St Nino of Georgia

A young woman from Cappadocia, according to Georgian tradition a relative of the great martyr George, Nino came to Iberia — eastern Georgia — as a captive or pilgrim and lived there in prayer and remarkable simplicity. Her holiness and her prayers for the sick drew attention at the royal court: Queen Nana was healed and believed, and King Mirian, overtaken by sudden darkness while hunting, called on the God of Nino and was delivered. Around 327 the king and his household accepted baptism, and Georgia became one of the earliest Christian nations. The conversion of Iberia in this period is attested by fourth- and fifth-century historians, though the detailed stories of Nino's life come from later Georgian sources and vary in their particulars. Her emblem is the cross of vine branches bound with her own hair, still the symbol of the Georgian Church. She reposed peacefully at Bodbe.