Venerable Sabiana, Abbess of the Convent in Samtskhe

Georgia has long been known for the holiness of its women. The women who laboured in the convents of Georgia were marked by wonderful zeal: unceasing prayer, fasting, handiwork and the upbringing of orphans were their chief duties. The holiness and wisdom of the nuns were held in regard, and even kings and queens bowed their heads before them.

Well-known members of the Georgian princely and noble families gave their children to the hermit mothers to be brought up. According to George the Minor, when the parents of George the Athonite resolved to offer their firstborn child, Thekla, to God, to have her brought up as a nun, they brought her to Saint Sabiana, a “worthy and holy” woman, who at that time was abbess of the convent of Tadzrisi in Samtskhe. Saint Sabiana “received her as her own child and brought her up well”.

Afterwards the seven-year-old George the Athonite too was brought to this convent. For three years he was brought up by “that worthy woman, his sister”, a godly woman whom Saint Sabiana had brought up well.

We have no other information about Saint Sabiana. “The tree is known by his fruit” (Matthew 12:33). Saint Sabiana’s labour is made plain in the life of the convent while she was its abbess, and in those she brought up.