Homily for the Commemoration of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
By Fr. Daniel Sysoev
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!
I congratulate you all on the feast day of Saint Nina, Equal-to-the-Apostles, Enlightener of Georgia! Saint Nina converted the people of Georgia from the darkness of unbelief to the Light of Christ, and we see that in Christ there is neither female nor male, and every person can ascend to the unimaginable heights of divine vision and see the Light of God, as Saint Nina did. Her life is described in detail in the Iveron Paterikon, but I will remind you of its highlights for the benefit of our souls.
Saint Nina was a relative of the Holy Great Martyr George, which is why Georgia is labeled "Georgia" on all English-language maps, in honor of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious. Saint Nina's mother was the sister of the ruling Patriarch of Jerusalem. From childhood, she decided to dedicate her life to serving God and become a nun. At that time, monasticism did not yet exist, but there were people who lived near churches, did not marry, and dedicated their entire lives to serving God. One day, in a dream, Nina saw the Mother of God, who gave her a cross woven from grapevines and commanded her to go to her inheritance, which had been assigned to her by lot during her lifetime, but which the Archangel Gabriel refused to allow her to enter, saying that God would be pleased to enlighten this land in the coming years.
Upon awakening, Nina found herself holding a wondrous cross woven from grapevines, which she tied with her own hair. This cross, received from the hands of the Blessed Virgin, still hangs in the Tbilisi Cathedral. It was certainly very difficult for Nina, especially at the very beginning — a young woman not yet 20 years old, she had to travel into an unknown, wild, and barbaric land.
Saint Nina wanted to find the tunic of Christ the Savior. As is well known, a large ancient Jewish community has existed in Georgia since the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem (8th century BC). This community had its own high priest, the successor of Elijah, and Nina had heard that the high priest's family in the Georgian Jewish community knew where the Savior's tunic was located.
Traveling to the lands of Iberia (Georgia), Saint Nina encountered like-minded people, a community of Armenian nuns who had been baptized and decided to work together, proclaiming the gospel of Christ to the Armenian people. But their ministry was short-lived, as the Armenian King Tiridates, having fallen in love with one of the Armenian nuns and, after being rejected, executed the entire monastic community. Saint Nina was with them but escaped death by hiding in a wild rose bush. She observed an angel receiving the souls of the murdered nuns, and it was he who told her to continue on to the land of Iberia, where service awaited her. She began to grumble, "How can I go? I'm alone. My friends have just been killed." Then a certain man from the Light appeared, bringing her a scroll. She read it, and it predicted that the gospel would be preached to all nations: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19).
Most likely, this luminous man was the guardian angel of the Georgian people, and he convinced Nina to go to Georgia. She arrived in the city of Mtskheta, the capital of Georgia at the time (Tbilisi wasn't founded until the sixth century). As she approached the city, Nina saw a grand sacrifice being prepared. Crowds of people flocked to the idols erected on the mountaintop, bringing sacrifices — animals and humans — and sharpening enormous knives to perform slaughter in honor of demons. Saint Nina saw an enormous bronze idol, gilded on top, with one eye of jacinth and the other of emerald. The king approached to perform the sacrifice, and Nina, standing on a nearby cliff, began to pray to the Lord to prevent this. After her prayer, the perfectly clear sky became covered with clouds, lightning flashed, thunder roared loudly, a hurricane blew, and the people fled into the city in panic. Meanwhile, lightning struck the idol and melted it, and a heavy downpour washed away the entire temple down to the last stone into the enraged waters of the Kura.
The king was horrified and trembling, and he began to question his subjects: was it not the same God who had intervened, the same God who had corrupted both the Romans and the Armenians? Was it not the Christian God who had destroyed the pagan temple? Saint Nina descended into the city and found a woman who had come to believe in the true God, along with her husband. They invited her to live in their home, but Nina preferred to live in a hut in their garden. Nina began to proclaim that the Kingdom of God had come, that they must cease worshiping darkness (demons) and begin serving the God of Light. It is noteworthy that one of her first converts to Christ was the Jewish high priest Abiathar, the leader of the Georgian Jews. Fifty more Jewish families followed him. These were the descendants of the very same robber Barrabas, whom the Jews had freed in place of Christ.
