Византийское миссионерство

The author also deals with Alanian Christianity. He compiled all medieval Greek inscriptions from Northern Caucasus, scattered through archeological accounts of the past hundred years. Several dozens religious inscriptions (sometimes in broken Greek, sometimes in Ossetian or Kabardine languages but in Greek characters) prove that Byzantines did not have any regular clergy there for any considerable time; they converted Northern Caucasus but failed to organize normal local church, although Alanic bishop is constantly mentioned in official Byzantine documents. The big part of the chapter is dedicated to the analysis of a first‑class source, which has never been used properly: the verbose letter of Theodore, Byzantine bishop of Alania (13^lhC.), to the Patriarch, with the complaints on barbarity and rudeness of his flock. Theodore, like Theognoste, tries to condescend to the spiritual weakness of «barbarians» — however, he cannot but abhor their proneness to paganism. Difficult to understand, overloaded with biblical allusions, this personal document is still the best evidence of the psychology of a Byzantine cleric surrounded by «savages».

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