Feast of the Robe of the Lord and of the God-radiant, Myrrh-streaming Pillar; Equals-to-the-Apostles King Mirian and Queen Nana; Saint Sidonia and Abiathar the Priest (IV)
The patriarchal cathedral of Svetitskhoveli, the burial place of the Robe of the Lord
In the year when Aderki ascended the throne of Kartli, word went round Mtskheta that Jerusalem had been taken by the Persians. Mourning and grief seized the Georgian Jews, but after a little while everyone grew calm — they learned that “the Persians had not come to Jerusalem to conquer it, but instead of weapons were bringing royal gold, healing myrrh and fragrant frankincense, and were seeking a child of the tribe of David. And they found a stranger, born of a stranger woman at an untimely time and in an unfitting place. To that child they bowed down and offered their gifts.”
Thirty years passed. The high priest Annas sent a messenger to the Jews of Mtskheta: “He for whose sake the magi came and offered gifts has grown up and calls himself the Son of God and preaches to us some other, new law; and now we have sent messengers to all the Jews, that those learned in the law may come. Come then, all who are bound by the law of Moses, and let us take counsel concerning him.”
Elioz of Mtskheta buys the Robe
From Kartli Elioz of Mtskheta and Longinoz of Karsani went to the council of the Sanhedrin. Elioz’s mother was of a priestly family. Before he left she begged her son to have no part in shedding the blood of the Messiah, “for He is the word of the prophets and the parable spoken by the wise”.
When the Saviour was crucified on Golgotha, Elioz’s mother in Mtskheta heard the sound of the hammer and cried out “with a terrible cry”: “Farewell, kingdom of the Jews, for you have killed your own Saviour and Redeemer and have become from henceforth enemies of the Creator!” — and at once she died.
When the Jews cast lots for the Lord’s robe, by God’s providence it fell to the men of Mtskheta. Elioz and Longinoz brought the robe to Kartli. When Elioz came to Mtskheta, “his sister” Sidonia came out to meet him. She pressed the robe of our Saviour to her heart, heard from her brother with weeping and lamentation the account of the crucifixion, and gave up her spirit. This miracle quickly became known throughout Kartli. King Aderki wished to wear the robe himself, but no one could loosen Sidonia’s cold arms from it, and Elioz buried his sister together with the holy robe. A cypress tree grew up on Sidonia’s grave.
Saint Sidonia
After Pentecost the apostles cast lots. The conversion of Kartli fell by lot to the all-holy Theotokos, but the Saviour appeared to her and commanded: “O My Mother, I will not neglect that people, My peculiar people above all nations, through thy intercession for them. But send thou Andrew the First-called to that portion allotted to thee, and send with him thine icon, which shall be imprinted when it is laid on thy face; and in thy stead thine icon shall dwell among them as their guardian unto the end of the ages.” By God’s providence and with the blessing of the Theotokos, Saint Andrew the First-called (commemorated 30 November) came to Georgia to preach.
Saint Andrew preached in Didachara; by the grace of the wonderworking icon of the all-holy Theotokos he converted the pagans, appointed priests and deacons, and built a church dedicated to the Theotokos. Then he crossed the mountain called the Iron Cross, passed through the gorge of Odzrkhe, reached the border of Samtskhe and stayed in a village called Zaden-Gora. Here by the grace and power of prayer he smashed the idols. At Atskuri there ruled a widow of the Samdzivari family, whose only son had died. The holy Apostle Andrew, by the will of the Cross and the grace of the icon of the all-holy Theotokos, raised the dead man from the dead. Samdzivari was baptised together with her son and her whole household. The holy apostle appointed in Meskheti a bishop, priests and deacons; after this he preached in Klarjeti, in Artanuji and in Armenia, and returned to Jerusalem to keep the Passover.
King Aderki turned the baptised Kartlians and Mingrelians back to paganism and punished the eristavi of Klarjeti, who had let Saint Andrew go in peace. The apostle came back to Kartli again. This time Matthias and Simon the Canaanite were with him. Saint Matthias (commemorated 9 August) went to Svaneti to preach; Saints Andrew and Simon (commemorated 30 June) went to Ossetia and converted many, and then made for Abkhazia. Saint Simon the Canaanite stayed at Tskhumi, while Saint Andrew went to Jiketi. The Jiks would not receive the apostle’s preaching and wanted to kill him, but by the grace of God he was saved.
Time passed. Under the pressure of the lawless and for fear of the pagans the Kartlians forgot their Creator and the crucified Saviour.
The Equals-to-the-Apostles King Mirian and Queen Nana
At the time of the martyrdom of Saint George of Cappadocia (commemorated 23 April and 10 November) there lived in Cappadocia a right-believing married couple, Zabulon and Susanna (commemorated 20 May). They had a daughter, Nino (commemorated 14 January and 19 May). Susanna was the sister of Juvenal, Patriarch of Jerusalem. The couple resolved to give themselves to the Lord; they distributed their property to the poor, gave their little daughter to a nurse to bring up, and themselves began a hermit’s life. Nino’s nurse told her about the Lord’s Passion, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, and also about His shroud and napkin. When she learned that the Lord’s seamless robe was buried in a pagan city, she resolved to convert the Kartlians to the law of Christ. She became friends with the king’s daughter Rhipsime and her nurse Gaiane (commemorated 30 September), who were fleeing with fifty virgins from the lawless emperor Diocletian, and went with them to Armenia. After the Armenian king Trdat had slaughtered the holy virgin martyrs, Nino, who had miraculously escaped death, crossed over into Kartli by the mountains of Javakheti.
