Ketevan the Martyr

Queen Ketevan was canonized by Patriarch Zachary of Georgia (1613–1630), and September 13 (corresponding to September 26 in the modern Gregorian calendar) was instituted by the Georgian Orthodox Church as the day of her commemoration.

The account of Ketevan's martyrdom related by the Augustinians missioners was exploited by her son, Teimuraz, in his poem The Book and Passion of Queen Ketevan (წიგნი და წამება ქეთევან დედოფლისა, ts'igni da ts'ameba ketevan dedoplisa; 1625) as well as by the German author Andreas Gryphius in his classical tragedy Catharina von Georgien (1657).[5] The Georgian monk Grigol Dodorkeli-Vakhvakhishvili of the David Gareja Monastery was another near-contemporaneous author whose writings, a hagiographic work as well as several hymns, focus on Ketevan's life and martyrdom. The Scottish poet William Forsyth composed the poem The Martyrdom of Kelavane (1861), based on Jean Chardin's account of Ketevan's death.[6]

The scene of the martyrdom of Ketevan on a panoramic azulejo.

In 2008, it was discovered that Graça Convent in Lisbon, Portugal contained a previously unknown, large panoramic azulejo depicting Queen Ketavan's martyrdom in Persia. The scenes were based on accounts of her martyrdom by Portuguese Augustinian missionaries who witnessed her death. Panoramic tilework was in a state of disrepair and Georgia offered thousands of euros for repairs.[7]

In 2017, a full replica of the Portuguese depiction of Ketevan's martyrdom was unveiled in Georgia and displayed at Château Mukhrani.[8]

In October 2017, President of Georgia Giorgi Margvelashvili visited Queen Ketevan's mural at the Graça Convent during his official trip to Portugal. Restoration works continued and an agreement was signed between the convent and the National Agency of Cultural Heritage Preservation of the Ministry of Culture of Georgia.[9]

Remains of Queen Ketevan in Goa.

The importance of Queen Ketevan for the Georgian people has led to a relic "hunt" during the last decades, notably in Goa. Since 1989, various delegations coming from Georgia have worked together with the Archaeological Survey of India to try to locate Ketevan's grave within the ruins of the Augustinian convent of Our Lady of Grace, at Old Goa, Goa. These efforts were thwarted because the teams were unable to correctly interpret the Portuguese documents that provided clues as to Ketevan's burial place.

These historical sources stated that Ketevan's palm and arm bone fragments were kept inside a stone urn beneath a specific window within the Chapter Chapel of the Augustinian convent. In May 2004, the Chapter Chapel and window mentioned in the sources were found during a collaboration work between Portuguese and Overseas Citizen of India architect Sidh Losa Mendiratta and the Archaeological Survey of India, Goa-circle (at the time when Nizammudin Taher was superintendent archaeologist). Although the stone urn itself was missing, its coping stone and a number of bone fragments were found close to the window mentioned in the Portuguese sources.[10]

The CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India and Estonian Biocentre Estonia carried out ancient DNA analysis on these human bone remains excavated from the St. Augustine convent by sequencing and genotyping of the mitochondrial DNA. The investigations of the remains revealed an unusual mtDNA haplogroup U1b, which is absent in India, but present in Georgia and surrounding regions. Since the genetic analysis corroborates archaeological and literary evidence, it is likely that the excavated bone belongs to Queen Ketevan of Georgia.[11] However, it is important to keep in mind that Ketevan's palm and arm bone fragments were kept in the same urn as the complete remains of two European missionaries, friar Jerónimo da Cruz and friar Guilherme de Santo Agostinho. Therefore, it would be crucial to determine the sex and the kind of bone of the fragments tested in order to have conclusive results. According to a story in India's Mint on Sunday newspaper, "additional tests confirmed that the U1b bone came from a woman. So, in 2013, it was established that the bone found in two pieces in 2005 was consistent with being from a Georgian woman".[12]

In 2017, celebrating twenty-five years of diplomatic relations between India and Georgia, the relics were sent to Georgia for a period of six months during which both religious and scientific events were staged.[13]

The Indian government has offered some parts of the holy relics of Goa to Georgia. On July 9, 2021, the relics were handed over to the Georgian government and to Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia by Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.[14]