In a rare diplomatic gesture, India has returned the relics of a Christian saint and Georgian queen killed in Iran for refusing to give up her faith 400 years ago and buried in Goa.
Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar handed over the relics of St Queen Ketevan to his Georgian counterpart David Zalkaliani on July 10 during a two-day visit to Georgia.
Ketevan was the queen of Kakheti, a kingdom in eastern Georgia in the 17th century. Iranian King Shah Abbas I took her hostage after he conquered her kingdom in 1613-14.
She refused to convert to Islam or join the Iranian ruler’s harem and is believed to have been tortured to death on Sept. 22, 1624.
Some Augustinian friars in 1627 brought her body to Goa, then a Portuguese colony. It was buried and remained hidden inside the Augustinian convent in Goa.