Ninooba — Day of the Coming of the Baptist of Georgia (01/06)

Ninooba — Day of the coming of the Baptist of Georgia, Saint Equal-to-the-Apostles Nino.

In Georgia, this holiday is celebrated on June 1, and the next day, June 2, her parents are remembered — Saints Zebulun and Sosanna. Georgia also celebrates the Day of the Blessed Death of St. Nino — on January 27.

Tradition says that Saint Nino lived in Jerusalem at the end of the 3rd — early 4th centuries. In a dream, the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared to her, presented her with a cross made of grape branches and blessed the pagans of Iveria for enlightenment. In 319, Saint Nino arrived in Georgia, beginning an ascetic life and carrying the word of God. In 327, Christianity was declared the state religion of Georgia.

In Tbilisi, in the Zion Cathedral of the Assumption of the Mother of God, a cross made of grapevine, entwined with the hair of St. Nino, is still kept.

In all churches, dioceses offer prayers on this day to Saint Nino, especially revered in Georgia by the Orthodox.

According to tradition, on Ninooba Day, a large group of children, teenagers and youth, under the protection and accompaniment of clergy, begins a pilgrimage in the footsteps of the Equal-to-the-Apostles educator of Georgia. This procession lasts almost a month and a half and fully corresponds to the route of St. Nino after her arrival in Georgia.

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