Martyr 18th century

300 Aragvian Martyrs

died 1795

Also known as სამასი არაგველი · the 300 Aragvians · Martyrs of Krtsanisi

Highland Georgian soldiers from the Aragvi valley killed covering the Georgian retreat at the Battle of Krtsanisi against the Qajar Persian army in 1795.

Feast Day

September 11

Draft

Draft — pending review. Not yet verified for publication.

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Commemorated as

The Holy 300 Aragvian Martyrs of Krtsanisi

Life

The 300 Aragvian Martyrs were a detachment of highlanders from the Aragvi valley of eastern Georgia who fell at the Battle of Krtsanisi in 1795 while defending the capital, Tbilisi, against the invading army of Qajar Iran. They are commemorated by the Georgian Orthodox Church on September 11 (September 24 New Style).

In the late summer of 1795 the forces of Agha Mohammad Khan of Qajar Iran invaded the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti, whose aged ruler, King Heraclius II, could muster only a few thousand men against an army many times larger. The decisive engagement was fought near Krtsanisi, on the approaches to Tbilisi, between September 8 and 11, 1795. The Georgians were overwhelmed, the city was sacked, and a large part of its population was killed or carried off into captivity in Persia.

The contingent drawn from the highland districts along the Aragvi river saw action under Prince Vakhtang of Georgia. By Georgian tradition the Aragvians had pledged to fight to the death and held to their oath, falling almost to a man as they covered the withdrawal of the king. Their stand entered Georgian national memory and was celebrated by later writers such as Ilia Chavchavadze and Vazha-Pshavela.

On June 27, 2008, the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church, under Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia II, canonized the 300 Aragvians together with the clergy and laymen who perished in the battle as holy martyrs, fixing their commemoration on September 11. Theirs is a collective commemoration; the names of the individual soldiers are not recorded.

Timeline 3 moments Read Hide

August 1795 Persian invasion Agha Mohammad Khan of Qajar Iran crosses the Aras river and advances on eastern Georgia.
September 8-11, 1795 Battle of Krtsanisi Georgian forces under Heraclius II are defeated near Tbilisi; the Aragvian detachment falls covering the retreat.
June 27, 2008 Glorification The Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church canonizes the 300 Aragvians, clergy, and laymen of Krtsanisi as holy martyrs.

Contributions & Legacy

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The Battle of Krtsanisi

The battle was the culmination of Agha Mohammad Khan's campaign to reassert Iranian suzerainty over eastern Georgia, which King Heraclius II had sought to escape through alignment with the Russian Empire. The shah crossed the Aras river in August 1795 with a large army, of which an estimated thirty to forty thousand men took part in the assault on Tbilisi.

Against this force Heraclius II, aided by King Solomon II of Imereti, fielded roughly five thousand troops. After several days of fighting in the fields of Krtsanisi and the streets of the city, the Georgians were decisively defeated; the capital was sacked and destroyed and many thousands of its inhabitants were slain or taken captive. The Aragvian highlanders are remembered as having fought their way deep into the enemy ranks before being cut down.

Veneration and Memory

The memory of the Aragvians was preserved in Georgian patriotic literature long before their formal glorification, and they became enduring national symbols of self-sacrifice in defense of homeland and faith. A monument to them was raised in 1959, and their name is borne by a park and a bridge over the Mtkvari (Kura) river in Tbilisi, as well as by a station of the Tbilisi Metro.

Their canonization in 2008 placed them among the martyrs of the Georgian Church, whose history records repeated instances of soldiers and civilians slain in the defense of Orthodox Georgia against invasion. The commemoration embraces not only the 300 highlanders but the clergy and laypeople who died alongside them at Krtsanisi.

Notes

Reposed 1795 near Tbilisi. Glorified by the Georgian Orthodox Church in 2008. Named group commemoration.

Sources: OCA Synaxarion (oca.org); OrthodoxWiki; Wikipedia