[ July, 2018 ] In Mtskheta, the ancient city in Georgia, we went to the nunnery where the Samtavro Church is.
King Mirian and his wife, Nana, who established this country as a Christian country, are buried in this church.
Photography was not allowed inside the church, except in one corner where we could take just one shot.
This
is the area of the grave of the bishop from the 1980s.
This bishop was arrested and imprisoned because he burned some portraits of Lenin and some other portraits.
When they took him away, he declared “I am coming back soon”.
As he said, he was released after only one year, but from that moment on, he did not speak at all.
Without speaking, he kept performing some miracles, such as healing diseases.
So, even now, many people come and visit his grave.
Unfortunately, I cannot remember his name.
Georgian names are so complicated and it is very difficult for me to remember them …
In this nunnery, currently there are about 20 nuns living here.
Within the site, apart from the Samtavro Church, there was an old bell tower, the nuns’ graves and the chapel where Saint Nino used to live.
Saint Nino is the woman who brought Christianity to this country.
The legend says that Saint Nino lived in a place just next to the blackberry bush and the blackberry bush is still there today.
Next, we visited Svetitskhoveli Cathedral (as you can see, the name is very complicated), which apparently is very important for Georgian people.
In
this church, they keep a part of Christ’s robe when he was crucified.
We went in to see it, but they were holding an important Mass and it was full of people.
Our guide, Ana, found out that it was the celebration day of the Patron Saint of this cathedral and even an archbishop was coming.
So we had to get out without seeing anything.
Ana said “But we cannot miss this cathedral” and we decided that we would visit here the next day.
Because the singing during the Mass was so beautiful, we went to buy a CD at the cathedral shop.
Around this cathedral, there were many stands selling souvenirs and Ana told us that if we wanted to buy something, this was the best place.
So we looked at things here.
There is a particular craft in Georgia, which is the intricate work of enamel and silver.
It was very popular between the 10th and 12th centuries, but forgotten after that.
People rediscovered this craft in the last century and now it is one of the main souvenirs in this country.
I bought one ring for my memory.
Also we were attracted to the cups made of sheep horns, which are actually used now for the toast in some celebratory occasions.
However, none of the stalls had a secure box, so we had to give up.
