Saint Nino

Saint Nino (c. 280–c. 332) was a Cappadocian woman who brought Christianity to Iberia, or Kartli. Fleeing Diocletian's persecution, she alone of her company escaped death in Armenia and reached Kartli. Tradition holds that the Virgin Mary gave her a grapevine cross and sent her to preach.

Nino healed and converted Queen Nana, then King Mirian III, after which Christianity became Iberia's state religion. She died at Bodbe in Kakheti, and the grapevine cross became the symbol of Georgian Christianity.