Posted on 05/05/2007 3:35:50 PM PDT by blam
Centuries on, but martyred queen's story still unfinished
By Anna Kamushadze
St Ketevan’s relics were found in the Augustine Tower in Old Goa, India
The history of the mortal remains of St Ketevan, Queen of Georgia, is as tragic as her life was. The Portuguese missionaries who witnessed her death and protected her remains left no precise account of where the body of the saint, canonised shortly after her death, lay. Contemporary reports from England speak of her being laid to rest in Goa, India, then a Portuguese colony. A bone belonging to Ketevan is housed in the church that bears her name in Tbilisi, and tradition has it that remains were buried in Alaverdi cathedral in her native Kakheti, but lost after raids by North Caucasian tribesmen.
Attempts to locate her remains in Goa began back in the Soviet era, and now, it seems, they have borne fruit.
Historian and archaeologist Aleksandre Noneshvili participated in the expedition to Goa, and says that this discovery is of great importance for Georgia.
"I think God punished our country. We did not deserve to have the body of a great queen in the country. I think it is a kind of symbol. The return of the holy relics of the queen to her home country means that Georgia will strengthen and stabilise," he says.
In February, an expedition to Goa under the leadership of Father Giorgi Razmadze of Tbilisi's St. Ketevan church. Father Razmadze searches for traces of Ketevan all over the world.
"People from different countries witnessed the torments of the saint, and among them were St Portuguese Catholic missionaries. When they saw the courage of the Georgian queen they stole her body and took the parts of it to different places. The main parts were brought to Georgia to her son Teimuraz." Noneshvili relates.
Later, when Lekebi, the tribes from North Caucasus invaded Kakheti, Georgians were running to escape with saint things, including with the parts of the Queen's body. But unfortunately the horse which was carrying the particles of St Ketevan slipped into the water and her remains were lost.
Noneshvili says it was Georgian film director Rezo Tabukashvili who began to systematically search for the saints remains, but in Soviet times this was extremely difficult.
Tabukashvili found a trail that led him to the St Augustine Tower in Old Goa, a convent founded by Portuguese Augustinian fathers in 1602, now in ruins, and a World Heritage site.
Tabukashvili was unable to locate the saint's remains, but expeditions continued after his death, but all in vain. In 1998, the Georgian Patriarch appealed to the Indian Ambassador in Ukraine to search for the remains in ernest.
"There was only a description that on one of the windows on the right side of the church there was a black stone box with an arm of St Ketevan in it. Tabukashvili addressed Indian archaeologists, but excavations at the ruined complex took years," Noneshvili says.
The archaeologists discovered a tombstone which allowed them to identify the place as the exact chapel where Ketevan's remains were supposed to have been laid to rest. The Georgian expedition learned about the exact location of Ketevan's remains from Indian archaeologist Dr. Taher.
"The emotional experience was incredible as we felt a great sacred power in the presence of St Ketevan's arm, Father Giorgi could not help but shed tears. We, people of all different faiths, lit candles in honour of St Ketevan," Noneshvili recalls.
Before the delegation left India Dr Taher and Noneshvili agreed to conduct DNA analysis as soon as possible. Noneshvili is sure the arm really belongs to St Ketevan, but says they need to be 100 percent sure. The analysis is expected to be conducted soon.
Meanwhile, Father Giorgi, assisted by Noneshvili, continues to look for other relics of St Ketevan all over the world. "Other than Goa we think there are relics of St Ketevan in the depositories of the Vatican. In Namur Belgium we think there are Ketevan's remains also. We have publications that say that in 1976 relics of St Ketevan were exhibited in Namur. And also we think remains may be in Portugal, in a church where there are the frescoes describing Ketevan's torture on the walls," he says.
Father Giorgi and Noneshvili have already visited Portugal, and met with the archbishop of Lisbon, work has already begun to identify the remains buried there.
Father Giorgi and Noneshvili have also managed to return one of things that belonged to St Ketevan to Georgia. Queen Ketevan brought both a crucifix and an icon of the Virgin Mary with to Persia. The crucifix has disappeared but the icon, in front of which she prayed the night before she was martyred, was found in France
"After great efforts and hardships we managed to return it to Georgia. The family which owned it did not want to give it back," he says.
They took the icon to the Patriarch of Georgia Ilia II straight from the airport, and, reportedly, the icon has miracle working properties.
The passion of Saint Ketevan
The dowager queen of Kakheti lived during the worst days of Georgia's always tumultuous history. Her story reads like a Shakespearian tragedy, both Ketevan's father-in-law King Alexander II of Kakhetia (1577 - 1605) and her husband, Crown Prince David, were assassinated by the villainous Constantine, her husband's brother. Constantine, known to Georgia as 'the accursed', had converted to Islam, and was in the pay of the ruthless Iranian despot Shah Abbas, after murdering Ketevan's husband and his father, he had their mutilated bodies dispatched to the widowed queen on the backs of Camels. Constantine then demanded Ketevan become his wife or face the same fate.
Unbowed by the murders, Ketevan buried her husband and father-in-law in Alaverdi Cathedral and took up arms against the usurper and his Persian backers. She and rallied the people of Kakheti to her side, and after a ferocious battle, the evil Constantine and his Persian cohorts suffered an ignominious death at the hands of the Georgians.
Following her victory, a brief period of peace and prosperity settled over Kakheti. Ketevan rebuilt towns, monasteries and churches destroyed by years of warfare, and Ketevan's son Teimuraz I was even returned by Shah Abbas, who had been holding him hostage. However, this proved to be the calm before the storm.
Persia once again turned its attention to its errant Georgian vassals, and threatened to decimate the land if the Georgian rulers would not give up valuable hostages and tribute. Ketevan, seeking to preserve the hard won peace of Kakheti, volunteered to be taken into captivity, along with her two young grandsons Levan and Alexander.
After five years of cruelty and deprivation Ketevan was separated from her grandsons, who unbeknownst to her the shah had castrated. Years later, Shah Abbas sent messengers to Ketevan, who informed her of the fate of her grandsons, and demanded that Ketevan renounce her Christian faith, convert to Islam and enter his harem, or suffer a torturous death.
Ketevan's retinue pleaded with the queen to convert but remain Christian in her heart, but the queen refused, asking only that she be allowed to pray before her death. The queen was taken out to the city square in Shiraz, stripped to the waist and tortured cruelly. A red hot cooking pot was placed on her heard, and burning pincers tore away chunks of her flesh. Finally, as she lay dying, but still invoking the name of God, she was strangled with a bow string.
These horrible acts were witnessed by some Portuguese Augustinian priests, who in secret wrapped her remains in linen and incense hid them for three years, and then conveyed them from Persia.
GGG Ping.
Least we forget that Islam is the religion of pieces.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
There is no negotiations with serious muslems.
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So the Iranians were supporting murderous “insurgents” 400 years ago.
“So the Iranians were supporting murderous “insurgents” 400 years ago.”
From day one, I’d say.
Thank You blam
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