Pagan God Hides as St. George: Ossetian Faith Subverts Christianity

Pagan God Hides as St. George: Ossetian Faith Subverts Christianity

The native Ossetian faith, known as Uatsdin or Assianism, stands as a rare surviving branch of ancient Indo-Iranian spirituality within the North Caucasus. Rooted in the legacy of the Alans, an Iranian-speaking Scythian people, it preserves the cosmological and ritual frameworks of an older world long overwritten elsewhere by monotheistic empires. Revived in the 1980s under the banner Ætsæg Din (“True Faith”), the modern Uatsdin movement unites rural continuity with urban intellectual reconstruction. Its institutional center, the Styr Nykhas (“Great Council”), formed in the early 1990s, codified theology and ritual while reasserting the religion as a pillar of Ossetian national identity—a culture rather than a creed.

At the heart of Uatsdin lies a profound syncretism forged through centuries of survival under Christian domination. From the 10th century onward, Byzantine and Georgian missionaries sought to convert the Ossetians, but instead their symbols were absorbed and transformed. The old Indo-Iranian gods persisted beneath Christian veneers: Uastyrdzhi, the Ossetian form of Saint George, concealed the ancient Mithraic god of oaths and contracts; Uatsilla, echoing Saint Elijah, inherited the powers of the thunder god; Tutyr (St. Theodore) ruled over wolves; and Donbettyr (St. Peter) became the lord of rivers. This deliberate rebranding of divine figures allowed the Ossetians to maintain their spiritual lineage under the guise of Christian conformity, an act of cultural resistance that turned the conqueror’s saints into masks for ancestral gods.

The theology of Uatsdin blends polytheism and monism, organized under the supreme deity Xucau (Xwytsau)—the Great Creator and “God of the Gods.” Beneath him unfolds a sacred triad: Xwytsau (Heaven and Supreme Source), Iuag (Substance or Matter, the matrix of existence), and Ud (Universal Spirit, the animating essence of all). This framework presents a philosophical cosmology rather than a dogmatic faith, merging Indo-Iranian metaphysics with modern philosophical clarity. Uatsdin thus positions itself not merely as folk religion but as a living system of thought rooted in ancient continuity.

Without canonical scripture, the Nart Sagas serve as Uatsdin’s mythological and theological corpus. These epic tales, shared across the Caucasus, preserve fragments of archaic solar and heroic cults. Figures like Satanya (Satana), linked to the sun, embody traces of forgotten divinities. Rituals remain deeply ecological and communal, centered on kuvandon (sacred natural sites) and kuvd (communal feasts) involving prayer, sacrifice, and fellowship. The most revered festival, Uastyrdzhiy K’uyri—the Week of St. George in November—stands as both a religious and national celebration, reaffirming the Ossetians’ living bond with their gods.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Uatsdin’s revival intertwined with Ossetian nationalism, presenting itself as a decolonial and identity-restoring force. It rejects both Russian Orthodoxy and Islamic encroachment, claiming a native spiritual sovereignty rooted in Scytho-Iranian antiquity. Its reach today is impressive for a reconstituted ethnic faith—estimates suggest between one-quarter and half of the Ossetian population actively practices or identifies with it. Through this resurgence, Uatsdin has evolved into more than a religion: it is the mythic engine of Ossetian nationhood, transforming the ancient gods who once hid behind Christian saints into open emblems of cultural defiance and divine continuity.