91. Сраздын, слово арабское, означает светило веры.

92. Картлис Цховреба. Ч. I. С. 127 и далее.

93. Свидетельство св. мученицы Шушаники. См. Полные жизнеописания святых Грузинской Церкви. Ч. I. Страдание святой слав ной мученицы царицы Ранской Шушаники. С. 141 - 152.

94. Она стояла на юго-востоке Мцхета, на оконечности скалы при входе с Дигомских полей в теснину между рекой Курой и подошвой крепостной скалы, именуемой Мцхетскими теснинами.

95. 03/16 августа. Полное страдание святого см. у католикоса Антония I рукописный Мартирик на грузинском языке, слово VII.

Глава V Победа христианства над язычеством

Ободренный таким образом Вахтанг приготовился нанести персам решительный удар, но в это время подоспела к нему просьба Фируза. Деспот просил Вахтанга назначить ему свидание. Был заключен мир, по условиям которого Грузия признана всецело самостоятельным государством, ей предоставлена полная свобода вероисповедания и, кроме того, присоединены к ней некоторые провинции, отнятые прежде персами. В пользу же Греции возобновлены были прежние границы империи, согласно низибийскому трактату 296 г. императора Диоклетиана с персидским царем Нарцезом. Персам же, со стороны греков, уступались хозарские земли и пять городов, разрушенных греками, и, в заключение всего, установлен долгий мир.

For such mediation and pacification of both warring kingdoms, Vakhtang received an expensive crown from both sides in recognition of his independence and many valuable gifts. "All this," as the chronicler put it, "was arranged by the prayers of the holy Martyr Razhden."

After this fatal event for the Persians, Vakhtang, wishing to preserve his friendship with the Persians for a long time, gave his sister, the beautiful Mirandukht, in marriage to Firuz, who returned home with a great loss for his kingdom. In order to compensate the highest Persian nobility for this loss, Firuz asked Vakhtang to help him against his inveterate enemies ravaging the eastern provinces of his kingdom, the Indians and the Turkestan peoples. Vakhtang agreed to the request of his son-in-law. After consulting with his military commanders, the tsar, in case of his death, crowned his five-year-old son Dacha and entrusted the entire administration of the kingdom to seven chief military commanders. The residence of the new king was assigned to the city of Ujarmo, where his very upbringing was appointed.

The Iveron Church, in spite of the cunning and intrigues of the Eutychian teachers, who did not recognize the Council of Chalcedon and tried by all possible means to impose on it its blasphemous teaching and then force it to reject the canons of the holy Council, in the person of its pastors rejected them and did not recognize the new teaching, which was not approved by the conciliar definition, and flatly rejected the innovation as heretical.

Peter Gnathius, an ardent champion of the new heresy, in spite of the decisive refusal of Georgia, compelled the fathers of the Georgian Church to include in the Trisagion the hymn introduced into church hymns by St. Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, as a hymn expressing the dogma of the persons of the Holy Trinity. Trinity, a new addition: "crucified for us." On this occasion, the Council of Mtskheta, having seriously considered the proposal of the heresy teacher at a general meeting and finding this teaching entirely heretical, rejected it as inconsistent with the teaching of the Universal Church. For this reason, the Iveron Church rejected the teaching that was not accepted by anyone and remained unshakable on the basis of the Orthodox confession of the Apostolic Church. At the same time, some provinces of the Armenian Church voluntarily accepted the new teaching, rejecting the teaching of the Catholic Church. And in spite of the various heresy teachers, the Acephalites, the Severians, and others, who imposed their errors on Iberia, this Church remained faithful to its founder and to the spirit of the Catholic Church.98

At the head of the Georgian clergy at that time stood a man who easily succumbed to various intrigues and was capable of inclining to the side of the enemies of the Church, as an Antiochian, moreover, very greedy and extremely proud, a Greek by birth and a son of the burning sands of Syria. Vakhtang, knowing the state of the Syrian Church at that time and the enmity of its heretical teachers against the teaching of his Church, and the very character of Archbishop Michael, gave him the most vicious command to keep the Georgian Church in the truth of the catholic confession. The more the tsar expressed his demands, the more he was aware of his moral superiority before the primate of the Church and treated him as a person dependent on him. According to the chronicle, the tsar did not like Michael very much for his bad qualities, and he involuntarily tolerated him, looking for an opportunity to somehow get rid of him.

Having thus arranged the affairs of his kingdom, the king with a huge army consisting of Greeks, Georgians and Persians, went through Syria to Persia. Being not far from Antioch, Vakhtang begged Firuz to let him go to Perusalim to worship the holy places. With him also went the queen - his mother, the glorious Sagdukht, and his sister, the bride of the Persian king, the beautiful Mirandukht. Vakhtang left Firuz in Antioch, where he was waiting for his return.

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