“My dear and only child, I leave thee an orphan, and recommend thee to our Heavenly Father, God, who nourishes all live beings, because He is the father of orphans and the Judge of widows. Fear nothing, my daughter, but try to imitate Mary Magdalen and the sisters of Lazarus in their love to God. If thou lovest Him as much as they did, He will also refuse nothing to thee.” Having embraced her once more, he crossed the Jordan and started to preach the teachings of God among wild nations, where the only God, creator of all beings, knew that the time was ripe. Sossanna, on the other hand, by order of the patriarch, looked after the poor women, but was put in the service of Niapkhora, an Armenian woman from Doroim.
She stayed two years at her house, learning the laws of God, because at that time there was nobody in all Jerusalem so well acquainted with the Old and New Confession and who had such a broad and enlightened mind. Niapkhora was honorable and truthful and imitated Abraham in hospitality. Her house was always open to all pilgrims coming to pray at the Tomb of the Lord. More than once she happened to receive Christians who had been Jews and had inhabited Georgia. From them Nina heard a story how, at the time of the Babylonian captivity, some Jews had settled down at Mtzkhet and how they yearly sent some of their people to the Easter celebrations at Jerusalem. They also told her that in the second year of Aderka’s reign in Georgia, they found out about the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ through these very messengers. Within thirty years at Mtzkhet delegates arrived from the preosviashtchennik (clerical title) Anna with the following news:
“He to whom the wise men brought presents is now grown up and teaches us a new faith; thereupon we are sending word to the Jews in order to find among them teachers of the law and to tell them: ‘Come ye all, who uphold the law of Moses and clear up our perplexity! Let all those acquainted with law immediately leave the foreign lands and hasten with all possible speed to the fatherland, in order to confirm and guard the faith of our forefathers, carry out the laws of Moses, save the common folk from being dazzled by the new teaching, and furthermore, put the guilty one to death.’ Elios, a man who was no longer young, of the tribe of the Levites, decided to go to Jerusalem, leaving his mother, a descendant of the high priest Ilia, to the care of his sister Sidonia, because the old woman herself said:
“‘Go, my beloved son, whither the Lord and his holy law call thee, but mind my remarks: thou as a man well instructed in law shouldst not allow them to have a godless intention. I beg thee—do not have a hand in spilling the blood of this man. Thou knowest that this is the carrying out of the ancient prophecies, believe this one with all thy heart as I believe in him!’”
Together with Elios went a young Hebrew, Longinos, a warrior from Karssan, and they reached Jerusalem just at the time of the crucifixion of our Lord, as they arrived on a Friday.
When they drew lots, a Greek tunic fell to the share of Elios, but Longinos received the garment of the Lord, which he carried back to Kontais (this garment used to hang in the centre of the church in a crystal vessel up to the time of Shah Abass, who sent it away to Russia). When they began to crucify our Lord, by chance the sound of the hammer and nails came to the mother of Elios, and she exclaimed:
“Good-bye, kingdom of Israel! Unhappy ones—you are lost forevermore! By your craziness you kill your Vladyka and the Saviour of the world, and thus you become the wilful murderers of your Creator! Woe ye unhappy ones! There is no lamentation equal to your distress! Woe to me, because my ears have heard these mournful sounds!” and with these words she gave up her soul to God. When, however, Elios returned to Mtzkhet bringing the robe, Sidonia came out to meet him, and crying and weeping threw herself in his arms to tell him of her mother’s death; and lo! she came to glance at the robe. She recognized it as having belonged to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the thought that her brother had helped along his death filled her heart with indescribable sorrow. Having placed on her breast the invaluable holy relic, she died.
The news of her death spread all over Mtzkhet and reached the Tsar, who wished to see the dead woman. Coming to her body he was struck by the beauty of the robe, giving out a heavenly glow, and he wanted to put it on, but no power under the sun could tear the relic out of the arms of the deceased. Elios buried his sister together with the robe, and thus saved it from further attempts of the unbelieving.
These tales made a strong impression on Nina’s soul, she often and long reflected how she might seek out the place where the robe was, and tried to obtain information from her governess. “My child,” said Niapkhora, “I see that by thy strength thou are equal to a lioness, whose roar hushes up the growling of all quadrupeds. Thy capacity for penetration puts thee on a footing with the female eagle, who by her flying exceeds the male eagles and with her little eyes sees all creation; having beheld the booty she inspects it with her piercing glances, just as the fire experiments with the gold, and makes for it with spread-out wings. Such will be thy life. Thy voice will be heard all over the world and thy booty is to enrich God. Now I will explain it all to thee. Thou knowest that the immortal God had compassion for the mortal inhabitants of this world and came to earth in order to assemble around him the nations and save the whole world. His first good deeds were applied to the Hebrews, among whom he made the dead arise, made the blind see, and healed the sick. Astounded, they sent out messengers all over the world in order that the Hebrews might most rapidly assemble at a great council.
“‘We are perishing,’ exclaimed the messengers, ‘hurry, gather ye all!’