Saint Nino, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Enlightener of Georgia
Equal-to-the-Apostles, Enlightener of Georgia
- Feast day
- January 14
- Lived
- c. 296–338
- Patronage
- Georgia, women missionaries
A young woman from Cappadocia brought an entire nation to Christ with a cross made of grapevine branches bound with her own hair — still the emblem of the Georgian Orthodox Church.
Life
Nino was a relative of Saint George, raised in Jerusalem, who travelled to Iberia — eastern Georgia — in search of the Lord's tunic, believed to have been brought there by a Jew of Mtskheta present at the Crucifixion. The Theotokos appeared to her and gave her the vine cross.
She lived in a bramble bush at the edge of the royal garden in Mtskheta, healing the sick by prayer. When Queen Nana was cured of a serious illness she was baptised; King Mirian resisted until he was struck blind while hunting and recovered his sight after calling on the God of Nino.
Legacy
Georgia became a Christian kingdom in 326, one of the earliest states to do so. Nino withdrew to Bodbe in Kakheti, where she died and where her tomb remains a national shrine. Her vine cross is kept in the Sioni Cathedral in Tbilisi.