INFORMATION ABOUT THE PLACE BURIAL OF SAINT SHUSHANIK

Abstract

There are three reports about the placeof burial of Saint Shushanik. 1. Iakob Khutsesi’s information – Shushanik, according to her own will, was buried in Tsurtavi, that church (or church garden) from where Varsken dragged her.  2. King Bakur buried Saint Shushanik in Tsurtavi with great honor – information from “Kartlis Tskhovreba”, but later King Bakur was replaced by Vakhtang Gorgasali. 3. The holy corpse of Saint Shushanik was transferred and buried in Tbilisi, in Metekhi the mother of God church.

Transfering Shushanik to Tbilisi, according to one version is connected to Georgian Catholicos Svimon – Petre) or Kirion I, the end of 6^th century (P. Ioseliani). And according to the second version to king Tamar (I. Bastonishvili).

There is one more version, which can be considered as combination of P. Ioseliani and Ioane Batonishvili’s information Catholicos Kirion transferred Saint Shushanik to Tbilisi Metekhi church in 6^th century and later her grave was decorated by king Tamar.

In the present research we try to identify how reliable these reports are and which written sources the information about burial place of Saint Shushanik is based on.

Keywords: Hagiography, Saint Shushanik, burial place of Saint Shushanik, Tsurtavi.