Feast of St. Nino: Apostle of Georgia

January 14 is the feast of St. Nino the Apostle of Georgia.
No, not that Georgia.

This Georgia-

I'll bet Georgians have an awful time with this one when they visit the US!

Georgia is a fascinating country. It has a long, mostly traumatic history of invasions and war, yet in the 300's (that's right, 4th Cent.) Georgia earned the distinction of being one of the first Christian nations in the whole world. This remarkably quick conversion is traditionally due to the amazing witness of one young lady, St. Nino. Hence she has been titled the Apostle (one who first brings the good news) of Georgia.

In the icon above, you can see that St. Nino has been depicted with all the traditional trappings of an evangelist (the Bible) and a saint (the halo). What makes her distinct from other saints is the cross she holds, which was made from a grapevine. Consequently, the crossbar of St. Nino's cross is always shown as bent downward on both ends.
St. Nino was supposedly taken as a slave into Georgia where she performed a miracle and won (as is typical) the respect of the Queen, who was her first major convert. The King (as usual) was harder to convince, but once he converted, he imposed conversion on his entire kingdom (so the story goes).
You'll notice, after looking at depictions of other famous ancient Georgians, the distinctive long, dark braids make St. Nino look particularly Georgian (see the picture below of Queen Tamar, Georgia's most powerful monarch).

Over the years these beautiful Georgian braids have grown to unrealistic lengths. Online I've seen a whole troop of Georgian dancers with equally sized (can anyone get braids this skinny? I can't!) three foot long braids. I say to myself, "They must be hair pieces!" but I have no idea really. Maybe most Georgian ladies are blessed with perfectly braid-able hair?

 

As you can probably guess from the amount of time I'm spending talking about braids, Georgian culture, with its familiarity with all things medieval, has me enthralled. It all started with one video.

It is really a must-see in my opinion.

So, I figure, since St. Nino's life is mostly shrouded in mystery, and because I can't find if native Georgians do anything special on St. Nino's day, it's a perfect day to learn about Georgian culture, specifically two amazing looking traditional Georgian foods:

Georgian cheese bread or Khachapuri

 Georgian meat dumplings or Khinkali (Note from wikipedia, you're not supposed to eat the pleated top because it's quite tough.)

I love cheese bread and meat dumplings. I was not shocked that these were two of the most popular national dishes. Personally, I think this cuisine is the perfect meeting of oriental and occidental foods. It's like a Chinese-Italian smoosh with some great Middle Eastern flavors (pomegranate anyone?) thrown in.

Georgian national dress and dance are both magical. Samaia is a dance that honors the memory of the great Queen Tamar. I've read different interpretations of why there are three girls that represent the one queen (her overwhelming power?), but I'm convinced the hands are held in such a way because they are mimicking the poses shown in medieval frescoes.

I'm having trouble finding much upbeat Georgian music in iTunes. Most of the authentically Georgian music that is available for purchase over here in the West are slower polyphonic ballads. If you love Greek and Russian Orthodox chanting, you'll love Georgian traditional music.

This a culture worth celebrating in my opinion. Thank God for St. Nino and her humble mission!

P.S. I would ignore Wikipedia's insistence that Catholics celebrate this feast on Jan. 15. I find other sources to be more trustworthy in these matters.

Low budget plans for the Feast of St. Cecilia

Even though I'd like to say we're doing something traditionally Roman for the feast of the martyr Cecilia, the menu developed more from a desire to save money than anything else.


Meatloaf (with no eggs) topped with sauerbraten sauce
Onion and leek soup
Carrots
Garlic bread

St. Cecilia, ora pro nobis!

All Saints is fast approaching!

Where has the time gone? It's almost November 1st the feast of All Saints!

As a side note, I've found the popular story as to why Halloween is on Oct. 31st to be a bit misleading. Halloween is the eve of All Hallows (All Saints) Day. It's placement in the calendar is just so because it is (used to be) the vigil fast before one of the most important feast days.

So, the real question is, why is All Saints on November 1st? Pope Gregory III dedicated an oratory in the original St. Peter's Basilica to All Saints on November 1st in the mid 700's. So, as to the argument that ancient Celtic peoples celebrated this day as the day of the dead and therefore All Saints was placed there to help Christianize them doesn't hold water. 

1. Ireland began to be Christianized in the mid 400's thanks to Palladius and St. Patrick.
2. In the 400's the universal church (East and West) was celebrating All Saints on May 13.
3. By the 600's Ireland was sending missionaries out to convert other people (probably safe to guess that most of Ireland is fully converted).
4. Mid 700's Pope Gregory III, of Syrian extraction, dedicates the oratory to All Saints on Nov. 1st. Was he thinking about pagan Celtic tradition? I don't think so. The Irish didn't need accommodations for ancient pagan beliefs. They had already been celebrating All Saints on May 13 with no issues in Ireland for hundreds of years.
5. Even though the saints are dead, both Christian theology and popular understanding see the saints as alive in heaven, able to enjoy the company of God, Jesus and the other saints. Would that be the day of the dead or day of the living?
(For more details see: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0199.html)


I love Medieval art depicting groups of Virgin Martyrs. The way the artists incorporate the symbolism is like a new discovery to me. The best type of paintings in this category (in my opinion) are the Virgo inter Virgines "Virgin among the Virgins." Unfortunately, there has only been one thorough, scholarly study of these types of paintings, a dissertation by Stanley Edward Weed in 2002. You can find an abstract of the article online, but you have to pay/belong to a research library to read the real dissertation.

However, I can show you the few Virgo inter Virgines paintings I could find.

This is by the Master of the St. Lucy Legend (an anonymous artist known by his most famous work of art). L-R- St. Apollonia (holding her tooth in a pair of tongs), St. Ursula (a very tiny piece of arrow sticking out from under her skirt), St. Lucy holding her eyes on a plate, an unidentified saint with a bell and a crown, St. Catherine of Alexandria (her wheel decorates her dress), St. Mary Magdalene (holding nard perfume), St. Barbara (her cloak decorated with her symbol, the tower), St. Margaret (holding a cross, and St. George slaying the dragon in the distance behind her), St. Agnes (identified by her lamb),  St. Agatha (holding her breast in a pair of tongs), St. Cunera (a companion of St. Ursula, holding a crib, and an arrow).

The unidentified saint drives me crazy! I wish I could figure out who it is. Maybe it was meant to be St. Gudule holding a lantern?

This is Gerard David's masterpiece, and my favorite of the whole genre. I searched high and low for the identities of a few of the saints who are very small or who seemed to have no identifying marks. I finally found a French website that listed their names. I haven't been able to corroborate the names with another site, so take this for what it's worth.
L-R- St. Dorothy, recognized by her basket, (man above her is the donor), St. Catherine of Alexandria (crown), St. Agnes (lamb), unidentified saint, St. Fausta (holding a saw, instrument of her martyrdom), Mary and baby Jesus, St. Apollonia (holding her tooth), St. Godelieve (wearing the scarf that was the instrument of her martyrdom),  St. Cecilia (looking at her musical instrument), St. Barbara (a tiny, tiny tower on her cap), donor's wife, St. Lucy (holding a ring).

I wonder if the unidentified saint is really the daughter of the donor. She only has her face to identify her.

Happy All Saints and All Saint's Eve!