View source for Saint Nino

{{Distinguish|Santo Niño (disambiguation){{!}}Santo Niño}}{{Redirects here|Nino of Georgia|other Georgians with the same name|Nino (name)#Nino in Georgia}}{{short description|Early Christian saint}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix = [[Saint]]
|name=Nino
|birth_date= c. 288
|death_date= January 14, 338{{Efn|name=fn2|და შეჰვედრა სული თჳსი ჴელთა ღმრთისათა ქართლს მოსლვითგან{{Efn|წმ. ნინომ, ჯერ ისევ 14 წლის ყრმამ, გადასწყვიტა წამოსულიყო ქართლში ქრისტეს სარწმუნოების საქადაგებლად.{{sfn|მოსე ჯანაშვილი|1906|page=156}}}} მისით ოცდამეხუთმეტესა წელსა და ქრისტჱეს ამაღლებიდგან სამას ოცდათურამეტსა წელსა, დასაბამითგან ხუთ ათას რვაას ოცდათურამეტსა წელსა.<ref>[https://dspace.nplg.gov.ge/bitstream/1234/341126/1/Moqcevai_Qartlisai.pdf „მოქცევაჲ ქართლისაჲ“ ''ახლადაღმოჩენილი სინური რედაქციები''] ([[Conversion of Kartli (chronicle)|„Conversion of Kartli“]] ''Newly discovered Sinaitic redactions''). დაიბეჭდა სრულიად საქართველოს კათოლიკოს-პატრიარქის ილია II ლოცვა-კურთხევით. თბილისი, 2007. ISBN 978-99940-69-18-7. გვ. 16. საქართველოს პარლამენტის ეროვნული ბიბლიოთეკა.</ref>}}
|feast_day='''''Entering Kartli''''' <br />May 19 (Roman Catholic) <br />June 1 (Eastern Orthodox) <br />'''''Death''''' <br />January 14 (Roman Catholic) <br />January 27 (Eastern Orthodox) 
|venerated_in= [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]<br />[[Catholic Church]]<br />[[Oriental Orthodox Churches]]
|image= St-nino.jpg
|caption= Icon of Saint Nino
|birth_place= [[Kolastra]], [[Cappadocia]]
|death_place= Bodbe, [[Kakheti]]<br />(modern-day [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]])
|titles=[[Equal to the Apostles]] and the Enlightener of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]]
|beatified_date=
|beatified_place=
|beatified_by=
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place= Kingdom of Iberia, Kingdom of Armenia
|canonized_by= Georgian and Russian Orthodox Church
|attributes=[[Grapevine cross]]
|patronage=Georgia
|major_shrine= [[Bodbe Monastery]]
|suppressed_date=
|issues=
|prayer=
|prayer_attrib=
}}

'''Saint Nino''' (sometimes '''St. Nune''' or '''St. Ninny'''; {{lang-ka|წმინდა ნინო|tr}}; {{langx|hy|Սուրբ Նունե|Surb Nune}}; {{langx|el|Ἁγία Νίνα|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 (country)|Georgia]]. Her preaching resulted in the [[Christianization of Iberia]].

According to most traditional accounts, she belonged to a [[Greek language|Greek]]-speaking Roman family from Kolastra, [[Cappadocia]], was a relative of [[Saint George]],<ref>[http://www.stnina.ca/stnina_life.html Orthodox Church of America -] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320171042/http://www.stnina.ca/stnina_life.html |date=2007-03-20 }}</ref> and came to Iberia from [[Constantinople]]. Other sources{{Which?|date=March 2025}} claim she was from [[Ancient Rome|Rome]], [[Jerusalem]] or [[Gaul]] (modern France).{{Citation needed|date=March 2025}} 

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 [[Mary, mother of Jesus|Mary]], 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 of Iberia|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 [[Christianity in Georgia (country)|Georgian Christianity]].

