Missionary (d. ca. 340)
Her life
+ While there are various accounts of the life of this important Georgian saint, the historian Rufinus of Aquileia tells us that Nino (or Nina) was brought to Georgia as a slave.
+ After making a great impression on the people by her life and prayer, she began to tell them about Christ and her faith in the Son of God. After she miraculously cured a sick infant, people began to come to her for healing and prayer.
+ In time, the queen came to seek Nino’s help, and was cured. When the queen asked Nino what she could do to thank her, Nino replied, “It is not my work but Christ’s; and he is the Son of God who made the world.”
+ The king and queen were inspired to receive baptismal instruction from Nino and, following their baptism, the king decreed that his people would be Christian.
+ Nino received permission to preach and teach and, after a church was built, the king asked the emperor Constantine to send bishops and priests to serve the people.
+ After Christianity took hold in Georgia, Nino is said to have retired to a small monastery near Bodhe. She died around 340 and her relics are enshrined in that same monastery today.
+ Saint Nino is among the most venerated saints of the Georgian Orthodox Church and an important figure in that country’s history. She is included in the Roman Martyrology under the Latinized form of her name—Christina.
For reflection
“What I say to you in the darkness, speak in the light; what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops.”—Matthew 10:27
Prayer
Hear us, God our Savior, that, as we rejoice in commemorating the Virgin blessed Nino, we may be instructed by her loving devotion. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
(from The Roman Missal: Common of Virgins—For One Virgin)
Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.
And today we celebrate...