Susanna of Cappadocia

Holy Venerable Susanna of Cappadocia was, with her husband Zebulon, the mother of Saint Nino, the enlightener of Georgia, and she laboured in Jerusalem in the care of the poor and of sick women.

Zebulon and Susanna (third to early fourth century) are the venerable Cappadocians, the parents of Saint Nino, Equal-⁠to-⁠the-⁠Apostles. Zebulon came of a noble Christian family of Cappadocia (the city of Colastra), the homeland of the Great Martyr George, and reached "the Roman emperor" as one of the Roman commanders at the time when George was tormented for Christ. He took part in a campaign against the "Brandzhi" who threatened Rome (by one version, Franks). In the battle "on the field of Pitalan", which V. I. Goiladze identifies with the battle between Romans and Gauls on the Catalaunian Fields in 273, Zebulon took prisoner the king of the Brandzhi and his nobles. The emperor ordered them executed, but the Brandzhi begged Zebulon to allow them to receive his faith before then. The saint interceded with the emperor and the bishop of Rome, and the prisoners, whose godfather Zebulon became, were baptized. The next day they put on burial garments and set out for the place of execution singing prayers. At Zebulon's request the emperor pardoned the Brandzhi and let them go with gifts, but they asked the emperor and Zebulon to go with them to their land to give them the faith of Christ and baptize all their people with water. At "the great river Gdamara" the imperial retinue was met by people of ten principalities; the king divided the people in two along the banks, the priests blessed the water and baptized the people, and Zebulon "laid his hands on all for ten days"; in the tents pitched there the priests served the Liturgy and communed the people. Having ordered all the affairs of Christianity and blessed them, the saint returned to Rome with great gifts.

Zebulon went to Jerusalem to distribute to the poor everything he had gained, and there he grew close to Archbishop Juvenal of Jerusalem and his sister Susanna, also Cappadocians. Susanna and Archbishop Juvenal had gone to Jerusalem after the death of their parents, putting their hope in the Church of the Resurrection, the hope of all Christians; Juvenal received the office of deuterarius, and Susanna served Sarah of Bethlehem. After their marriage Zebulon and Susanna went to Cappadocia, where Saint Nino was born. The mother raised her daughter "under her roof, in unceasing service to the poor day and night". When the girl was twelve, the parents moved again to Jerusalem, where they gave to the poor the savings from the sale of their property. With the blessing of the archbishop of Jerusalem, Zebulon took leave of his wife, set his daughter on the path of service to God and went to the hermits. Susanna and Saint Nino stayed in Jerusalem, caring for the poor and sick women.

The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church numbered them among the saints on 23 December 1996, and the Holy Synod of the Russian Church entered them in the diptychs on 17 April 1997. Susanna is commemorated on 2 June, in the new style, with Zebulon.