St.Queen Ketevan: Who Connected Georgia, Portugal, and India 🇬🇪🇵🇹🇮🇳

mukhrang
Jun 2
3 min read

In this blog, I want to tell an interesting story that connects three countries: Georgia, Portugal, and India. Today, Georgia has become quite an attractive destination for Indian travelers, especially those living in GCC countries. They come to see snow, mountains, and nature. That is what they usually experience, and of course this part of the country impresses them. However, there is another part — a historical connection that may seem unimaginable, considering the great distance.

The story is related to the Georgian Queen Ketevan, mother of Kakheti’s King Teimuraz I in the 16th–17th century. This was a time when the eastern part of Georgia was under Persian influence, and Georgian kings had to be approved by the Shah of Iran. The Shah also kept members of the royal family as hostages in his court.

In 1614, due to the difficult political situation, Teimuraz was forced to send his mother, Queen Ketevan, and her children to Iran as hostages.

Ketevan spent approximately ten years in captivity. Shah Abbas I demanded that she convert to Islam, but she refused. As a result, she was brutally tortured and executed in Shiraz in 1624. For this reason, she became known as “Ketevan the Martyr.”

After her death, part of her remains were secretly rescued by Portuguese Augustinian monks who were active in Shiraz at the time. They took the saint’s relics from Iran to the Portuguese colony of Goa, where they were kept in an Augustinian monastery.

Connection to Portugal

There is a depiction of Saint Queen Ketevan in Portugal, located at the historic Convento da Graça in Lisbon.

depiction of Saint Queen Ketevan In Convento da Graça in Lisbon — depiction of Saint Queen Ketevan In **Convento da Graça in Lisbon**

This monumental ceramic tile panel (azulejo), measuring about 9 meters in length, was created in the 17th century by Portuguese artists. It depicts the martyrdom of Queen Ketevan in Shiraz, Persia, and was based on accounts recorded by Portuguese Augustinian missionaries who witnessed her suffering and execution.

The artwork was rediscovered in 2008 and later restored through cooperation between Portugal and Georgia.

Today, a replica of the panel is displayed at Chateau Mukhrani in Georgia.

The panel is considered one of the most important historical testimonies to the remembrance of Saint Queen Ketevan in the Portuguese world and reflects the centuries-old historical connections between Georgia and Portugal.

Connection to India

Over the centuries, the location of Ketevan’s relics was partly forgotten. In the 21st century, joint research by Georgian and Indian scholars led to the discovery of bone fragments in the ruins of the St. Augustine Monastery in Old Goa (Velha Goa), Goa, India.

Scientific studies indicated that these fragments most likely belonged to Queen Ketevan the Martyr.

The main place associated with her name is the ruins of the St. Augustine Monastery in Old Goa (Velha Goa), Goa, India. It was in this monastery that part of Ketevan the Martyr’s relics were kept, and it was here that archaeological and historical studies were conducted, leading to the identification of her remains.

In 2021, India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited Georgia, and India handed over part of Saint Ketevan’s relics to Georgia, which are now in the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Tbilisi.

In response, the Georgian government opened a Mahatma Gandhi statue in Tbilisi.