Saint Nino

Saint Nino (sometimes St. Nune or St. Ninny; Georgian: წმინდა ნინო, romanized: ts'minda nino; Armenian: Սուրբ Նունե, romanized: Surb Nune; Greek: Ἁγία Νίνα, romanized: Hagía Nína; c. 296 – c. 338 or 340) was a woman who preached Christianity in the territory of the Kingdom of Iberia in what is now Georgia. Her preaching resulted in the Christianization of Iberia.

According to most traditional accounts, she belonged to a Greek-speaking Roman family from Kolastra, Cappadocia, was a relative of Saint George, and came to Iberia from Constantinople. Other sources claim she was from Rome, Jerusalem or Gaul (modern France).

At the age of 14, she was a lady-in-waiting to a woman whom King Diocletian wanted to marry though the woman was a Christian, and did not want to marry him. St. Nino, the woman, and the rest of her ladies in waiting fled, and all were slaughtered but Nino, who hid in a rose bush. She had a vision of the Mother Of God, the Most Holy Virgin Theotokos, giving her a cross and telling her to go to Iberia to spread the gospel. When she awoke, there was a cross on her chest. She cut some of her hair to fasten the cross, took it into villages in Iberia and converted the whole country.

According to legend, she performed miraculous healings and converted the Georgian queen, Nana, and eventually the pagan king Mirian III of Iberia, who, lost in darkness and blinded on a hunting trip, found his way only after he prayed to "Nino's God". Mirian declared Christianity as the official religion of his kingdom (c. 327), and Nino continued her missionary activities among Georgians until her death.

Her tomb is still shown at the Bodbe Monastery in Kakheti, eastern Georgia. She has become one of the most venerated saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church and her attribute, a grapevine cross, is a symbol of Georgian Christianity.

She was named Christina by Rufin and Theognasta by Byzantines.