05 Works, Today, May 19th is Saint Nino's day, her Story in Paintings #139

Amiran Goglidze
Icon of St-Nino offered to Patriarch Kirill

Amiran Goglidze learned iconography by restoring churches. He finished art school (painting college of I. Nikoladze) in 1971, but then also continued to study restoration and conservation of monumental art (Tbilisi State Academy of Painting) from 1971-1977.  He was brought very close to the icon in that time, forced to copy and study iconography by restoring more than 50 churches in Georgia. In doing so, Goglidze internalized the particularities of Georgian iconography, the saturated colors, the linear style, and the particular blend of highly hieratic and expressive faces so characteristic to Georgia. More on Amiran Goglidze

Nino was born in the small town of Colastri, in the Roman province of Cappadocia. Her father was Roman general Zabulon and her mother Sosana On her father's side, Nino was related to St. George, and on her mother's, to the patriarch of Jerusalem, Houbnal I. Nino was brought up by the nun Niofora-Sarah of Bethlehem. Nino’s uncle, who was the patriarch of Jerusalem, oversaw her traditional upbringing. Nino went to Rome with the help of her uncle where she decided to preach the Christian gospel in Iberia.

Unknown artist

Santa Nino, the wine saint of Georgia

While in a religious trance the Virgin Mary  gave her a double mission: convert Georgia to Christianity and introduce the Georgians to wine.  She also gave her a cross made out of grapevines.  Once out of the trance the future santa secured the cross  with a lock of her own hair, forming “a living cross” of grapevine and human hair. 

Unknown artist
The Georgian cross

Nino reached the borders of the ancient Georgian Kingdom of Iberia from the south about 320. There she started preaching the Christian faith in Urbnisi, finally reaching the capital. The Iberian King Mirian III and his nation worshiped the syncretic gods Armazi and Zaden. Soon after the arrival of Nino in Mtskheta, Nana, the Queen of Iberia requested an audience with the Cappadocian.


Queen Nana, who suffered from a severe illness, had some knowledge of Christianity but had not yet converted to it. Nino, restoring the Queen's health, won to herself disciples from the Queen's attendants. Nana also officially converted to Christianity and was baptized by Nino herself. Mirian, aware of his wife’s religious conversion, was intolerant of her new faith. He secluded himself, however, from Nino and the growing Christian community in his kingdom. According to legend, while on a hunting trip, he was suddenly struck blind as total darkness emerged in the woods. In a desperate state, King Mirian uttered a prayer to the God of St Nino.

Unknown artist

Saint King Mirian and his Wife Nana

King of Medieval Georgia.

As soon as he finished his prayer, light appeared. As a result of this miracle, the King of Iberia renounced idolatry under the teaching of St Nino and was baptized as the first Christian King of Iberia. Soon, the whole of his household and the inhabitants of Mtskheta adopted Christianity. In 326 King Mirian made Christianity the state religion of his kingdom, making Iberia the second Christian state after Armenia.

Unknown artist 
Saint Nino withdrew to the mountain pass in Bodbe, Kakheti

Nino, having witnessed the conversion of Iberia to Christianity, withdrew to the mountain pass in Bodbe, Kakheti. St Nino died soon after. More on Saint Nino

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