Sanctity, Gender, and Power in the Medieval Caucasus

From the early 4th century, the veneration of saints and relics spread rapidly across Christendom from the British Isles to Iran. In late antique Caucasia, the cult of the saints was immediately integrated into Armenian and Georgian identity and political discourses. It was used to legitimize royal rule, sanctify domains and dynasties, define political realms, and justify political decisions.

Nikoloz Aleksidze's book Sanctity, Gender, and Power in the Medieval Caucasus is the first systematic study of this history. Discussing a wide variety of sources from Armenia, Georgia, Byzantium, and Russia that have not been examined together before, it investigates the interaction of sanctity, holy relics, gender, and politics in the medieval Caucasus, with a particular focus on Georgia.

Aleksidze, a visiting scholar with our Program on Georgian Studies, analyzes three chronological eras: The first section focuses on late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, when the cult of the relics was formed in Caucasian writing; the second explores the medieval era, when the Bagratids ruled in Georgia and the cults of figures such as St. George, the Mother of God, and Queen Tamar were shaped and politicized; and the third navigates a similar entanglement of sanctity, gender, and political rhetoric in Russian Imperial and Georgian national discourse.