalem

 

Ancient non-Georgian witness to the conversion of Georgia (Iberia) to Christianity during the reign of Constantine the Great can be seen in Rufunus of Aquilea’s Church History ( Rufinus  1997), precisely in book X, a continuation of Eusebius of Caesarea’s Church History. In 402 AD Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia (ca. 388-407) asked Rufinus to translate this work into Latin. In Rufins’  own words  “you [Chromatius] have charged me to translate into Latin the church history which that most learned man Eusebius of Caesarea  composed in Greek…since the tenth book of his work…has very little history in it…we have omitted what seemed superfluous and joined what history there was in it to the ninth book. The tenth and eleventh book we composed based partly on what has come dawn from those before us, and partly on what we remembered. Our two short books go from the time of Constantine to the death   of  the  emperor Theodosius” (Rufinus, Introduction , p. X).

The information concerning the conversion of Georgia might therefore have been added by Rufinus, given that Eusebius’ work was published in 325 AD, while the official conversion of Kingdom of K’art’li   took place in the 337 AD. Rufinus’  account   in a general way  parallels the Georgian text and appears to be dependent upon some Georgian source (Kekelidze 1957:270). It nevertheless differs in significant details from the extant Georgian accounts. Rufinus like the Georgian legend, speaks of a certain   captive   who was dwelling in Iberia, yet  he does not mentions the captive by name, “It was at this time  too [at the time of illuminator of ‘India’ Frumentios – see below , K.L.] that the Georgians accepted the word of God. The cause of this was a woman captive who lived among them spending all her days and nights in sleepless supplication to God,  that the very novelty of it began to be wandered at by the barbarians. Their curiosity led them to ask what she was about. She replied that in this manner she simply worshipped Christ as God “(Rufinus op. cit., p. 20). Remarkably, the text contains no indication of any special divine mission attributed to Nino in the later stratum of the Georgian  legend  ascribed  to  certain Salome from  Ujarma   (see below - C. L.).

An almost exact literary parallel can be seen in episode of the ‘Nino’s enrichment’.  In Rufinus’ words, the queen after being healed by the captive, “returned joyfully home and disclosed that affair to her husband [neither queen’s nor the king’s names – Nana and   Mirian –are recorded by Rufinus – C. L.].  When he ordered gifts to be presented to the woman, the queen said, ‘This alone may we give her as a gift, if we worship as God the Christ who cured me when she called upon him” (ibid., p. 21). The Georgian legend [precisely the second and third accounts ascribed to the Mc’xetian   Jewess   Sidonia] describes the episode in much the same way yet in the Georgian version it relates to the healing of the Persian magician in Mc’xeta, “[After healing the queen –C.L.) the king   Mirian observed her deeds and cunningly said to Nino, ‘In the power of which god do you perform this healing? …Now if you will cure this prince, I shall   enrich   you and make you a native [citizen – C. L.]  of   Mc’xet’a’ ” (Lerner  2004: 172). The episode would appear clearly to point to some Georgian source available to Rufinus.

On the other hand, the description of the healing performed by Nino differs drastically in the two sources. Rufinus relates, “Now it   is   said  that  the Georgians have the custom that, if a child falls sick, it is taken around by its mother to each of the houses to see if anyone knows of a proven remedy to apply to  the  illness. One of the women went to the woman captive as well. And after she had put the child on her hair- shirt   and poured above it her prayer to the Lord, she gave the infant back, to its mother in good health” (Rufinus  op. cit., p. 21).  Shortly afterwards ”word of this got around to many people, and reached the ears of the queen, who was suffering from a bodily illness…Having  placed her likewise on her hair-shirt and invoked Christ’s name… she had her stand up healthy” (ibid.). Other Georgian  accounts  make no mention of the healing episodes, while the second account by Sidonia  omits such a ‘Georgian custom’ as well as any reference to Nino’s hair - shirt. It describes the episodes of healing in very general terms, “God  first  revealed  his power  through her towards Queen Nana in the bramble bush; by her prayer she healed her from a severe illness” ( Lerner op. cit. p. 172). Elsewhere, “Then they brought the nobleman to her, and St. Nino took him to the garden under the cedars. She set him there. And she sought help for this man from God” (ibid., p. 173-174). Thus   Rufunus’ account  gives  a more simple and realistic picture of the healing on the hair-shirt performed by the missionary. The author was apparently told by some Georgian   informant (cf. “it   is  said ”) relating to these episodes in somewhat different way.

At the same time Rufinus provides a clearer description of the erection of the Life-Giving pillar in the church.  Indeed, from the Georgian legend [the shorter recension and the anonymous account] it  is  difficult  to understand the purpose of the story at all, “And the king built the Lower Church. And there was the pillar of wood which stood alone on its foundation” (ibid.,   p. 141). Account by Sidonia reads,” And when the time came to erect the pillar, carpenters began to rise  it  but they could not. They began to use various machines and force and not were   they unable to  rise  it but they could not even move it… [after Nino’s prayer – C. L.]  I (Sidonia) saw the pillar as an image of fire, descending and approaching its foundation; and it stood twelve cubits above its foundation. It slowly descended to its base, for the stub, from which the Living-Giving pillar had been broken was its foundation” (?  ibid.,   p. 178).

