Saint Nino

Born to a Greek-speaking Roman family in Cappadocia and said to be a relative of Saint George, Nino served at fourteen as a lady-in-waiting to a Christian noblewoman whom Emperor Diocletian wanted to marry. The woman refused; all fled; all were killed but Nino, who hid and lived. Tradition holds that the Virgin Mary appeared to her afterward, handed her a cross made of grapevine, and sent her north to Iberia. She went, preached, and worked healings that reached the queen, Nana, then the pagan king Mirian III - who, blinded and lost on a hunt, prayed to "Nino's God" and found his way back. Around 326, Mirian declared Christianity the state religion. Nino kept preaching among Georgians until she died, and her tomb at Bodbe Monastery in Kakheti remains a pilgrimage site. The grapevine cross became the mark of Georgian Christianity; she became one of its most venerated saints.