Section 01: Foundations

The foundational section of the St. Nina (Nino) of Georgia reference guide, establishing the source-critical frame on which the whole collection rests. St. Nino is a layered hagiographical subject: the earliest source, Rufinus’s Ecclesiastical History (c. 402/403), names no “Nino” but tells of an unnamed Christian captive, while the developed Georgian Life of St. Nino (recensions of the ninth and tenth centuries and after) names and elaborates her into the apostle venerated today. The first file isolates the two layers and states the collection’s rules; the second sets out the traditional biography the developed layer constructs, flagging its anachronisms.

Tradition: Georgian Orthodox / Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Topic
Origins and the Sources The flagship source-criticism: the two layers — Rufinus’s unnamed “captive woman” (HE 10.11, c. 402/403) and the later Georgian Life of St. Nino / Conversion of Kartli (Mokʻcʻevay Kʻartʻlisay) that names and elaborates her; what is early and what is developed; the rules the collection follows
The Traditional Biography The Georgian tradition’s biography: Cappadocian birth at Kolastra; the parents Zabulon and Sosana; the kinship claims with St. George and with Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem (the latter anachronistic); her formation in Jerusalem

How to Use

  • Read Origins and the Sources first. It is the source-critical statement that governs everything else: the distinction between Rufinus’s anonymous captive and the named Nino of the Georgian Life, and the rule that the developed legend is never asserted as adjudicated history.
  • Read The Traditional Biography for the developed Georgian biography — and for the marking-off of its anachronistic elements (above all the kinship with the fifth-century Patriarch Juvenal).
  • The earliest account itself is examined in Section 02; the texts of the developed layer in Section 03.

Cross-References