Nana ( ka, ნანა) was a Queen consort of the

Kingdom of Iberia In Greco-Roman geography, Iberia (Ancient Greek: ''Iberia''; la, Hiberia) was an exonym for the Georgian kingdom of Kartli ( ka, ქართლი), known after its core province, which during Classical Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages ...

as the second wife of

Mirian III Mirian III ( ka, მირიან III) was a king of Iberia or Kartli (Georgia), contemporaneous to the Roman emperor Constantine the Great ( r. 306–337). He was the founder of the royal Chosroid dynasty. According to the early medieval Geo ...

in the 4th century. For her role in the conversion of Georgians to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

she is regarded by the

Georgian Orthodox Church The Apostolic Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Georgia ( ka, საქართველოს სამოციქულო ავტოკეფალური მართლმადიდებელი ეკლესია, tr), commonly ...

as saint and is

canonized Canonization is the declaration of a deceased person as an officially recognized saint, specifically, the official act of a Christian communion declaring a person worthy of public veneration and entering their name in the canon catalogue of s ...

as Saint

Equal to the Apostles Equal-to-apostles or equal-to-the-apostles (; la, aequalis apostolis; ar, معادل الرسل, ''muʿādil ar-rusul''; ka, მოციქულთასწორი, tr; ro, întocmai cu Apostolii; russian: равноапостольный, ...

Queen Nana ( ka, წმინდა მოციქულთასწორი დედოფალი ნანა, tr). Lang, David Marshall (1956), ''Lives and legends of the Georgian saints'', pp. 13-39. London: Allen & UnwinMachitadze, Archpriest Zakaria (2006)
"The Feast of the Robe of our Lord, the Myrrh-streaming and Life-giving Pillar, Equals-to-the-Apostles King Mirian and Queen Nana, and Saints Sidonia and Abiatar (4th century)"
, i
''The Lives of the Georgian Saints''
. ''Pravoslavie.Ru''. Retrieved on April 17, 2009.

Family

According to the Georgian chronicles, Nana was "from a Greek territory, from

Pontus Pontus or Pontos may refer to: * Short Latin name for the Pontus Euxinus, the Greek name for the Black Sea (aka the Euxine sea) * Pontus (mythology), a sea god in Greek mythology * Pontus (region), on the southern coast of the Black Sea, in modern ...

, the daughter of Oligotos"Thomson, Robert W. (1996), ''Rewriting Caucasian History'', p. 112.

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, whom Mirian married after his first wife died (in 292 according to

Cyril Toumanoff Cyril Leo Toumanoff (russian: Кирилл Львович Туманов; 13 October 1913 – 4 February 1997) was a Russian-born Georgian historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, ...

). Nana bore Mirian two sons: Rev II, Varaz-Bakur and a daughter who married Peroz, the first Mihranid dynast of

Gugark Gugark ( hy, Գուգարք, lat, Gogarene, Greek: ''Γογαρινή'') was the 13th province of the ancient kingdom of Armenia. It now comprises parts of northern Armenia, northeast Turkey, and southwest Georgia. Etymology Etymologically ...

. Pontus here may refer to the

Bosporan Kingdom The Bosporan Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus (, ''Vasíleio toú Kimmerikoú Vospórou''), was an ancient Greco-Scythian state located in eastern Crimea and the Taman Peninsula on the shores of the Cimmerian Bosporus, ...

, then a

client state A client state, in international relations, is a state that is economically, politically, and/or militarily subordinate to another more powerful state (called the "controlling state"). A client state may variously be described as satellite state, ...

of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post- Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediter ...

. Toumanoff has assumed that the name of Nana's father might have been a Georgian corruption of "Olympius" or "Olympus", a Bosporan dynast whose son Aurelius Valerius Sogus Olympianus, a Roman governor of Theodosia, is known from a Greek inscription of 306 dedicated to "the Most High God" on the occasion of the building of the Jewish "prayer house". Alternatively,

Christian Settipani Christian Settipani (born 31 January 1961) is a French genealogist, historian and IT professional, currently working as the Technical Director of a company in Paris. Biography Settipani holds a Master of Advanced Studies from the Paris-Sorbo ...

identifies Nana as a younger daughter of Theothorses, a Bosporan king.

Conversion

The medieval Georgian sources relate that Nana had been a staunch pagan and despised Christian preaching until she was miraculously cured of a terrible disease, and subsequently converted, by a

Cappadocia Cappadocia or Capadocia (; tr, Kapadokya), is a historical region in Central Anatolia, Turkey. It largely is in the provinces Nevşehir, Kayseri, Aksaray, Kırşehir, Sivas and Niğde. According to Herodotus, in the time of the Ionian Re ...

n Christian missionary, Nino. The Roman scholar

Tyrannius Rufinus Tyrannius Rufinus, also called Rufinus of Aquileia (''Rufinus Aquileiensis'') or Rufinus of Concordia (344/345–411), anglicized as Tyrann Rufine, was a monk, historian, and theologian. He is best known as a translator of Greek patristic materi ...

, writing his history half a century after the Iberian conversion on the basis of the oral account of

Bacurius the Iberian Bacurius ( ka, ბაკურ იბერიელი) was a Roman general and a member of the royal family of Iberia (modern Georgia) mentioned by several Greco-Roman authors of the 4th and 5th centuries. It is accepted, but not universally, tha ...

, also mentions an unnamed queen of the Iberians who was cured by a woman, a Christian ''captiva''.Amidon, Philip R. (1997), ''The church history of Rufinus of Aquileia, books 10 and 11'', p. 48. Oxford University Press, Through Nino's ministry, King Mirian was also converted around 337 and Christianity became an official religion in Iberia. Nana outlived her husband by two years and died, according to Toumanoff's chronology, in 363. She was

by the Georgian church. Nana and Mirian are traditionally considered to have been buried at the Samtavro convent in Mtskheta, where their tombs are still shown.

References

{{authority control Queens consort from Georgia (country) Saints of Georgia (country) 4th-century Christian saints 3rd-century women 4th-century women Ancient queens consort People of the Bosporan Kingdom Late Ancient Christian female saints