05 — The Church Reformer
One of the two source-critical hearts of the collection: Vakhtang’s work for the Georgian Church. These two files treat his reordering of the Church and his building of the great stone cathedral of Svetitskhoveli at Mtskheta, and then the most contested claim of the whole tradition — that Vakhtang obtained the autocephaly of the Georgian Church and the elevation of its head to Catholicos, a claim whose date and degree are disputed among scholars and reported here as an open question, not asserted.
Tradition: Georgian Orthodox
The Church-work is where Vakhtang’s sanctity and his statecraft most nearly coincide, and where the collection’s §4 both-sides discipline is most needed. That Vakhtang did something significant for the ordering of the Georgian Church is agreed across the tradition and taken seriously by historians; what, exactly — how many sees, what degree of independence from Antioch, whether a true Catholicosate and autocephaly, and in what year — is genuinely disputed, with the traditional account (a grant of autocephaly and the first Catholicos in the 460s) standing against a scholarly current that dates the real autocephaly considerably later. This section reports the tradition and names the dispute without adjudicating it (Suny, The Making of the Georgian Nation, 1994; Rapp, Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography, 2003; METHODOLOGY §4).
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Reorganization of the Georgian Church | Vakhtang’s reordering of the Church of Kartli — the multiplication of bishoprics, the strengthening of Mtskheta, the tradition of twelve episcopal sees — and the building/enlarging of the stone cathedral of Svetitskhoveli at Mtskheta over St. Nina’s wooden church. |
| The Catholicosate Question | The disputed tradition that Vakhtang obtained the Georgian Church’s autocephaly and the elevation of the Bishop of Mtskheta to Catholicos (with a first Catholicos and twelve bishops consecrated at Antioch) — the contested date (traditionally 466/467) and degree, reported as scholarly uncertainty under §4 and §3.5. |
See Also
- The Founding of the Capital — Mtskheta, the see and old capital the reforms centered on
- Methodology — the source-critical treatment of the Church-tradition
- St. Nina of Georgia — the founder of the Church Vakhtang reordered
- Orthodoxy: Holy Tradition — the frame of ecclesial authority and autocephaly
References
- Suny, Ronald Grigor. The Making of the Georgian Nation. 2nd ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.
- Rapp, Stephen H., Jr. Studies in Medieval Georgian Historiography: Early Texts and Eurasian Contexts. Louvain: Peeters, CSCO 601, 2003.
- Thomson, Robert W. Rewriting Caucasian History: The Medieval Armenian Adaptation of the Georgian Chronicles. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996.
- Lang, David Marshall. Lives and Legends of the Georgian Saints. London: Mowbrays, 1976.