“Swift Assistance from St. Nino: The Enlightener of Georgia” by Irina Krikheli

This story happened not so long ago. My son had to take a biology exam to be admitted to college. We believed it would be in the fall; my son quietly took lessons with a biology teacher, but it turned out that the exam was scheduled for June 1. We learned about it too late, and my son did not have time to prepare well.

On June 1 Georgia celebrates the feast of The Life of St. Nina, Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of GeorgiaSt. Nina was born in Cappadocia and was the only daughter of pious and noble parents—the Roman general Zabulon, a relative of the great martyr St. George, and Susanna, sister of the patriarch of Jerusalem. When St. Nina was twelve years old, she traveled with her parents to the holy city of Jerusalem.

“>St. Nino (also Nina), the enlightener of the country.¹ The day before and on the feast itself, the cross of St. Nino Equal-to-the-Apostles, with which she came to Georgia to preach Christianity, is brought out for veneration in the ancient Sioni Cathedral in the center of Tbilisi.

After running all day long collecting the documents for admission, at the last moment we decided to go to the cross to pray before it so that my son might pass the exam, and to pray for my mother, who has been bedridden for six years after a severe stroke.

The cross was supposed to stay at the cathedral until nine in the evening. It was late, and on account of heavy traffic in the city we would not have had time to get there by public transport. Besides, we were in a hurry: we couldn’t leave my mother alone for a long time. We decided to call a taxi, but it did not arrive. We tried to stop a car, but it didn’t work either. Taxi drivers understood our desire to travel to the cathedral on that day, as St. Nino is deeply venerated in Georgia, but no one wanted to go to the city center at that hour because of the terrible congestion.

Photo: Rutraveler.ru Finally, one taxi driver agreed to pick us up, but warned us that we wouldn’t make it in time anyway. Nevertheless, we resolved to go, thinking that even if we were late, we would just pray at Sioni Cathedral in front of St. Nino’s icon. And a miracle occurred—we were not stuck in traffic on the way and reached the cathedral so quickly that the driver himself was very surprised! “Saint Nino herself must have helped you today,” he said. We had arrived ten minutes before the shrine with St. Nino’s cross was closed for pilgrims, prayed and were even able to stand for a while at the prayer service that began later.

And when we returned home, I was so amazed to see that my mother was smiling at us so joyfully—a state I had not seen her in for ages! And the next day, after seeing my son off to the exam and still worrying about its result, I decided to go to the nearest church, two stops from the college, and pray more. The church stands on a small hill: I had always seen it, but had never been there before. As I started to walk up I asked passersby if it was active, but to my chagrin it turned out that the church was not completed and services were not celebrated in it yet. I ventured to go anyway, especially since I was already not far from it. When I was almost there, a huge figure of St. Nino suddenly appeared in front of me, standing with a cross against the background of mountains and clouds, as if blessing our city. I stopped, startled!

I had seen this sculpture² before, but from below it had seemed small to me and had not impressed me much; but here, just a few yards away from me, the saint stood as if alive, and seemed to be blessing not only Tbilisi, but also me! The church was closed—it could be seen even from below—but now I no longer needed to walk up to it. St. Nino herself told me who I should pray to on that day. Calm and confidence gradually appeared in my soul that everything would be fine. And so it happened. When I returned to the college, my son told me that he had passed the exam successfully.

All that time my spiritual sister Veronica had been praying for my dear son, and then she told me her story of St. Nino’s help.

In the 1990s, when she was just beginning to integrate into Church life, Veronica wanted to live in a convent, if only for a while. At that time she was a parishioner of the Church of St. John the Evangelist in Tbilisi, and an elder of Glinsk Monastery, Archimandrite Philaret (Kudinov; 1927–2017), who served there, blessed her for this, asking a choir member of this church to help her. Together they went to St. Olga’s (originally St. Catherine’s) Convent, situated near Mtskheta.

At that time, there were only a handful of elderly nuns left at the convent, who advised her to travel to Samtavro Convent where there were many pilgrims, and services were held regularly. So they both went there, but the abbess came out to them and said she could only accept Veronica with the Patriarch’s blessing. My friend was very upset. Then one nun, who came from Pyukhtitsa Convent, advised her not to worry, but to go to the Church of St. Nino, located on the territory of the convent, and ask the saint for help.

Photo: Tourister.ru     

This church is special. When St. Nino came to Georgia to preach Christianity, she stayed at this place, where a small church was built in the seventeenth century, which is considered to be the oldest in Georgia. It is called “Makvlovani” because of a blackberry bush that grew beside the church, since the Georgian for “blackberry” is “makvali”.

My friend went there and began to pray fervently, and St. Nino answered her petitions and helped her. Two weeks later Veronica was able to stop at the convent in the village of Foka (Poka), in Samtskhe Javakheti, on Lake Paravani, which was still under construction. There she was surprised to learn that the convent was dedicated to St. Nino and was built on the site where the saint stayed on her way from Cappadocia to Georgia. On this place stands the eleventh century Church of St. Nino. At that time, there were only four nuns living there, who welcomed the pilgrim and she was able to stay there for several weeks. During this time, my friend became very strong in her faith and subsequently became a true believer, an Orthodox Christian. Afterwards she often came there, bringing food and other help for the convent. And Veronica always cordially thanked St. Nino, who had answered her prayers and helped her!