She was named '''Christina''' by Rufin and '''Theognasta''' by Byzantines.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Imiona świętych |url=https://deon.pl/imiona-swietych/nina-nino,6644 |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=deon.pl}}</ref>

==Early life==
[[File:St Nino icon at Svetitskhoveli, Georgia.JPG|thumb|Icon of Saint Nino at [[Svetitskhoveli Cathedral]].]]
Many sources agree that Nino was born in the small town of Colastri, in the [[Roman province]] of [[Cappadocia]], although a smaller number of sources disagree with this. Regarding her family and origin, the [[Roman Catholic Church]] and the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] have different traditions.

According to the Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, she was the only child of a famous family. Her father was [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] general Zabulon (Zebulun) and her mother Susanna (Sosana, Susan). On her father's side, Nino was related to [[Saint George|St. George]], and on her mother's side, to the patriarch of Jerusalem, Houbnal I.

During her childhood, Nino was brought up by the nun Niofora-Sarah of [[Bethlehem]].<ref name=FullAccountOfGeorgianSaints>{{cite web|url=http://predanie.ru/sabinin-mihail-pavlovich/book/111480-polnoe-zhizneopisanie-svyatyh-gruzinskoy-cerkvi/ | title=Full Account of Lives of Georgian Saints (in Russian)}}</ref> Nino's uncle, who was the [[Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem|patriarch of Jerusalem]], oversaw her traditional upbringing. Nino went to [[Rome]] with the help of her uncle, where she decided to preach the Christian gospel in Iberia, known to her as the resting place of Christ's tunic. According to the legend, Nino received a vision where the [[Virgin Mary]] gave her a grapevine cross and said:

:"Go to Iberia and tell there the Good Tidings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you will find favour before the Lord; and I will be for you a shield against all visible and invisible enemies. By the strength of this cross, you will erect in that land the saving banner of faith in My beloved Son and Lord."

She woke up from that vision with the cross in her hands and she tied the cross together with her own hair. Shortly afterward, Nino entered the Iberian Kingdom in [[Caucasus]] from the [[Kingdom of Armenia (antiquity)|Kingdom of Armenia]], where she escaped persecution at the hands of the Armenian King [[Tiridates III of Armenia|Tiridates III]]. She had belonged to a community of virgins numbering 35,<ref name=OCA>{{cite web|url=http://www.oca.org/FSLivesAllSaintsPrint.asp?M=9&D=30 |title=Lives of all saints commemorated on this day |publisher=OCA |access-date=2012-09-23}}</ref> along with martyr [[Hripsime]], under the leadership of [[Saint Gayane|St. Gayane]], who preached Christianity in the Armenian Kingdom. They were all, with the exception of Nino, tortured and beheaded by Tiridates. All 35 of the virgins were soon canonised by the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]], including Nino (as St. Nune).

In contrast, the Roman Catholic tradition, as narrated by [[Rufinus of Aquileia]], says that Nino was brought to Iberia not by her own will, but as a slave and that her family tree is obscure.<ref>Rufinus 1997 =  The Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia, Books X and XI, transl. by Philip R. Amidon, New-York – Oxford.</ref>

==St Nino in Iberia==
[[File:Saint Nino.jpg|thumb|150px|left|Saint Nino with her scroll and grapevine cross]]
Nino reached the borders of the ancient Georgian [[Kingdom of Iberia (antiquity)|Kingdom of Iberia]] from the south about 320. There she placed a Christian cross in the small town of [[Akhalkalaki]] and started preaching the Christian faith in [[Urbnisi]] and finally reached [[Mtskheta]], the capital of Iberia. The Iberian Kingdom had been influenced by the neighbouring [[Persian Empire]], which played an important role as the regional power in the Caucasus. Iberian King Mirian III and his nation worshiped the [[syncretic]] gods [[Armazi (god)|Armazi]] and [[Zaden]]. Soon after the arrival of Nino in Mtskheta, Nana, the Queen of Iberia requested an audience with the Cappadocian.

