Losing their breath and feeling choked, the Tsar ran away and the sacrificers and the nation too, but the orcano turned into a perfect rain of stones—not allowing even half of those fleeing to seek shelter. Stones of such a size poured down that not every grown up man could raise them with both arms, and they continued to ransack the temple and idols, until all had been turned to ashes and dust.
The heathens fled in terror; this mountain, such a short time before so crowded with people, had now been totally cleared of men and upon it sat only Nina, who was not at all terrified by the fearful spectacle. She saw in this a new proof of the all mightiness of her own God, and under his powerful protection she quietly lay down and peacefully fell asleep on a huge block of stone.
The next day, by the order of the Tsar, one of the noblemen went to inspect the scene of the disaster of the preceding day. He beheld Saint Nina, concluded by her dress that she was a traveller from some distant land, and with customary Georgian hospitality, invited her to stop at his home. But his offer was by no means accepted by the Saint. She continued her journey along the banks of the river and finding on the road an eye of one of the gods, she took it along with her. Upon reaching the junction of the Koura and Aragva, where formerly there stood a town and a fortress, she resolved to take a rest and pass the night at that point of the cape, where till then there still remained the ruins of the church of Favora.
At that time beautiful, well-shaped, high birches grew there, with magnificent shady branches. They were planted by Tsar Bartom, who often rested in their shade; this custom was long observed by the nobility and well-known men and almost every sunny day some one from the aristocracy passed the day under the branches of the birches. On one of these trees Saint Nina painted a cross and lived under it in constant prayer till the twelfth of August. On that day came to refresh herself with the coolness of the famous trees, the lady of the royal court Krokhana with her servant, a Greek woman. The latter by the order of her mistress asked the Saint who she was, what she was undertaking, and whether she did not need something. The Saint said that she was “Tevee,” i. e., a prisoner of war (which does not mean that she was a servant, as some writers out of pure ignorance expressed themselves in describing her life) and did not tell of her real extraction. Krokhana immediately invited her to follow her to the palace, but the Saint refused even this invitation.
Within three days, i. e., on the day of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, she crossed the Mtkovar and entered the royal fruit gardens. Near the place where now stands the church of the Katholikoss (Patriarch) and a pillar erected by God, there lived in those times a guardian, whose wife Anastasia hastened to come out to meet the stranger. She embraced her like an old and dear friend, kissed her, washed off her dusty feet, rubbed her exhausted body with strengthening fragrant butter and having offered her bread and wine, asked her to take a rest and to recover after the long, long journey. Here the Saint remained nine months, frequently visiting Ourbishi, where some Hebrews lived, in the hope of finding out something more about the Lord’s robe; and indeed the Lord blessed her attempts. She made the acquaintance of Abiatkar, the descendant of Elios, whom she quickly converted to Christianity together with all his family. “When she arrived,” said Abiatkar in his tale, remembered in Georgian History, “I received a letter from Jewish priests in Antiochia, in which they expressed themselves thus”:
“The Lord divided the kingdom of Israel into three parts, which were owned by the Romans, Armenians, and Barbarians. There will be no more prophets; all that he told us through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost was fulfilled, we are scattered all over the world and our fatherland is occupied by the Romans. O Jews! let us now weep with our nation, for we offended God, the Creator of all beings.”
Looking over now the books in which Moses teaches us: “each one who on earth calls himself God shall be put to death!” Why is it possible then that we sinned in killing Jesus of Nazareth? We actually see that in ancient times, when our forefathers sinned before God and forgot Him, He lowered them to servitude and made them experience all the horrors of captivity; but when they turned again to Him and invoked Him, He saved them from need. From the scriptures we know that this happened seven times in ancient history. Now, then, when our fathers put their hands on the son of a poor woman, God deprived us of his mercifulness and support and lo! our government fell to pieces, we were separated from our temples and our nationality was forgotten. That was about three hundred years ago. The Lord does not hear our prayers and does not send us help, from which we conclude that perhaps this man was sent by God. Thus did they write me several times and aroused doubts in my soul, to explain which, I applied to Saint Nina. I asked her who was Jesus and why the Son of God became a simple man.
Then Saint Nina opened her mouth and from it flowed out words of life as abundantly as the waves in the depth of the sea. From her very mouth I found out everything contained by the Christian books, and she explained to me their profound meaning. I felt like a man aroused from sleep, like a madman coming back to his senses. She filled my heart with pity for our forefathers, made me convince myself in the truths of the New Testament, and from her words I indeed recognized in him Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified, resurrected, and having come with glory; nay, I understood that He was the one who had been promised to those believing. I saw many other wonders yet, accomplished by Saint Nina at Mtzkhet in my time, and together with my daughter Sidonia was converted and received the Holy Baptism, being cleansed of all wickedness. I received that which the prophet David had vainly wished: I heard a choir of voices glorifying the New Testament, the object of his sighing; and we were favored with the permission to partake of the Holy Communion, of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb that perished for the sins of the world, the best and most compound of victuals. O Lord, strengthen this faith in my heart to my last breath! All that I shall after this relate, I myself heard, with my own ears from my mother, my father, or read in books, recording the words spoken by our ancestors.”
After this follows the story already known to us about the robe. On the tomb of Sidonia under a huge cedar grew up a fragrant bush loaded down by a numberless quantity of flowers and leaves, and from its branches a whole bush was formed, under which Saint Nina let herself down, not knowing how near she was to the aim of her desires. All nights she passed here in prayer, and lo! in one of these sleepless nights of prayer a shining man appeared to her and, pointing to the fragrant bush, ordered her to take up some earth under it to use for healing the sick. The next morning as usual Anastasia came to her, offering her wine, bread, fruits, and cheese. Having noticed that her eyes were filled with tears, Nina asked her the cause, and so found out that both she and her husband were deeply grieved by the fact that they had no children and attributed this misfortune to Anastasia’s illness. The Saint immediately applied holy earth and Anastasia was cured.
Let us now return to Abiatkar’s tale. During that period Saint Nina saw one and the same dream three or four times in those few minutes in which she used to rest. A horde of blackbirds bathed itself in the river, came out of the water whiter than snow, and rushed towards a peach tree actually growing near her bush. In the apparition it appeared covered with wonderful buds and flowers. With great haste the birds gathered and all rivalled one another in bringing them to the Saint as to the owner of the garden; afterwards united around her in a circle and sang most marvellously.