Rufinus’ account renders it more concretely,  yet  the description of the miracle itself is portrayed almost identically in the Latin text and in the account by Sidonia. According to Rufinus, “a church was put up without delay. The outer walls having quickly been raised, it was time to put the columns in place. When the first and the second had been set up and they came to the third, they used all of the machines and the strength of men and oxen to get it raised halfway up to an inclined position, but no machine could  lift  it  the  rest of the way… [after Nino’s  prayer] king… saw the column, suspended upright just its base, not placed upon it, but hanging about one foot in the air…and with no one touching it, gradually and with perfect balance settled down upon its base. After that the remaining columns were raised with such easy that all were left put in place that day” (Rufinus op. cit. p. 22-23).

Again, Rufunus’ account preserves a simpler and at the same time a more concrete picture of the miraculous erection of the pillar which contains some details [such as the third column] that seemingly also come from the earlier Georgian sources or directly from a Georgian informant. In any case, Rufinus’ account to some extent reflects the ancient  version  of the Georgian legend.

According to Rufinus, news of the conversion of Iberia to Christianity was brought to him by a Georgian noble named  Bacurius (‘fedelissimus  vir Bacurius, gentis  ipsius rex’). “That this happened was related to us by that most faithful man Bacurius, who in our realm held the rank of comes  domesticorum and whose chief concern was for religion and truth; when he was dux limitis in Palestain  he spent some time with us in Jerusalem in great concord of spirit” (Rufinus  op. cit. p. 23). This Bacurius might possibly be King Bakur IV a great-grandson of Mirian and grandson of Rev and Salome – the supposed author of the one of the accounts. Given that  Bakur IV ascended the throne circa 380 AD (Thomson 1996: 380; Kekelidze 1956: 29) he could conceivably have met Rufinus who had been in Jerusalem at this time, “he spent 378 visiting the other homeland of monasticism, in Palestine and Syria…Melania, meanwhile,  had founded a monastery in Jerusalem, where Rufinus joined her perhaps in 380” (Rufinus op. cit. Introduction, p. VII; cf. The Prosopography… 1971: 144. Bacurius). Rufinus had completed and published his work in 402 or 403, so he describes the conversation with Bacurius as being based on ‘what he remembered’. That is considerably after the conversion of Georgia, there existed an early version of the legend of St. Nino preserved in the accounts by Sidonia  yet more or less different in details.

Tis ancient  layer  of the legend seems to be created in the first half of the IV c. AD.  Indeed, The Historical Chronicle preceded the main body of the legend   lists  King Bakur II chronologically after King Mirian,  “And King Mirian died…And Bakur sat upon the throne” (Lerner op. cit. p.146), however, in  the accounts of The Life of St. Nino Bakur II  is not mentioned at  all. Thus, the different recensions  of the legend (and among them accounts by Sidonia ) do not know the name of King Bakur, while Georgian historical tradition identifies him as the king who followed King Mirian.  The writer of the ancient layer concerns King Mirian and his wife, Nana, on the one hand, and Rev [also regarded   a king] and his spouse, Salome, on the on the other. To all appearances, the author is unaware of the fact that Bakur, not Rev, was to become king of K’art’li.  Any Georgian author of the time could not ignore Baku’s royal status. Therefore, the ancient account must have been created before Bakur came to rule the kingdom. Taking   into consideration that King Mirian died at the beginning of the 360s and Bakur II  ascended  the throne in 362 or 363 (Thomson 1996: 380) the creation of the legend may be dated no later than 362.

On the other hand neither work by Rufinus, nor the accounts ascribed to Sidonia do not contain any new additions to the ‘biography’ of the saint such as for example her kinship with the Patriarch of Jerusalem Juvenal – the addition representing  basic component of the accounts ascribed to Salome, the contemporary of Nino and Sidonia. Yet “Juvenal was the first bishop of Jerusalem to be named ‘patriarch’ who held office in 422- 458” (Thomson 1966: 87, footnote 92; Cross 1958). Even if we accept the hypothesis that  interlocutor  of Rufinus, Bakur, possessed memoirs of his grandmother Salome (Chkhartishwili 1989: 17), we must assume that in those ‘memoirs’ nothing existed concerning an alleged kinship with the patriarch. In other words, even at the end of the fourth century a new, second chronological layer in the legend had not yet been elaborated. Thus the author of the second layer cannot possibly have been identical with Salome, who lived at least a century before the mid-fifth century patriarch Juvenal. This second layer appears to have been created at the end of the fifth century or even later and ascribed to Salome. Remarkably one of the manuscripts, dating to the tenth century, Sin N 50, does not ascribe this account to Salome, whereas the  Sidonia’s accounts are accordingly attributed (Aleksidze 2001: 284).

