India demands one million dollars in exchange for holy remains of Queen Ketevan of Georgia

India is demanding one million dollars in exchange for Queen Ketevan’s holy remains found as a result of archeological research in Dagras monastery in Goa, India.The priest Giorgi Razmadze calls on the government to actively involve in returning the remains of Queen Ketevan to Georgia.

The priest visited India several times for this issue and he says that Indian party notified him about the demand at the last meeting. Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture of Georgia are involved in this issue, also the Patriarchate, especially metropolitan Davit from Amba-Alaverdi.

Father Giorgi explains that research have confirmed that the holy remains really belongs to the Queen Ketevan and it’s upon Georgia now how ready it is to return the holy remains. He informs that the U.S. archeological research centre published on the internet that the right hand of a woman found in Goa belongs to Queen Ketevan, which Georgia has been waiting for 400 years to return.

It was mentioned at a press conference that three examinations confirmed that the holy remains belong to St. Queen Ketevan. No other parts of bones apart from the right hand of the woman were found in the archeological research in the monastery.

The priest states that the remains of St. Queen Ketevan are scattered throughout the world. Namely, the lower jaw bone in Rome, buried at Peter apostle’s grave, in Lisbon, Russia, in Zagors monastery.

He said that most of the queen’s remains were given by the Catholic monks to King Teimuraz to win respects, to open catholic missions in Kakheti and Gori.

Ketevan the Martyr was a queen of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia. She was killed at Shiraz, Iran, after prolonged tortures for refusing to give up the Christian faith and convert to Islam on 26 Septembe 1624.

In 1614, sent by Teimuraz as a negotiator to Abbas I, Ketevan effectively surrendered herself as an honorary hostage in a failed attempt to prevent Kakheti from being attacked by the Iranian armies. She was held in Shiraz for several years until Abbas I, in an act of revenge for the recalcitrance of Teimuraz, ordered the queen to renounce Christianity, and upon her refusal, had her tortured to death with red-hot pokers in 1624. Portions of her remains were secretly taken by the St. Augustine Portuguese Catholic missioners, eyewitnesses of her martyrdom, to Georgia where they were interred at the Alaverdi Monastery. The rest of her remains are reported to have been buried at the St. Augustine Church in Goa, India.