Nina, also called Nino, was a fourth-century missionary whose preaching led to the conversion of the kingdom of Georgia (Iberia) to Christianity. Honored as Equal-to-the-Apostles and as the Enlightener of Georgia, she is commemorated on January 14 and is venerated as the patroness of the Georgian people.
By tradition Nina was born in Cappadocia in Asia Minor and was a relative of the Great-Martyr George. Her father, Zabulon, is described as a Roman commander, and her mother, Susanna (Sosana), as a sister of Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem. While she was still young her parents dedicated themselves to the service of God and went to Jerusalem, where Nina was raised in the Christian faith by an elderly woman named Sara. From Sara she learned that the Robe of Christ had been carried to Georgia, a pagan land, and conceived the desire to go there.
The tradition relates that the Mother of God appeared to Nina in a vision, telling her to go to the land allotted to the Theotokos and preach the Gospel, and giving her a cross woven of grapevines, which Nina bound together with strands of her own hair. Travelling toward the Caucasus she was associated with the virgin-martyrs Rhipsime and Gaiana and their companions, who were put to death in Armenia; Nina alone escaped and continued on into Georgia.
Entering Georgia through the mountains of Javakheti, Nina settled near the royal city of Mtskheta, learned the Georgian language, and began to preach. Her ministry was accompanied by miraculous healings, and through her the royal house was converted: she healed Queen Nana, who became a Christian, and King Mirian embraced the faith after a sign during a hunt. Mirian made Christianity the religion of his kingdom and supported the building of the first churches. After years of preaching across Georgia, Nina reposed and was buried at Bodbe in Kakheti.
