India to display relics of St. Ketevan

India to display relics of St. Ketevan

Subject: History

Context : Almost 400 years after she was murdered in present day Iran, relics of St. Queen Ketevan that were found in Goa in 2005 are likely to be put on display in India as well as her native Georgia, according to Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials

Concept:

About St. Ketevan

• Queen Ketevan was a 17th century Georgian Queen.
• From Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia, she was tortured and killed in 1624 in Shiraz during the rule of the Safavid dynasty.
• Portuguese missionaries were said to have carried the relics to Goa in 1627.
• In 2005, after years of research and study of medieval Portuguese records, the relics were found at the St. Augustine Church in Old Goa.

About Georgia:

• Georgia declared its independence in the wake of the disintegration of the USSR in 1991. India recognized Georgia on 26th December 1991.
• Strategic location: it is a country at the intersection of Europe and Asia.
• It is bounded on the north and northeast by Russia, on the east and southeast by Azerbaijan, on the south by Armenia and Turkey, and on the west by the Black Sea.