ABSTRACT
Through the labours of Gregory the Illuminator, Nino and countless other women and men whose contributions have vanished in the mists of time, Christianity was firmly implanted throughout southern Caucasia in the first half of the fourth century. The faith’s spectacular public successes were achieved under the dual patronage of the crown and the aristocracy, two companies of dynastic Iranic élites that endeavoured to counteract Sasanian and Roman interference. Meanwhile, Christian leaders, missionaries and ascetics were thrust into – and seized for themselves – positions of considerable social power in this fluid era before the entrenchment of rigid ecclesiastical hierarchies, inflexible orthodoxies and ethnie-privileging “national” churches.
