NINO, Saint. - This is the Georgian name of the mulier captiva who, according to Rufinus (Hist. Eccl., X, 11), converted Georgia (Caucasian Iberia) to the Christian faith, under Constantine the Great. She in fact cured Queen Nana of a mortal illness, and the queen was converted.

King Mirian likewise accepted the faith of Christ. On the advice of N., Mirian built a church at Mtskheta, the capital of Georgia, and asked Constantine for missionaries, who sent him Bishop Peter with a priest named Jacob. After the baptism of the population of Mtskheta, N. preached the Gospel to the mountaineers, who refused to be baptized. She then passed into lower Kakheti, east of Mtskheta, where she preached with success. There N. succumbed to the deadly air of the country and was buried at Bodbe, the place of her death. Over her tomb a church was erected, most probably in the same 4th century, and from the 5th century already a bishop's cathedral. The Easterners celebrate St. N. on 14 January. In the Roman Martyrology, which commemorates her on 15 December, N. bears the name of "Christiana."

Bibliography4 works

BIBL.: N. Tamarati, L'Eglise géorgienne, Rome 1910, pp. 159-198; P. Peeters, Les débuts du christianisme en Géorgie d'après les sources hagiograph., in Anal. Boll., 51 (1932), pp. 5-58; M. Tarchnišvili, Die Legende der heiligen N., in Byzantin. Zeitschr., 40 (1940), pp. 48-75; Martyr. Romanum, pp. 385-86.

Michele Tarchnišvili

@incollection{ec8_nino_santa, author = {Tarchnišvili, Michele}, title = {Nino, santa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VIII}, pages = {1896}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1952}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/nino-santa} }

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Nino, Saint

About this entry