What Not to Wear: Mtskheta

As I’ve mentioned earlier, there are a lot of overt displays of Christianity in Georgia: New churches being built, lots of people in them, religious shops everywhere. The internet café next to my hotel has a little shrine in it.

Saturday I went to Mtskheta, Georgia’s spiritual center, which is just a few miles north of Tbilisi. It used to be the capital of Georgia, and was the place where Christianity first became the state religion here. It’s quite a story. Georgians had worshipped a mix of Greek and Zoroastrian gods until the 4^th century, when a Christian nun from what is today Turkey moved to Georgia and somehow got in with the queen, whom she cured of a mysterious disease. A few years later, in 337, the king followed his wife’s lead and converted to Christianity, making that the state religion. (Georgia was only the second country to do so, after Armenia.)

This, apparently, is the very font that the king was baptized in 1,670 years ago:

The font is preserved today in the cathedral of Sveti-tskhoveli in Mtskheta. The existing church was built in the 11^th century on the site of the first church.

All this information is taken from my travel guide, and I’ll let it tell the story of the cathedral, it can’t really be paraphrased: 

“In the first century AD a Georgian Jew from Mtskheta named Elias converted to Christianity and was in Jerusalem when Jesus was crucified. Elias bought Jesus’ robe from a Roman soldier at Golgotha and brought it back to Georgia. Returning to his native city, he was met by his sister Sidonia who upon touching the robe immediately died from the emotions engendered by such a sacred object. The robe could not be removed from her grasp, so she was buried with it. Later, from her grave grew an enormous Lebanese cedar. In the fourth century, when King Mirian decided to build the first Christian church in Georgia, he chose Sidonia’s grave as the site. Ordering the cedar chopped down, he had seven columns made from it for the church’s foundation. The seventh column, however, had magical properties and rose by itself into the air. It returned to earth only after St. Nino of Cappadocia prayed the whole night. It was further said that from the magical seventh column a sacred liquid flowed that cured people of all diseases.”

This image, represented in various formats all over the church, has almost the whole story: Sidonia, Jesus’ robe, the cedar, the column, Nino, the king. But where is the sacred liquid?

Nino is buried in this tomb inside the church; some of the famed column is there, too:

(An aside: Nino is still a very common name for Georgian women, just one of the very cool names here. They all sound like they could be normal English names; they have the right length, the vowels and consonants are in places you’d expect, and unlike the cities they’re easily pronounceable. But they’re all different. The girls’ names are the best: Nino, Tamta, Eka, Natia, Maka, Meko, Tamuna, Sopho.)

Here’s a huge fresco on one of the walls of the church: 

The remarkable thing about visiting Georgian churches is how alive they are. Lots of people from all demographics visit them. A couple of weeks ago I went to a new, huge and apparently somewhat controversial cathedral in Tbilisi, Sameba. It was jam-packed. One intellectual type here told me, “I thought it was a stupid idea to build that cathedral, it cost so much money that we needed for other things. But it seems to fill a need that people have.”

People don’t just go to church on Sunday. They go in and light candles, they pray in front of various icons and kiss them, kiss crosses on the wall, kiss crosses worn by priests. Of course there are Georgian yuppies too, who film everything with video cameras. I tried to figure out why people were praying in front of particular icons but I couldn’t. In several churches I’ve visited there have been groups of three lay people singing – either all women or all men. A priest chants something, and then the three people respond. Here’s a short clip from Jvari, another church near Mtskheta that I went to yesterday, really cool:

And there were lots and lots of weddings, I probably saw 20 Saturday. The couples just go in one after another for a short ceremony, with other worshippers and tourists like me milling around.

Another aside: Georgia neither a particularly fashionable or unfashionable place; most people in Tbilisi look perfectly normal. And as those of you who know me know, I am hardly a stickler for fashion. But it’s impossible not to notice how weddings seem to bring out the worst in Georgians’ wardrobes. I saw all sorts of embarrassing attire yesterday. One maid of honor walked through the church adjusting her makeup in a little mirror. But it made little difference to her overall appearance, as she was wearing a normal bra with a backless dress.

My fashion standards are not that strict: no white suits, no visible underwear, and if your outfit must include something metallic and shiny, please limit it to one item of clothing. This family breaks all the rules:

Presumably the little girl dressed herself, because she looks OK.

Comments

[Ralph Haelbig]

Thanks Joshua, great work. I will visit this blog in the future more ....
See you soon! Ralph

I take a link from my blog to this sites.

[Molly Corso]

Josh-

Been enjoying your work from Georgia - glad you are having a good time here.

Molly

[Josh]

Hey, thanks both of you for stopping by!

[Amy]

Greetings from your cousin! I enjoy your blog; this post is entertaining. Looking forward to future writings!

[Ray Zepp]

Good work! I saw that picture of Sidonia and the tree in almost every church in Georgia, but had trouble getting the straight story. You have provided the best account I have found. So I thank you.

[Ray Zepp]

Good work! I saw that picture of Sidonia and the tree in almost every church in Georgia, but had trouble getting the straight story. You have provided the best account I have found. So I thank you.