Georgia began to be Christianized in the 4th century. According to the Church History of Rufinus of Aquileia, the people of Georgia were drawn to the Gospel of Jesus Christ during the reign of the Emperor Constantine through the example of a woman named Nino, who was brought there as a captive from Cappadocia and sold as a slave.

The Georgian Prince Bakurius, from whom Rufinus heard the story, said that the captive woman first aroused the attention of the people through her piety and virtue. When asked, she replied that her way of life was an act of worship to Christ her God. Later, the mother of a young girl who had taken ill brought her to the captive woman, after having sought a remedy for her daughter’s illness from all her other neighbors. Through the prayers of Nino, the little girl was healed.

The news of this miracle drew the attention of the queen, who was herself suffering from a grave illness. The queen was carried to captive woman’s cell and, through her prayers, she was likewise restored to health. At the queen’s request, Nino told her of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, and when the queen expressed a desire to be baptized, the captive woman performed the sacrament herself.

After her conversion, the queen sought to convert her husband, but the king resisted. Later, while hunting, the king lost his way in the forest and a great darkness fell upon him, so that he could not see. Then the king remembered what he had heard about the captive woman’s God and vowed to worship that God alone if he would save him. Immediately a light broke through the darkness and revealed the path home. The king then summoned Nino and was instructed in the Gospel by her. A magnificent church was erected and, at Nino’s request, an envoy was sent to the emperor to request that priests be sent to Georgia to administer the Eucharist and to catechize the people.

Nino is known in the Orthodox tradition as Equal to the Apostles and Enlightener of Georgia. While many of the historical details remain sketchy, Georgia is highly unusual in its claim to have been evangelized by a female slave rather than by a famous apostle and evangelist, and the rough outlines of this tradition are therefore taken seriously by historians.

Nino’s tomb in believed to be in the Bodbe Monastery, which is one of the major pilgrimage sites in Georgia. The Georgian church also uses a distinctive cross with drooping arms as a symbol of the cross that Nino is believed to have created to explain the gospel, by twisting a grapevine and tying it together with a strand of her hair.