Her Excellency Tamar Beruchashvili, Ambassador of Georgia to Romania, offered an icon of Saint Nina, the enlightener of Georgia, to Bucharest’s Antim Monastery.
The Ambassador of Georgia was met on Monday by a delegation of the monastery led by Archim. Chiril Lovin, Ecclesiarch of the holy place.
The monastery fathers officiated petitions in front of the icon, the chanters sang the troparion of the saint and, in the end, a polychronion. Father Nicolae Ceruță served as a translator.
“I’m hugely honoured to be here today and for such a wonderful service and honour to the most venerated Saint Nina,” HE Tamar Beruchashvili said. “I wanted very much to bring part of a very special Georgian place here, in the monastery of St. Anthimus.”
“I was happy to learn the Romanian Orthodox Church also celebrates St. Nina, but we in Georgia celebrate her twice: once on the 27th of January, the day of the decease of the saint, and also on the 1st of June, when St. Nina came to Georgia to preach Christianity.”
The Ambassador of Georgia also spoke of the Georgian Cross: “This is made of wine branches that St. Nina put together with her hair. Today, one of the main churches in Georgia, Sioni, in Tbilisi, has the original cross of St. Nina, which it exhibits for 24 hours for all those who want to come and pay respect,” added Her Excellency.
Antim Monastery, special place to strengthen Romanian-Georgian ties
The icon was brought from Bodbe Monastery in eastern Georgia, where the saint reposed.
“This small icon is my very humble demonstration of the very special ties that our two Sister Orthodox Churches have because of great St. Anthims the Georgian,” Tamar Beruchashvili said.
“I’m extremely grateful for this beautiful service and to the choir who also sang in Georgian,” Her Excellency said. “Thank you very much for blessing me personally and all my collaborators.”
“I hope to further promote Romanian-Georgian ties, where this monastery and the name of the St. Anthimus the Georgian have a particular place, as Patriarch Daniel has told me once: that he was a son of Georgia and a father of Romania.”
Also connected by St Andrew’s preaching
“I would like to express the gratitude of our monastic community for the gift, which is full of meaning, because St Nina, as it is said in her troparion, was the successor of Holy Apostle Andrew,” Archim. Chiril Lovin said.
“And, through this liturgical text, we discover that St Andrew’s presence also unites us, because he preached, in the first century, in all the lands around the Black Sea, both East and West, both in Georgia and in today’s Romanian Dobrudja.”
“St Nina made Georgia Christian, practically completed St Andrew’s work. And she came from another country, from Cappadocia,” continued the archimandrite.
“By that, we can say her life resembles that of St Anthimus the Georgian, who came to us from another country, from Georgia, and completed St Andrew’s work in Romania through his archpastoral ministry, his sanctifying work, his preaching and spiritual guiding of the Romanian people.”
Antim Monastery, a spiritual „embassy”
“In the Antim Monastery, we have tried lately to promote the cult of St Nina and to read her Akathist on her feast day. We hope to cultivate other Georgian saints here over time,” added Archim. Chiril Lovin.
“In addition to Saint Nina were other Georgian women saints, like Holy Queen Shushanic, or Tamar the Great, your patron saint. We are trying to cultivate Georgian saints here, so that our monastery can be a sort of spiritual embassy of the Georgian Orthodox spirit in Romania.”
The archimandrite concluded by thanking again the official representative of the Georgian state for Her Excellency’s gift and the love shown to Antim Monastery.
„Thank you very much. And I hope we will have this opportunity to bring more Georgia here, which is truly an ecclesiastic ambassadorial place that showcases our closeness,” answered Ambassador Tamar Beruchashvili.
“As you very nicely said, on opposite sides of the Black Sea, Georgia and Romania have very strong ties and I will be honored and privileged to work for strenghtening these ties.”
Saint Nina is mentioned on January 14 in the Calendar of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
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Photo credit: Basilica.ro / Raluca Ene
