Section 02: The Captive and the Conversion

The earliest layer of the tradition, examined in full and then weighed. The first file sets out Rufinus’s account (HE 10.11, c. 402/403) of the conversion of Iberia — the unnamed Christian captive whose prayers heal a child and then the queen, the king converted by sudden darkness in the hunt, the church built, the column raised by her prayer, the embassy to Constantine — reported, Rufinus says, on the authority of the Iberian prince Bacurius, and retold by Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret with the woman still anonymous. The second file assesses what this early, well-anchored source can and cannot bear: the shape and period of the conversion, but not the name, the biography, or the developed miracles.

Tradition: Georgian Orthodox / Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Topic
Rufinus and the Captive Woman The earliest account: the Christian captive whose prayer heals a sick child and then the queen; the king converted by the miracle of darkness in the hunt; the column miracle; the embassy to Constantine; the source in Bacurius; the Greek parallels (Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret) — the woman unnamed throughout
The Earliest Layer Assessed What Rufinus’s early date and named informant allow the account to establish (the shape and Constantinian period of the conversion, the persona of its agent) and what it cannot (the name, the biography, the developed miracles, the exact year); the contested dating

How to Use

  • Read Rufinus and the Captive Woman for the founding narrative of Georgian Christianity in its earliest written form — and to see how much of the later tradition is already present, and how much (the name, the biography) is not.
  • Read The Earliest Layer Assessed for the source-critical weighing: why Rufinus’s account is unusually strong evidence for a hagiographical text, and exactly where its evidence stops.
  • The developed Georgian elaboration of this same story is the subject of Section 03 and Section 04.

Cross-References