Saint Nino On the Christianisation of Georgia through the agency of a woman, and the related challenges for its Church

Abstract

This article looked into, for the first time, extant sources (both Georgian and non-Georgian) regarding the conversion of Georgia, as well as whether “The Missionary of Georgia” exercised all three fundamental functions of the Church: martyria, leiturgia and diakonia. To this end, as a first point, the perception of women in the early Church were outlined and, as a second point, were concretised and discussed via multilingual sources with the example of Saint Nino’s presence in Georgia. This was followed by a third point regarding the debate about Nino as a woman with traces of masculinisation. The fourth and central point analysed, with recourse to the sources, the scope of action of women in the early Church, with the example of Saint Nino in Georgia, and paying attention to the three fundamental functions of the Church.