At that time Mirian was reigning in Kartli. His wife was Nana, the daughter of a Pontic general. Mirian was distinguished by tolerance in matters of faith: he worshipped fire and the idols of Kartli, but through his long dealings with the Greeks he had also heard of the Christian teaching, and word of the miraculous victory of Saint Constantine the Great (commemorated 21 May) over his enemy had reached his ears.
The visitation of the Lord and the deliverance of our nation from the idols of the demons
Having come to Kartli, Nino went to Urbnisi and settled in the Jewish quarter. Some twenty days later the whole of Kartli set out for the feast of the pagan god Armazi. The whole royal court attended the feast. Saint Nino offered up prayer to God, and the idols of Armazi, Gatsi and Gaim were miraculously shattered. Nino settled at Mtskheta. She asked everyone about the robe, but no one remembered where it was. In this search Nino came to know Abiathar, the high priest of the Jews of Mtskheta, a descendant of Elioz, his daughter Sidonia and six other women. Saint Nino converted them to the law of Christ, but since there was no priest, the mystery of baptism was not performed.
Saint Nino received from the Lord the gift of healing. In the name of the crucified Saviour and by the grace of the cross of vine she healed the infirm.
Queen Nana fiercely opposed Nino’s preaching and reviled the new teaching and its preacher. But King Mirian “had a desire for the law of Christ and did not hinder the preaching of Nino and her disciples”. Once he secretly rescued the priest Abiathar, his daughter Sidonia and other Christians from persecution by the Jews.
Time passed. Once Queen Nana fell ill, and Saint Nino’s prayer saved her from certain death. After the queen’s healing King Mirian became interested in the law of Christ and often questioned Abiathar, the former Jew, about the books of the Old and New Testaments. Abiathar read him the book of Nebroth. The king conceived the desire to turn to the law of Christ.
The baptism of the holy King Mirian, Queen Nana and Rev
One day Mirian went hunting on Mount Tkhoti. The invisible enemy came upon him and put back into his heart the love of idols and fire and of destroying the Christians with the sword. He resolved to drive out the Christians and put Nino to death as soon as he returned to Mtskheta. When the king had climbed the mountain, the sun was darkened for him and pitch-black night came down. The frightened Mirian begged the idols for help, but they had no feeling for the one praying to them. Then the king commended himself to the crucified God, and a miracle took place: it grew light and the sun shone out. Mirian stretched out his hands towards the east and said: “Thou art God above all gods, Lord above all lordships, the God of whom Nino speaks.” Back in Mtskheta the king went to Nino, and on her advice the very next day he sent envoys to Greece, to the Emperor Constantine, and asked him to send priests for the baptism.
Before the priests sent from Constantinople arrived, King Mirian resolved to build a church in the royal garden. The carpenters made seven pillars of fir. Six were set up, but the seventh, the largest, could not be moved from its place. Saint Nino stood in prayer with her disciples. At dawn a youth clothed in light, “girded all about with fire”, came down from heaven, took hold of the pillar and raised it up. The pillar shone with divine light and stopped in the air at a height of twelve cubits. All Mtskheta came to venerate the pillar of light; as they approached it the sick were healed, the blind received their sight and the infirm rose up.
The raising of the Life-giving Pillar
Meanwhile the envoys returned from Constantinople. With them came Bishop John, priests and deacons. Saint Constantine the Great sent the king and people who had embraced the law of Christ a cross and an icon of the Saviour, a portion of the life-giving Cross — the footrest — and the nails of our Lord Jesus Christ. At the confluence of the Mtkvari and the Aragvi the king, the queen, the royal court and all Kartli were baptised. After the solemn baptism Bishop John and those with him went to Erusheti, built a church and left the Lord’s nails there; then they began to build a church at Manglisi and laid a portion of the life-giving Tree there.
King Mirian was troubled. He wished holy things to be laid up in the royal city too. Saint Nino told the king that a great holy thing, the Lord’s robe, was kept at Mtskheta. The king summoned the priest Abiathar, asked him about the robe and was filled with joy.
At Mtskheta, on the top of a rock, there stood a beautiful, fragrant, wonderworking tree. A dying beast wounded by an arrow was healed by its leaves. When Bishop John was told of this, he said: “Truly this tree has sprung up from God and been kept for that time, and now the grace of God has been poured out on Kartli, and from this tree it is fitting to make a precious cross, which all the multitude of Kartli shall worship.”
Rev, the son of King Mirian, with the bishop’s blessing and accompanied by the people, cut down the tree, carried it with its branches and set it up to the south of the church. For thirty-seven days the tree neither changed colour nor shed its leaves. Afterwards three crosses were made from this tree.
The raising of the precious Cross
After this, for many days the people saw one and the same vision: at night a fiery cross surrounded by stars stood over the church; at dawn two stars parted from the rest, one going to the east and the other to the west, while the fiery cross itself came to rest beyond the Aragvi, on the top of a rocky hill, and from there vanished into heaven. Because of this miracle, on Saint Nino’s advice, the king had one cross set up in the west, on Mount Tkhoti, another in the city of Ujarma, while for the third cross no place could be chosen.
King Mirian besought the Lord in prayer to show the place where the cross should be set up. God heard the prayer of the right-believing king and made known to him by the mouth of an angel that the cross should be set up beyond the Aragvi on the rocky hill.
When this precious cross was set up at Mtskheta, all the idols in Kartli were at once shattered.
Before his death the king blessed his son Bakar, charged him to be faithful to the Holy Trinity and to fight against the idols, and reposed in God. The holy, right-believing king was buried, at his own wish, in the upper church (the church of the convent of Samtavro). He did not wish to be buried in the lower church (Svetitskhoveli), which was called “the holy of holies”, because of the reverence and awe he had before the glorious pillar of light. Two years later Queen Nana too died and was buried in the same place, beside King Mirian.
