The ''Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik'' (also translated as ''The Passion of Saint Shushanik''; ka, წამებაჲ წმიდისა შუშანიკისი დედოფლისაჲ, tr) is the earliest surviving piece of Georgian literature. Purported to have been written between 476 and 483, the earliest surviving manuscript dates back to the 10th century and was written at Parkhali Monastery. There exists an Armenian translation of the same text, dated also to the 10th century. The author is Iakob Tsurtaveli (Jacob of Tsurtavi), a contemporary and participant in the events described in this hagiographic novel. The manuscript describes the martyrdom of Saint

Shushanik Shushanik (Shushanika, Vardandukht) _hy.html" ;"title="nowiki/> hy">Շուշանիկ, ka, შუშანიკი; c. 440 – 475was a Christian Armenian woman who was tortured to death by her husband Varsken in the town of Tsurtavi, Georgia. ...

, an Armenian noblewoman, at the hand of her spouse, ''bidaxshe'' (high prince) Varsken, who had renounced

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

and embraced

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism is an Iranian religion and one of the world's oldest organized faiths, based on the teachings of the Iranian-speaking prophet Zoroaster. It has a dualistic cosmology of good and evil within the framework of a monotheisti ...

. Shushanik, whose father was

Vardan Mamikonyan Vardan ( hy, Վարդան; Vartan in Western Armenian transliteration, pronounced in both Eastern and Western Armenian), Varden ( ka, ვარდენ) in Georgian, is an Armenian name of Middle Persian origin (from Mid. Pers. Wardā), pop ...

, the ''

sparapet ' ( hy, սպարապետ) was a military title and office in ancient and medieval Armenia. Under the Arsacid dynasty of Armenia, the ' was the supreme commander of the kingdom's armed forces. During the Arsacid period and for some time afterwards ...

'' (military leader) of the Christians in Armenia, refused to follow him, and died as a

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

after years of imprisonment and torture. The first printed version was published in 1882. It has been translated into Russian,

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, Hungarian and Icelandic. In 1979,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international coope ...

marked the 1,500th anniversary of the Martyrdom of the Holy Queen Shushanik.

References

Sources

*Bart D Ehrman, Andrew Jacobs, editors, ''Christianity in Late Antiquity, 300-450 C.E: A Reader'', Oxford University Press US, pages 499-504 *

Donald Rayfield Patrick Donald Rayfield OBE (born 12 February 1942, Oxford) is an English academic and Emeritus Professor of Russian and Georgian at Queen Mary University of London. He is an author of books about Russian and Georgian literature, and about Jos ...

, '' The Literature of Georgia: A History'', Routledge (UK) {{ISBN, 0-7007-1163-5 page 42

External links

English translation of the Martyrdom
by Rev. K.V. Maksoudian Christian hagiography Old Georgian literature Works about violence against women Martyrdom in fiction