Tbilisi, September 26, 2024
sazu.ge
Given her importance in Georgian history and culture today, the coming year should be dedicated to the martyred Queen St. Ketevan, says His Holiness Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II.
The Georgian primate issued a statement on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the saint’s martyrdom, which is celebrated today, extolling her holy life and her refusal to abandon her Christian faith, which led to her death by order of the Persian Shah in 1624.
The Patriarch’s statement reads:
This year, on September 26, marks 400 years since Queen Ketevan’s martyrdom. Georgia is distinguished by the multitude of holy kings and queens, among whom Queen Ketevan the Great Martyr holds a special place. In the history of the global Orthodox Church, such a martyred Christian queen is extremely rare. Her life was full of trials from an early age, which became even more severe later. However, the most painful was still Shah Abbas’ categorical demand for Queen Ketevan to abandon her faith and the martyrdom of her grandchildren; but neither family tragedy nor the threat of death by terrible torture could shake the queen’s love for the Lord and her homeland.
The queen’s torture took place publicly in Shiraz, Persia. The news of her punishment spread widely; eyewitness Catholic monks informed India and European countries of the unspeakably terrible punishment and the amazing example of self-sacrifice for Christ, based on which many works were later created.
All of Georgia, especially our youth, should be well aware of the greatness of St. Queen Ketevan’s personality and her merits before God and the homeland. Therefore, the whole year should be dedicated to her, and various events should be planned.
Today, many children, young people, and elderly people among us are named after St. Ketevan. First of all, we congratulate them and then our entire population on the day of the birth of Georgia’s distinguished intercessor and luminary, the beauty of the Orthodox world, Ketevan Bagrationi (of Mukhrani) as a great saint in Heaven, and we ask the Great Martyr Queen not to withhold her help and protection from Georgia and each of you.
In July 2021, the Georgian Orthodox Church was gifted a piece of St. Ketevan’s relics that were in church ruins in Goa, India. Her full relics resided in Alaverdi (today in Armenia) until 1723, after which they disappeared.
Read more about St. Ketavan in an article by Archpriest Zakariah Machitadze.
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