Queen Nana, who suffered from a severe illness, had some knowledge of Christianity but had not yet converted to it. Nino, restoring the Queen's health, won to herself disciples from the Queen's attendants, including a Jewish priest and his daughter, [[Abiathar and Sidonia]]. Nana also officially converted to Christianity and was baptized by Nino herself. Mirian, aware of his wife's religious conversion, was intolerant of her new faith, persecuting it and threatening to divorce his wife if she did not leave the faith.<ref>Isoelian, P. A Short History of the Georgian Church. Saunders, Otley, and Co., London: 1866.</ref> He secluded himself, however, from Nino and the growing Christian community in his kingdom. His isolation to Christianity did not last long because, according to the legend, on a hunting trip, he was suddenly struck blind as total darkness emerged in the woods. In a desperate state, King Mirian uttered a prayer to the God of St Nino:

:If indeed that Christ whom the Captive had preached to his Wife was God, then let Him now deliver him from this darkness, that he too might forsake all other gods to worship Him.<ref>Tyrannius Rufinus, ''Historia Ecclesiastica''</ref>

As soon as he finished his prayer, light appeared, and the king hastily returned to his palace in Mtskheta. As a result of this miracle, the King of Iberia renounced idolatry under the teaching of Nino and was baptized as the first Christian King of Iberia. Soon, the whole of his household and the inhabitants of Mtskheta adopted Christianity. In 326, King Mirian made Christianity the state religion of his kingdom, the oldest Christian state after Armenia.

After adopting Christianity, Mirian sent an ambassador to [[Byzantium]] to ask Emperor [[Constantine I]] to have a bishop and priests sent to Iberia. Constantine, having learned of Iberia's conversion to Christianity, granted Mirian the new church land in Jerusalem<ref>Theodore Downling, Sketches of Georgian Church History, p. 52</ref> and sent a delegation of bishops to the court of the Georgian King. Roman [[historian]] [[Tyrannius Rufinus]] in ''Historia Ecclesiastica'' writes about Mirian's request to Constantine:

:After the church had been built with due magnificence, the people were zealously yearning for God's faith. An embassy was sent on behalf of the entire nation to the Emperor Constantine in accordance with the captive woman's advice. The foregoing events are related to him, and a petition submitted, requesting that priests be sent to complete the work that God had begun. Sending them on their way amidst rejoicing and ceremony, the Emperor was far more glad at that news than if he had annexed to the Roman Empire peoples and realms unknown.<ref>Marjory and Oliver Wardrop, The Life of Saint Nino, volume 5, Clarendon Press Series</ref>

In 334, Mirian commissioned the building of the first Christian church in Iberia which was finally completed in 379 on the spot where now stands the [[Svetitskhoveli Cathedral]] in Mtskheta.

[[File:Saint Nino Georgian mosaic.jpg|thumb|A mosaic in [[Samtavro Monastery]], Mtskheta]]
Nino, having witnessed the conversion of Iberia to Christianity, withdrew to the mountain pass in Bodbe, [[Kakheti]]. St Nino died soon after; immediately after her death, King Mirian commenced with the building of monastery in [[Bodbe Monastery|Bodbe]], where her tomb can still be seen in the churchyard.

The Georgian name is ''Nune'' in [[Armenian language|Armenian]]. Her history as the only one of the 35 nuns of the company of the saints Gayane and [[Hripsime]] to escape the slaughter at the hands of the pagan Armenian King [[Tiridates III of Armenia|Tiradates III]] in 301 is recounted in the history of [[Movses Khorenatsi]].

==Legacy==
The Phoka Convent of St. Nino was established in rural Georgia by Abbess Elizabeth and two novices. They originally lived in a nearby house owned by Georgian Orthodox Church head [[Patriarch Ilia II]] and in 1992 moved to the site of an 11th-century church to restore it.

