Hagiographical texts edited by S. Qubaneishvili

It is necessary for us to recall the thirteenth true apostle among the twelve, our mother of the Georgians, Nino, so that we may present briefly and in a very condensed manner how she became the cause of the firmness of these churches of the East of the Kartvelians and the revealer of that woman, blessed in memory, and the deliverer of our souls from the slavery and captivity of Samael. But first it is to be sought why God sent and dispatched a woman to us. Hear this wisely, if God wills to make us understand, He who makes the foolish wise. For it is said, as you know, truly and indisputably, that after the passion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and His resurrection and ascension into heaven, by the command of the Lord, the apostles were sent to the ends of the earth, chosen as arrows and as lightning of light, each to a particular place, as the Spirit gave.

At that time, the all-blessed and most-holy Mother of God herself was desirous and zealous to go forth to preach the divinity of her Son, and with heartfelt longing she was eager to set out from those eastern regions for the sake of the spread of her name, even as she herself is called the East of the Sun of Righteousness. But while she was thus prepared with these intentions and was praying, by the intercession of her Son and God, he restrained her from this desire at that time. However, since she was a woman all-blessed and holy, superior even to women and men and the heavenly powers, for this reason also in later times, when God willed mercy and salvation for our nation, he sent forth a woman as well, as I think, by the request and intercession of the Mother of God together with her Son, inasmuch as she was also a part of the Mother of God; therefore this is all the more a matter for contemplation and is beyond doubt, and this is the one true and undoubted cause.

The second and truest reason is this: since among all nations these were the most savage and most wild, for this reason a woman was sent forth, so that the power of her divinity might be made more manifest, and so that no one’s tongue might be emboldened to speak vainly of idle fabrication, as if boldness and philosophical wisdom, or the rhetorical eloquence of some man, had quelled their evil savagery. For this reason, then, with that gentle and softly flowing water of the opponents, so that the word of the Lord spoken concerning the Apostle might also be verified here, that “my power is made perfect in weakness.” And this is truest by this, as we know, that the power of her divinity was always made manifest over the weak. For this reason she chose and brought forth unlearned fishermen and humble men, and through them, like fiery lightning-bearing arrows, she shot at the faces of the wise and philosophers and became a tormentor of the hearts of rhetoricians, for the good God does not delight in the vessels of men, but in those who fear his name, as it is said: “To whom shall I look, but to the quiet and humble and to him who trembles at my words.

And again: "The heart that is crushed and humbled is a sacrifice to God; let not God despise it." And again, of old, that of the Israelites at the time of Gideon is worthy of mention, when by command from above, for the sake of the many, he ordered the taking of only three hundred warriors, and through that small and weak people alone he revealed and made known the power of his divinity; for this reason also, through the weak nature of a woman, the stubbornness of those merciless and savage nations was softened, and not further. But here our word, which through inquiry reveals the truth, stops only thus far, for the mention is concerning a woman. I consider, however, another inquiry concerning the worthiness of women of honor to be more true; for at the glorious resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, women were deemed worthy of the great honor of the Annunciation.

Therefore, let us turn our face away from the evil and vainly belittling preaching and conversion of our nature by the maternal instinct, but rather let us rejoice and dwell all the more with those who are our comforters against the instigators of folly. However, since by necessity I have brought along with us, in accordance with the time, a brief recollection to manifest the word of the blessed woman, from now on it is time to express by deed that example and to make known to you some part of the truth, according to the measure of our weakness, O beloved ones! ...