Saint Nina became famous for healing the sick. She would place them on her herbal bed and make the sign of the cross with the cross received from the Mother of God, and all who sought her help were miraculously healed by the power of the Life-giving Cross and the strength the Lord gave to Nina. Saint Nina never doubted the power of God, and the Lord never failed her.
Christianity began to spread rapidly throughout Georgia, and then Queen Nana, wife of the King of Georgia, rebelled against Nina. As soon as she publicly declared that she would persecute Christians, she was struck with paralysis. She invited healers, sorcerers, and witches to visit her, but none could help her. Then, on the advice of her loved ones, she decided to invite Nina. And as soon as the saint performed her usual procedure on Nana — making the sign of the cross with her cross — the queen was healed in both body and soul. Queen Nana became a Christian and began to very zealously convert the King of Georgia, but he decided to simply run away from her (to travel for some time).
The king rode into the dense forest to hunt. Along the way, he told his courtiers that he was fed up with Christians, that while he had tolerated them before, he would no longer, and that he would return and exterminate them all. And after these words, a terrible darkness descended upon the forest, a powerful whirlwind and hurricane swept in, and a black cloud enveloped the king so that he could no longer see anything within arm's reach.
Thus God revealed the state of his soul, a man who does not know God walks in darkness, as the Holy Gospel says: “The darkness blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11).
The king became frightened and turned to Nina's God, saying that he repented and promised to accept her faith. Immediately after these words, a clear light shone, brighter than the sun, leading the king back to the city. He came to Nina and announced his desire to convert to Christ. Later, Nina, the enlightener, recalled that, on her way to Iberia, she had not even hoped for a single person to convert, but after the king's baptism, the entire Georgian people became Orthodox.
An embassy was sent to Constantinople requesting clergy, and the Byzantine emperor dispatched priests to Georgia, led by Bishop Eustathios. After this, Georgia was baptized, and Eustathios ordained the first Georgian bishop, John. Saint Nina then traveled to neighboring kingdoms, including Abkhazia, where she converted Princess Sophia. In Abkhazia, Saint Nina sensed her approaching death and asked the princess to go to King Mirian and invite Bishop John, who would give her last rites. Princess Sophia asked Nina to recount her life, to which she replied that she had been very lazy, yet everyone loved her. Bishop John arrived and gave Nina last rites. The king and queen also came from Mtskheta; they wept and wanted to take Nina away, but she insisted on being buried there, in an ordinary village. She soon died, and gave the Cross to Bishop John for safekeeping.
But even before her death, she discovered the location of Christ the Savior's tunic. A cedar tree grew on the spot where it was kept, performing numerous miracles. The relics of Solomiya, who had guarded the tunic, were also buried there. At Saint Nina's request, a massive cathedral in honor of the Twelve Apostles was built on this spot. The cathedral contained a pillar (the trunk of a felled cedar tree) that miraculously hung in the air, sometimes rising and sometimes falling.
Saint Nina laid the foundation of Georgian Orthodoxy, which survives to this day. Her preaching was built on the word of the Gospel, on complete trust in God, and on miracles. These three principles are inextricably linked, and without them, the Gospel message cannot stand. If our Church were to lose any of these principles, if it were to lose the light of the vision of God, if it were to lose the light of knowledge of the Gospel, if it were to lose trust in God and the gift of miracles, then it would not be the Church that God created. Our Church remains the same Church, the Church of Light, in which people find true enlightenment and, already enlightened, see the Kingdom of God and the path to Heaven. Saint Nina should be our example of how God leads people.
A weak girl, who went into the wildest land without any support, converted entire nations to Christ the Savior. The Lord glorified her, but she fled this glory.
When, after her death, they wanted to transfer her relics to the capital of Georgia, many very strong men were unable to lift them. And it became clear to everyone that Nina wished to be buried in a completely ordinary village. Even after death, she did not seek glory. He who seeks earthly glory will lose heavenly glory. Let us also seek heavenly glory, the mercy of God, and He will protect us and reward us generously if we exchange earthly glory for heavenly glory.
God help us all! God bless you!
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.