The Sacred Monastery of Saint Nina is the home of a monastic community of [[Georgian Orthodox Church|Georgian Apostolic Orthodox Christian]] nuns in the Patriarchate of Georgia's North American Diocese. It is located in [[Union Bridge, Maryland]], USA, and was established in September 2012.<ref>[http://www.saintnina-monastery.org/ Sacred Monastery of Saint Nina in Union Bridge, Maryland]</ref>

''[[Nino (name)|Nino]]'' and its variants remain the most popular name for women and girls in the [[Georgia (country)|Republic of Georgia]]. There are currently 88,442 women over the age of 16 with that name residing in the country, according to the [[Ministry of Justice of Georgia|Georgian Ministry of Justice]]. It also continues to be a popular name for baby girls.<ref>[http://www.justice.gov.ge/siaxle_eng.html Nino is the most popular name for girls in Georgia] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828134118/http://www.justice.gov.ge/siaxle_eng.html|date=2008-08-28}}</ref>

Her parents Zabulon and Susanna were canonised in 1997.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=ЗАВУЛОН И СОСАННА - Древо |url=https://drevo-info.ru/articles/20992.html |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=drevo-info.ru |language=ru}}</ref>

== Feast days ==
* 14 January – main commemoration,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Catholic Church |url=https://archive.org/details/MartRom2004/page/98/mode/2up |title=Martyrologium Romanum (2004) |date=2004}}</ref>
* 19 May – Nina entrance into Georgia in 303,{{Efn|name=fn2}}
* 20 May – commemoration of saint Zabulon and Susanna, parents of saint Nina,<ref name=":1" />
* 23 May – commemoration in Georgia,<ref>{{Cite web |title=НИНА ГРУЗИНСКАЯ - Древо |url=https://drevo-info.ru/articles/8643.html#2 |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=drevo-info.ru |language=ru}}</ref>
* 29 October – commemoration in Armenia,<ref name=":0" />
* 15 December – older Catholic commemoration.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Sainte Nino |url=https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/260/Sainte-Nino.html |access-date=2025-01-14 |website=Nominis |language=fr}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Georgian Orthodox Church]]

==Notes==
{{noteslist}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last= Wardrop |first= Margery |title= Life of Saint Nino |year= 2006 |publisher= Gorgias Press |isbn= 978-1-59333-471-0 }}
* {{cite book |last= Dowling |first= Theodore E. |title= Sketches of Georgian Church History |year= 2003 |publisher= Adamant Media |isbn= 978-1-4212-2891-4 }}

==External links==

* [http://www.stnina.org/st-nina/her-life/life-st-nina-equal-apostles Biography from ''The St. Nina Quarterly''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180831113549/http://stnina.org/st-nina/her-life/life-st-nina-equal-apostles |date=2018-08-31 }}
* [http://www.georgianweb.com/religion/stnino.html Life of St Nino] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171111041956/http://www.georgianweb.com/religion/stnino.html |date=2017-11-11 }}
* [http://georgianamerica.com/eng/projects/church_opening_20 St. Nino church opening event in NYC] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204122619/http://georgianamerica.com/eng/projects/church_opening_20 |date=2014-12-04 }}
* [http://st-nina-kandalaksha.org/english-summary/  The Church of St. Nina, Kandalaksha, Murmansk oblast, Russia. English summary] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180521043844/http://st-nina-kandalaksha.org/english-summary/ |date=2018-05-21 }}

{{commons category}}
{{Catholic saints}}
{{Symbols of Georgia (country)}}
{{Georgia (country) topics}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nino}}
[[Category:296 births]]
[[Category:4th-century deaths]]
[[Category:4th-century Christian saints]]
[[Category:Cappadocian Greeks]]
[[Category:4th-century Roman women]]
[[Category:4th-century Romans]]
[[Category:3rd-century Roman women]]
[[Category:Christian missionaries in Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Marian visionaries]]
[[Category:Christian saints from Georgia (country)]]
[[Category:Miracle workers]]
[[Category:Cappadocia (Roman province)]]