SAINT NINA

January 14

From the Prologue

Nina was a relative of St. George the Great Martyr and Juvenal, the Patriarch of Jerusalem. Her parents belonged to the nobility in Cappadocia and since they both were tonsured in the monastic state, Nina was educated under the tutelage of Patriarch Juvenal. Hearing about the people of Georgia, the virgin Nina, from an early age, desired to go to Georgia and to baptize the Georgians. The All-Holy Mother of God appeared to Nina and promised to take her to this land. When our Lord opened the way, the young Nina, indeed, traveled to Georgia where, in a short period of time, she gained the love of the Georgian people. Nina succeeded in baptizing the Georgian Emperor Mirian, his wife Nana and their son Bakar, who, later on, zealously assisted in Nina's missionary work. During her lifetime, Nina traveled throughout Georgia, mainly to convert the entire nation to the Faith of Christ, exactly at the time of the terrible persecution of the Christians at the hands of Emperor Diocletian. Having rested from her many labors, Nina died in the Lord in the year 335 A.D. Her body is entombed in the Cathedral Church in Mtzkheta. She worked many miracles during her life and after her death.

HYMN OF PRAISE

SAINT NINA

Virgin most beautiful, Nina of noble birth,

By Divine Providence became the Apostle to the Georgians,

In defiance of the persecution by Diocletian, the Emperor,

With the Cross, she baptized Emperor Mirian

His wife Nana and his son Bakar,

Through them, all the people and the elite of the leaders,

With the Cross of the Son of God, baptized them all,

Saint Nina, Apostle to the Georgians.

From her youth, Nina prayed to God

That Djul (the Rose) - Georgia, she baptize.

For that which she prayed to God, the good God granted:

From Nina's hand, the Cross shown

To docile Georgia where it shines even now,

Where Nina's hand blesses even now.

There is Nina's grave, overwhich a church glistens,

Glorifying Saint Nina and the Lord Christ.