The work by Rufinus itself in due curs became known in Georgia as the authors of other accounts reveal their acquaintance with its contents. For instance, Rufinus’  Church  History provides the key to an understanding of Hindo in these accounts. The shorter recension of The Life of St. Nino [evidently based   upon on some earlier source] reads, “There was a man from Ephesus [who] spoke before the king [Constantine], ‘Roman Christians and all  Hindo and those who observe the new faith in the Holy Wood of Christ’s Cross, with hope in Him they defeat their enemies  mightily ’ ” (Lerner op. cit. p. 140-141). Another anonymous account concerning the conversion of Queen Soji, includes a reference, which appears to have no direct connection with this theme, to ‘the Roman and Greek merchants’ as followers and propagandists of Christianity, “Our fathers did not come to know the true   way  which the Roman and Greek merchants told us” ( ibid., p.152). At the same time the short anonymous narrative accompanying this account also contains a strange unfinished sentence or interrupted question which evidently  presupposes  some previous narration, “Queen Salome of Ujarma  and  Perozhavri of Sivnieti spoke to her [St. Nino], entreated her and said, ‘Who are you and  how did  came to our land as our savior…And why do you say that you were a captive {literally ‘newcomer’, ‘stranger’ – see Lerner 1999: 105),  as if in Hindo or…”( Lerner 2004: 156).

The reference to Hindo has not received any convincing interpretation, yet it could plausibly be seen as an allusion to The Church History. Indeed, in the course of the story of the fourth century Christian missionary Frumentius in India Rufinus relates how Frumentios was sent by Anastasius [died 373) from Egypt to India [or to Ethiophia – C. L.). There Frumentius first of all began to enquire if there were Christians among the Greek merchants and began to do to them good, “and bent every effort to see that the seed of Christians should grow up there. When he had reached India by the second time as bishop it is said that such a grace of miracles was given him to God, that a countless number of barbarians was converted to the faith. From that time on there came into existence a Christian people and churches in India” (Rufinus op. cit. p.19-20). This account immediately precedes the story of the conversion of Georgians [Book 9, chapter XI and Book 10, chapter XI correspondingly]. In this  case  a plausible parallel between Frumentius’ mission in India and Nino’s activities in Iberia could be intended. Anyway the latter accounts discussed here bear evident traces of an elaborated Christian tradition, seemingly the influence of Rufinus’ work.

Thus, among the various accounts concerning the life of Georgian saint at least two chronological layers can be distinguished, one created in the period before Rufinus and reflected in the Sidonias accounts and a latter one belonging to the period after the publication of his Church History but ascribed to Salome.

Bibliography

Aleksidze, Z., 2001 = Le nouveau manuscript ge`orgien  sinaitique  N Sin 50, edition and   facsimile. Introduction par Z. Aleksidze. Traduit  par J.-P. Mahe`, Lovain.

Chartishwili, M., 1898 = Obrashtshenie Gruzii [The conversion of Georgia], transl. by E. S. Takaishwili, ed. and comm. By  M. S. Chartishwili, Tbilisi (in Russian).

Cross, F. L., 1958 = ‘Juvenal’, The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, London.

Kekelidze, K., 1956 =  Mok’c’evaj  k’art’lisas shedgeniloba, cqaroebi da erovnuli tendenciebi [Constituence, Sources and National Tendences of The Conversion of K'art'li], K. Kekelidze, Etiudebi jveli k’art’uli literaturis istoriidan I, pp. 27-76, Tbilisi ( in Georgian).

Kekelidze, K., 1957 = K’art’velt’a mok’c’evis mt’avari istoriul-k’ronologiuri sak’it’xebi [The Main Historical and Chronological Problems of the conversion of Georgians], K. Kekelidze, Etiudebi dzveli k’art’uli literaturis istoriidan IV, pp. 253-291, Tbilisi (in Georgian).

Lerner, C., 1999 = The  Social Status of Jewish Community in Ancient Georgia, Paper presented at the International Colloquium: The Problems of Georgian History and Culture, 8-9 April, Unesco, Paris.

Lerner, C., 2004 = The  Wellspring of Georgian Historiography. The Early Medieval Historical Chronicle ‘The Conversion of K’art’li’ and ‘The  Life of St. Nino’. Translated with Introduction, Commentary  and Indices by Constantine B. Lerner, Bennet and Bloom, London.

Rapp, St., 1999 =  Pre-Christian History in the Georgian Shatberdi Codex: A translation of the Initial Text of the Mok’c’evaj  K’art’lisay [The Conversion of K’art’li],  Le Muse`on, tome 112, fasc. 1-2, pp. 79-128, Lovain.

Rufinus 1997 =  The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia, Books X and XI, transl. by Philip R. Amidon, New-York – Oxford.

The Prosopography 1971 = The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, by H. M. Jones, J. R. Martindale and J. Morris I,  Cambridge.

Thomson, R., 1996 = Rewriting Caucasian  History. The Medieval Armenian Adaptation of the Georgian  Chronicle. The Original Georgian Text and the Armenian Adaptation, Oxford.