She lived in Cappadocia, a province of the Roman Empire in present-day central Turkey.
He had been a member of the Hypsistarians, a Jewish-pagan sect that worshipped Hypsistos, the "Most High" God.
[2] Her son Gregory tells of an occasion in 351 when Nonna fell sick with a severe illness and appeared to be at the point of death.
On his way to visit a friend, Gregory hurried instead to his mother who, in the meantime, had begun to recover.
She had a vision in which Gregory had given her miraculous cakes marked with the sign of the cross, and blessed by him.