Doctor of Philological Sciences
Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow
Tamaz Beradze Institute of Georgian Studies, the University of Georgia
Tbilisi, Georgia
ORCID: 0009-0008-9099-2387
nan.mrevlishvili@ug.edu.ge

The Main Religious Motifs in the Life of the Venerable Theodora of Alexandria

This work was supported by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia [FR-24-7685, "Corpus of Georgian Translated Hagiography, I"]. It concerns the life of the 5th-century ecclesiastical figure, Venerable Theodora of Alexandria. The Greek tradition preserves two recensions: the earliest, pre-metaphrastic (author unknown), and the metaphrastic version revised by Symeon Metaphrastes. In Georgian literature, the work exists in three recensions:

  1. Pre-metaphrastic – preserved in five manuscripts, translator unknown;

  2. Gelati – one manuscript, held at the Kutaisi State Historical and Ethnographic Museum, translator unknown;

  3. Athonite – translated by the monk-priest Theophilos, autograph preserved on Mount Athos. Photographic copies are kept at the Korneli Kekelidze National Centre of Manuscripts.

The paper highlights the main religious motifs:

  • Temptation and the tempter

  • The fall into sin – sin and the sinner

  • Conscience and repentance

  • Asceticism – spiritual striving: prayer, fasting, humility

  • Slander – trial and obedience

  • Miracles – evidence of divine election to sainthood

  • The saint’s death – the crowning act of spiritual striving

Keywords: Venerable Theodora of Alexandria; Pre-metaphrastic and Metaphrastic recensions; Translated hagiography; Religious motifs in hagiography; Asceticism